{"id":38822,"date":"2018-07-01T05:27:48","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T09:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=38822"},"modified":"2018-07-13T12:17:30","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T16:17:30","slug":"alumnus-of-the-year-regina-horst-chacha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/alumnus-of-the-year-regina-horst-chacha\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna\/us of the Year: Regina Horst Chacha"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 5:30 every morning on a visit to Tanzania this spring,\u00a0Regina Horst \u201985 Chacha<\/strong>\u00a0led children\u2019s devotions, which included first singing and then teaching from her late husband\u2019s book\u00a0Prayer Power<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is wonderful,\u201d she said, \u201cto see the children praying, learning to take their needs and the needs of others before the throne of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her dedication and life’s work, Chacha will be honored as Eastern Mennonite University’s Alumna\/us of the Year during the 2018 Homecoming and Family Weekend<\/a>. Two other alumni award honorees will also be recognized: Claudette Monroy ’10 as Young Alumna\/us of the Year<\/a> and Gilberto Perez ’94, GC ’99, with the Distinguished Service Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Teamwork Ministries\u2019 City of Hope is a ministry in Ntagacha that the Chachas founded in 2007 and which Regina has led as its international executive director since\u00a0John Chacha \u201984<\/strong>\u00a0was killed in a truck accident in 2015. It includes two schools with some 500 students, a home for 100 orphans, and Amani \u2013 \u201cpeace\u201d \u2013 Medical Center, located where rival clans once fought, in part over cattle theft.<\/p>\n

City of Hope has been honored with the\u00a0Mwenge wa Uhuru<\/em>\u00a0(Freedom Torch) three times: for bringing peace to the area, for its agriculture work and water collection cisterns, and for its secondary education offerings. The Dr. John Chacha Secondary School has chemistry and biology labs in a country with \u201ca great shortage of science teachers,\u201d and this year opened a technology lab with 50 laptop computers that Chacha said is \u201cunlike anything else in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year\u00a0Vanity Fair<\/em>\u00a0nominated Chacha to its Hall of Fame.<\/a> The surprise of it all \u2013 that this daughter of a now-retired Virginia Mennonite pastor has graced the pages of the glossy magazine, but also that her lifework means she routinely travels between the eastern coasts of the U.S. and Africa \u2013 doesn\u2019t negate what Vanity Fair acknowledged: \u201cthe challenges remain immense.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example: acquiring increased funding for dormitories and teacher housing are \u201cessential,\u201d she said, for the school to attract more boarding students and additional quality teachers.<\/p>\n