About VOTW
Our Story
In 2009, Jon and Layne Heller approached our founding board members asking us to consider gathering around them and creating the structure they needed to be funded, supported, and sent. Each of our board members had traveled overseas and was keenly aware of the opportunities we enjoyed in the USA that were so scarce in the poorest and least represented parts of the world. We knew Jon and Layne on a personal level but we also knew them as leaders and pioneers in work of finding and serving the most vulnerable and marginalized. We pooled what resources we had and trusted that others would join in doing the same and we sent Jon and Layne to Mozambique to serve the sick and the dying.
For four years Jon and Layne witnessed firsthand the difficulties faced by the Mozambican medical system and by those who depend on it for their healthcare. Mozambican men, women, and children were being transferred to the Maputo Central Hospital from hundreds of miles away to receive treatment for cancer which had often progressed far beyond the capacity for a cure in the time it took to be transferred.
In 2013, we established Voices of the World in Mozambique and opened our home for the sick and the dying, Casa Ahava. Initially run from two remodeled rooms behind the house Jon and Layne were renting as a residence for their family, we have since funded and built the facility that Casa Ahava is today: A 19 bed home, alongside the 4 bedroom home Jon and Layne live in with their family.
Our Approach
At VOTW we believe that the sanctity of service is not measured by the money spent nor the numbers accumulated. All of our decisions and actions are motivated from our belief in the worthiness of serving the forgotten and our belief in those serving.
In a world which focuses on quantifiable outcomes and the efficiencies which can be eked out of every dollar spent, we take a smaller and less numbers-hungry approach.
We believe in the wisdom of Malidoma Somé who wrote that, ” in developed countries, where the antlike frenzy of life, characterized by a work-obsessed culture, is symptomatic of an illness that is perhaps too large to face. Thus speed is a way to prevent ourselves from having to deal with something we do not want to face. So we run from these symptoms and their sources that are not nice to look at. To be able to face our fears, we must remember how to perform ritual. To remember how to perform ritual, we must slow down.”(Ritual: Power, healing, and community: The African teachings of the Dagara)
We may be small, we may be slow, but those may not be as bad as the developed world would have us believe.
Our Board
Ben Heller
Chairman of the Board
J.D. Mesnard
Treasurer and Board Member
Ajit Itty
Board Member
Lynne Hartke
Board Member
Rachel Hartke
Board Member
Vicki Heller
Board Member
Our Supporters
We are funded entirely by generous individuals and entities who believe in what we do and how we do it. It is only through the ongoing kindness and open-handedness of supporters around the world that we can keep our work in Mozambique going.
Our Team on the Ground
The Heller family moved from the USA to Maputo, Mozambique in 2009.
When they first arrived, Jon and Layne were a young couple with no children, and a heart to serve the sick and the dying.
In 2011, their first daughter was born while they were still in the early phases of pursuing the founding of Casa Ahava. In 2013, Casa Ahava was founded just before their third daughter was born. Their fourth daughter was born just two years later in 2015.
Jon and Layne co-lead Casa Ahava as its founders and directors.
Layne has an M.S. in Palliative Care from the University of Maryland and is a currently completing her PhD in Palliative Care.
Jon has an M.S. in Thanatology from Marian University and is Certified in Thanatology (C.T) from the Association for Death Education and Counseling.
Our Promise
We are a team of volunteers who are entirely self-funded. This means that every dollar donated goes directly to ensuring that our work in Mozambique continues. We take no salaries and we take no overhead fees. We are passionate about the work we do and we believe that any support should go to that work not to ensuring our own comfort.
