Bethany Jeffers
Bethany Jeffers is a full-time volunteer at a Tanzanian organization called Mavuno Village, ministering to orphaned and vulnerable children in northwestern Tanzania. Mavuno Village is a culturally appropriate, agriculturally minded, Christ-centered, family-style orphanage. (www.mavunovillage.org)
Mavuno means “harvest,” and their vision is to see children grow up to be godly, self-sufficient Tanzanians, to see churches and families in Tanzania strengthened by people who have been raised to be faithful followers of Jesus and to carry on that legacy.
Orphaned and vulnerable children are referred to Mavuno Village through Tanzania Social Welfare and are then placed in homes in the Mavuno Village community with Tanzanian caregivers. The children attend school and church, help in the gardens, cook and share meals together, and play lots of soccer, all within the context of their unique families.
Bethany works in the Mavuno Village office as a psychosocial health advocate, working to ensure that children and youth have the opportunities they need to work through their past traumas, address their current challenges, and understand their future options. The goal is to nurture a level of mental, emotional, social and spiritual health that allows children and youth to grow and move forward in life. Living in a staff home on campus, she is very involved in the lives of the families.
Bethany partners with others in order to provide trauma-informed care education, healing groups for staff and youth, and child safety resources for the Mavuno Village community as well as other children's homes, churches, and other organizations throughout Tanzania, and she works to make mental health resources available in the Swahili language.
Bethany holds a Bachelor's in Bible degree from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL, and Master's in Counseling degree from Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, PA. She is certified as an affiliate Trauma Competent Care trainer with Trauma Free World (www.traumafreeworld.org) and as an apprentice Trauma Healing facilitator with the Trauma Healing Institute (www.traumahealinginstitute.org).