Watato Children’s Choir performing for a cause
Performance of the choir
February 9, 2018
As part of their world tour the Watato Children’s Choir performed on Feb.2 at the Living Water of the Valley Church African ministry in Phoenix, Ariz.
According to the statistics from UNICEF, Uganda is home to nearly 2 million orphans and has excess mortality rate due to AIDS.
The choir is made up of African children choirs based in Kampala, Uganda and was founded in 1994. The program is meant to rescue vulnerable women and children and provide accommodation and employment. The choir is comprised of 18 children who have lost either one of both parents to aids.
The choir is focused on contemporary Christian music and performed their latest album “Signs and Wonders” featuring their live music performance with dance.
Children and adults shared their life stories of growing up amidst adversity and overcoming many challenges at the event.
The choir has already toured in Asia, Brazil, Australia, China, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, UK, Israel, Netherlands and many more.
Peter Paulwasibani, who joined Watato in 2007 with his family shared his thoughts about the event and the organization with Northeast Valley News.
“Watoto is a dream place to me,” Paulwasibani said.
Paulwasibani believes that rescuing the vulnerable women and children through the program will make a future generation of leaders in Uganda.
Helen Ewald, an International exchange student from Germany working in Scottsdale Community College, expressed her views about the show.
“I was very inspired by them in terms of clapping along and dancing. I could not necessarily relate with the song texts which are very religious… but all in all I really liked it,” Ewald said.
Phrancis Okot, originally from Uganda, who was part of the Watato Church 10 years ago is now living in Phoenix. Okot shared his thoughts about the work of Watato with Northeast Valley News.
“We used to have a lot of street kids and Watato took care of the kids…now they are helping women because a lot of the women are single mothers and they have so many kids,” Okot said.
He also added that the AIDS count in Uganda has gone down drastically in recent years so it is not the problem it once was.
