The Learning Village is a community development resource center where children and adults, women and men can discover and develop their natural talents to free themselves from the bondages of poverty, disease, and harmful cultural traditions.

We are committed to creating sustainability through investment.  But primarily, The Learning Village is about investing in people:

• Children who are willing to walk three to four hours every day, five days a week, to get an education.
• Women who trek through mud and rain to learn job skills so that they can support their children and improve the quality of life for their families.
• Community leaders who endeavor to break the pattern of bondage through harmful traditions such as child abductions, forced marriages and female genital mutilations.
• Elderly men and women who experience the joy of reading and writing for the first time.
• Volunteers and supporters who are inspired to reach out across cultures, religions and geographic boundaries to help people from whom they expect nothing in return.

“I have waited a long time for this day…” said Tesfaye, a 40 year-old man who has been suffering with reoccurring toothache for years.  When he heard that a team of health professionals will come from America to provide free dental care at the Summit Clinic, Tesfaye was among the first 200 patients who lined-up at the gate early Sunday morning, October 17, 2010.

The team of 22 volunteers (doctors, dentists, opticians, nurses, dental technicians, and other support personnel) from Florida Hospital arrived at the Learning Village to serve the community by providing health education and healthcare–including dental care, eye care, OB/GYN and general medical treatment.

 Hundreds of patients lined up at the clinic early in the morning during the six days that the volunteers were available.  The dental team and the optician, in particular, worked until late afternoons, sometimes without lunch break, to accommodate all the patients.

 Amazingly, the team was able to compassionately serve twelve hundred grateful individuals from our community at the Learning Village!

 Read more and see photos here.