From Orphan to Guardian

Thank you! Through ALO, you have been helping support Yohana at the Nias Children's Home until she graduated from high school. This is her story:

When Yohana’s parents divorced, they both moved to other islands and abandoned all their children. Yohana’s grandfather took her to the orphanage in Nias (Indonesia) when she was in seventh grade.

After 6 years living in the orphanage, she graduated from high school, but she didn’t know if she could continue to study in a university or not. Praise God that Niat and Erna, two students we are sponsoring to study in Jogjakarta, connected Yohana to a family who could help.

Through Niat and Erna, Yohana was able to get sponsored by a family in Jogjakarta. Currently, she works as a helper and lives with her sponsor family. She works in the morning and goes to campus at about 3 pm until about 9 pm (before the pandemic). Now she is still studying online.

In February 2021, Yohana joined a Zoom seminar for all Nias students who are studying out of the Nias island. Out of all the Nias students she ranked 3rd for her grades! She was also nominated by her classmates for her great character. Because of this, she was invited to join a Zoom meeting with two ministers of Law and Human Rights for Indonesia, who were from Nias.

Yohana had a chance to share with them about her family, her life at the orphanage, and her desire to go to university. She also shared her heart for children in Nias. The ministers ended up choosing Yohana to work with them and become a children protection ambassador for the island of Nias! This is a new job from the government to help protect the thousands of kids in Nias who have similar stories to Yohana.

From making all these connections, Yohana has been able to connect a sponsor in the city of Solo with 20 other children in Nias to be able to study at universities in Java!

And we believe the best is yet to come.