Make a difference
Collaboration with schools
A visit to Meheba is more than just volunteer work — it is a learning experience that helps young people connect global issues to real human stories and inspires them to continue making a positive difference in others’ lives through their own efforts.
Sending students from the school to work alongside our teams in the Meheba refugee camp can be a transformative experience — both for the students and for the local community they engage with. In the camp, students have the opportunity to work side by side with refugees who are actively helping others in need. This hands-on experience provides them with a unique insight into the crises people face today, from displacement and loss to the daily challenges of surviving and rebuilding their lives.
By participating in our projects — whether it’s assisting at the clinic, supporting educational programs, distributing food, or contributing to community initiatives — students learn how tangible actions can make a real difference in other people’s lives. Through this, students gain a deeper understanding of empathy, compassion, and solidarity.
Beyond practical skills and humanitarian knowledge, the experience promotes personal growth. Students develop a sense of responsibility, teamwork skills, and the ability to approach complex social challenges thoughtfully. They see how their efforts, no matter how small, contribute to a larger circle of hope and support within the camp.
Ansgar College
Our experiences from several years of study trips to Brave Heart’s work in the Meheba refugee camp in Zambia show that this provides an excellent learning environment for students. Teaching and curricula in intercultural studies are clearly reflected in field experiences, including intercultural understanding, issues of poverty and refugees, health, development, microfinance, education, encounters with faith and religion, as well as local community engagement.
Students experience safety and well-being in the camp, largely thanks to Brave Heart’s excellent facilitation and the warm welcome from the local community. They give very positive feedback on the support, care, and teaching provided by Brave Heart’s staff. I therefore have only positive things to say about the efforts of the Brave Heart Foundation and its personnel.
Above all, I believe it was important for the students to experience meeting people face to face. Need, despair, poverty, displacement, anguish, grief, hope, gratitude, faith, and joy take on faces and become real people they can relate to and befriend. I believe this creates lasting change in the students and gives them a completely new awareness of intercultural and intersocial challenges they may face in the future.
Photographer: Lasse Eid, Ansgar College
Torstein Try
Associate Professor – Intercultural Studies and Missiology at Ansgar College
