Colwood woman brings lessons from Africa home for the holidays
COLWOOD – For the First time in two years Tricia Hoffart is home to decorate the family Christmas tree with her mom. Since October 2008 Tricia has followed her passion working with humanitarian groups in Africa. Tricia was just 18 years old when she went to Kampala, Uganda to work as a nanny in an orphanage run by aid-group Watoto. “My plan was to stay there, come home and do the normal teenager thing, but I just met a group of people from South Africa and they were starting a similar organization to Watoto doing the same orphanage in South Africa, and they said come and join us,” says Hoffart. Days became weeks, weeks became months and the journey to help vulnerable children took her farther, to Mozambique, Lesotho and again to Uganda. For the past two years Tricia has witnessed the many forms of injustice. “I’ve seen the poverty and the broken homes and the shacks that people are living in. I’ve see the children playing soccer with garbage bags instead of soccer balls and teenagers who are all pregnant and HIV positive with a passing rate of 15 per cent in high school.” But seeing the desperation has on inspired Tricia to do more, teaching life skills, talking to youth about HIV, sex and abuse, volunteering with orphaned children. “I feel like as I’ve been there, even if I’ve just made a difference in a couple of people’s lives, it feels like I am doing something. I am achieving something.” Her time at home is short. In February Tricia heads back to South Africa with …