When Pastor Mark Pluimer visited Uganda to help build a home for Watoto Villages, a community for children who need a safe and healthy place to live, the children’s faces lit up when he asked them about the Watoto Children’s Choir.
Teachers and social workers at Watoto Villages’ three sites help choose the youth who enter training for the choir, a traveling ensemble that helps advocate for Africa’s children, educate people about African arts traditions and share a message of Christian hope.
“The sense we got is, that is their big dream, that’s the goal, they really want to get to be a part of the choir,” said Pluimer, who was based at a Brookfield, Wis. church during the time of his trip to the East African country but now is pastor at Covenant Christian Reformed Church in Appleton. “We talked to some that had gone (on tour) and some that are really hoping to be able to go. They were just thrilled that they got a chance to take their culture and their passions and share that with others.”
The choir, a program of Watoto Child Care Ministries under the umbrella of Watoto Church in Kampala, Uganda, has performed internationally since 1994. Watoto means “children” in Swahili.
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