{"id":9691,"date":"2025-12-25T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/?p=9691"},"modified":"2025-12-16T09:15:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:15:28","slug":"christmas-greetings-from-our-youngest%f0%9f%8e%85%f0%9f%8e%84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/christmas-greetings-from-our-youngest%f0%9f%8e%85%f0%9f%8e%84\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas greetings from our youngest!\ud83c\udf85\ud83c\udf84"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Dear friends<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Christmas is important in Africa. In many huts and houses, people sing, clean, prepare food for their families and mend clothes. They dress up for the big day.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"549\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cleaning.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9682\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cleaning.png 549w, https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cleaning-300x219.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"549\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/kochen.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9680\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/kochen.png 549w, https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/kochen-300x219.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>As every year, <strong>our hundred prot\u00e9g\u00e9s celebrate Christmas<\/strong> in our small village with their mothers and families. Many spend almost the entire Christmas Day with their foster mothers in their church. There they sing, pray, tell the Christmas story, chat, laugh and celebrate togetherness.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"549\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/familie-02.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/familie-02.png 549w, https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/familie-02-300x219.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>In the afternoon, they return to our village, sing, play and prepare the campfire for the evening. Christmas trees are only found in Western shopping malls in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"549\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/blumenstrauss.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9684\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/blumenstrauss.png 549w, https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/blumenstrauss-300x219.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>As soon as the sun begins to set, they gather around the campfire, hold their homemade &#8220;snake bread&#8221; over it and enjoy the celebration of love, peace and family. It is a blessed day. Peace and community find a happy symbiosis here.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"549\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/lagerfeuer.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9678\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/lagerfeuer.png 549w, https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/lagerfeuer-300x219.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>And although many Ugandan families \u2013 as I showed you over the past few weekends \u2013 cannot even afford the luxury of a bar of soap on Christmas Day, most of them consider this day to be sacred.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"549\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/familie.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/familie.png 549w, https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/familie-300x219.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Dear friends, <strong>for 20 years, with your loyal support, we have been maintaining a wonderful little oasis for children and families in need,<\/strong> several schools in refugee camps and in remote locations. All this cannot change the world, and yet somehow it does. This is where the contradictions and the light of our lives lie, and indeed of the Christmas story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wish you a blessed Christmas, a wonderful holiday season and send you warm greetings \u2013 also from some of our youngest children \u2013 here in this video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yours sincerely, Burkhard Varnholt<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Weihnachten bei Kids of Africa: Gr\u00fcsse aus unserem  Kinderdorf in Uganda\" width=\"422\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6mFCLJYD6MQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button custom-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/donate.raisenow.io\/shdhd?lng=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Support Kids of Africa now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Christmas approaches in Uganda, people sing, clean and cook for their families in their huts. Our hundred or so children celebrate the day with their mothers: first in church, then later in the village around a campfire, where homemade &#8220;snake bread&#8221; is shared. With your support, we have been providing this oasis and several schools for 20 years \u2013 a small light that makes a big difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein-en","category-portrait-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9703,"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9691\/revisions\/9703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kids-of-africa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}