A Holy Family Pearl Center

Nyumba ya Baraka

House of Blessings

A place of welcome. Of safety. Of belonging. Tucked into the hills of Songea, Tanzania — a Holy Family Pearl Center where every child is seen for who they are: more precious than pearls.

Step inside ↓ Bless this work

Karibu nyumbani —

Welcome home.

Some places are buildings. This one is a blessing made visible.

In Swahili, nyumba means home. Baraka means blessing. Together, Nyumba ya Baraka is more than a name — it is a promise. A promise that every child who walks through this door is wanted, known, and loved.

📝 Brandy — Story #1 goes here: What IS Nyumba ya Baraka? Is it a children’s home, a daily program, a new building, an expansion of UNITAS? 2–3 sentences that help readers picture exactly what they’re looking at.

📝 Brandy — Story #2 goes here: The origin story. When did Nyumba ya Baraka begin? What conversation, what need, what calling brought it into being? Who said yes first? 4–6 sentences in your voice.

What happens here —

Every room is a yes.

A handful of doorways. Each one opens into something good.

Room One

[Title here]

📝 Brandy — Story #3: The first thing kids receive when they arrive here — food, shelter, a bed, a hot meal. Title this room above + 2–3 sentences below.

Room Two

[Title here]

📝 Brandy — Story #4: The education piece. School fees, daily school, tutoring — whatever this looks like. Title above + 2–3 sentences.

Room Three

[Title here]

📝 Brandy — Story #5: The faith dimension. Prayer, sacraments, the Holy Family connection. Title above + 2–3 sentences.

The hands behind the door —

A Holy Family

No place this good is held by one person. Three people opened this door.

Pillar of Faith

Father Pascal Mbepera

priest. shepherd.

📝 Brandy — Story #6: Father Pascal’s role, his ministry, what he carries here. 2–3 sentences.

Pillar of Care

Sister Benigna

caregiver. holder.

📝 Brandy — Story #7: Sister Benigna’s presence with the children, her daily work, what they know her for. 2–3 sentences.

Pillar of Mission

Brandy Vath

founder. friend.

Founder of More Precious Than Pearls. Brandy walks alongside Father Pascal and Sister Benigna — raising support, raising voice, raising the floor for every child this house holds.

“The Lord bless you
and keep you.”

Numbers 6:24

here’s how you join —

Bless this house.

Every meal, every school day, every safe night at Nyumba ya Baraka is a quiet act of provision. Your support keeps the door open and the lanterns lit — so that every child who walks in is met with the same answer: yes, you belong here.

Bless the Work → See All Programs

Success Stories

Stories of becoming.

Every child at UNITAS arrives carrying a dream. To teach. To heal. To build. To fill prescriptions in pharmacies. We walk with them through the years between hope and proof — and watch as their answers become real. These are some of those stories.

12+

Children at UNITAS

I

Story of Becoming

10+

Years Walking Beside

∞

Lives in the Making

Story I

Valeriana.

Pharmacy Technician·Songea, Tanzania

Valeriana arrived at UNITAS with a dream.

She wanted to be a pharmacy technician.

She had wanted it for as long as she could remember.

But dreams cost more than the wanting of them.

School fees. Books. Uniforms. Transport. Years of certification.

Investments most families in rural Tanzania cannot make on their own.

Valeriana, a young woman who grew up at UNITAS in Songea, Tanzania — I.

She had the dream. We found the sponsor. The rest, she did herself.

Valeriana wearing her pharmacy technician uniform — II.

So we asked.

And someone answered.

A family from a partner church in Iowa stepped forward to sponsor Valeriana’s education. They covered the path — the books, the fees, the years.

Valeriana brought everything else.

The discipline. The late nights. The quiet daily work of showing up for her own future.

And then the years passed.

Year by year, Valeriana kept showing up. To class. To exams. To the long slow work of becoming who she said she would be.

Her sponsor kept showing up too. The path stayed funded. The promise stayed kept.

And one day — like all the days before it, only different — she walked into a pharmacy in Songea wearing a uniform with her name on it.

Valeriana, working as a pharmacy technician — III.

Today

Valeriana works as a pharmacy technician in Songea.

Filling prescriptions. Earning a paycheck. Living a life she chose.

The Path of Becoming.

Sponsorship doesn’t just cover school fees. It carries a child — boy or girl — through every chapter of becoming who they were always meant to be.

Chapter I

The Welcome

Every child at UNITAS arrives to a place that calls them by name. Food. Shelter. Family. The first promise: you are loved.

Chapter II

The Years

Books. Uniforms. Fees. Transport. The daily ritual of showing up — for class, for tests, for the slow work of learning who they’re becoming.

Chapter III

The Becoming

Certification programs. Vocational training. Exams. The years where a dream gets a name and a uniform and a path.

Chapter IV

The Door Opens

A first paycheck. A chosen life. The proof that being walked with — for years — leads somewhere real.

Walk with a dream.

There are more stories like Valeriana’s waiting to be written. Every child at UNITAS — every boy, every girl — arrives with a dream. Sponsorship covers the years between hope and certificate.

Become a sponsor →

She went because she was called.
She stayed because they needed her to.

Brandy Vath’s work in Songea, Ruvuma, Tanzania — educating girls, providing health resources, and building the House of Blessings. One woman. All in.

Songea, Ruvuma, Tanzania

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built with love by Think Bradley