A SMALL GIFT, A STEADY CHANGE: YOHANA'S STORY

In Busoka, Tanzania, Yohana Paskali’s story doesn’t begin with something big and

dramatic. It begins the way many stories here do, with a family trying to find its footing.

Yohana is 14 years old. He is the second-born child, but after the loss of their firstborn,

he now carries that place in the family. At home are his parents, Paskali Moshi and

Matrida Richard and his siblings. His parents never had the chance to go to school.

They cannot read or write. What they know is how to work with their hands, small

farming, a few animals, and selling milk when they can.

When Yohana was first enrolled in the Lahash program, the family had just moved to

Busoka village. They were still settling in, without stable housing, and food was not

guaranteed. Most days, they ate once. It was a season of starting over, with very little.

Yohana studies at Busoka Primary School and is now in Grade Six. School has not come easily to him. There were years he had to repeat because his grades were not strong enough to move forward. In many cases in rural Tanzania, that’s where the story ends for a child, quietly stepping away from school.

But Yohana stayed. Not because it was easy, but because he understood something early on: if things were going to change at home, someone had to keep going. As he reflects, “My dad and my mom didn’t go to school,” he says. “They can’t read or write. Now I am the firstborn. I have to work hard to change our home.”

Then, in 2019, during the Lahash Christmas Giving Program, Yohana received a goat. It was a simple gift—the kind that can easily be overlooked—worth about $30 at the time. However, in homes like his, a goat is not just a gift. It is something you can build from, if you are patient.

Yohana kept the goat and watched over it. When it gave birth, he kept the young ones, raised them, and when the time came, he sold some and bought others. Step by step, he did this—no rush, no big moment, just consistency.

Over time, that one goat turned into something more. Today, Yohana owns three cows.

In rural communities like Busoka, cows carry meaning. They are not just animals; they

are symbols of socio-economic security. They can be sold to pay school fees, to buy land, or to start building a home. For a 14-year-old to have three cows is not something you see every day. It says something about how he has chosen to handle what he was given.

Just like the good servants in Jesus’ parable of the talents in Mathew 25, Yohana has so

faithfully multiplied the gift. Yohana received only one goat, but he chose to work with

it, to grow it, and over time, it became something that now supports his family. “I am so

glad I have the cows,” he says. “I really thank my sponsor and Lahash for the gift.”

What Yohana has done is already helping at home. It does not solve everything, but it

eases something. And in families like his, even easing something matters a big deal.

This past Christmas, Yohana received, among other gifts, a solar lighting system. A panel, a battery, and bulbs. Before this, studying at night was difficult. The family depended on a single spotlight that wasn’t reliable. When it went off, total darkness would engulf the home!

Now there is light in the evenings. It means Yohana and his siblings can sit down after the day’s work and read. It means he gets another chance each night to keep working on the one area that has challenged him the most, his studies. “I will improve,” he says. “I will keep trying.”

Looking ahead, Yohana wants to become an entrepreneur one day. In many ways, he has already started, just not in a classroom.

Yohana enjoys riding his bicycle when he has the time. He worships at Busoka

Mennonite Church, and like many young people we meet here in East Africa, he carries

a simple hope: to help his family, to help his community, and to do better in the future.

There is nothing loud about Yohana’s story. No sudden turning point. Just a series of

small decisions, keeping a goat, raising it, selling wisely, trying again in school, showing

up. The Lahash Christmas Giving Program often begins this way. A small gift, placed in

the hands of a child. What happens next is not always immediate. But sometimes, like in

Yohana’s life grows into something steady, something that begins to change the

direction of a home.