Wallace’s desk was covered this week with stacks of photographs and biographies for children at Mamma Jeanne’s Orphanage in Goma, Congo, near the Rwandan border. Mamma Jeanne’s cares for about 400 orphans, almost all of whom lost their families as a result of tribal conflicts in the area.

These children’s stories are now being found halfway across the world in Napa.

Tuesday night, the students of NVLA presented “Children of the Earth,” the school’s third annual concert to benefit the Mamma Jeanne Orphanage. Kindergartners through sixth-graders performed songs in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Swahili and the Maori language of New Zealand. Instrumental music included the NVLA band and Suzuki strings.

In total, the school met their goal and raised $3,000 to help build a rock wall around the orphanage to provide safety for the children in the midst of ethnic and tribal wars. In addition to funds raised at the concert, local families chose to sponsor 25 children from Mamma Jeanne’s, providing food, clothing, medicine and school supplies.

The money will help protect children like Yakobo Kubuya, 7, of Kibati, in the Congo. The body of his father, who was captured by Rwandan rebels, has never been found. His mother, who went in search of her husband, was killed with a machete.

Innocent Nfunibwa, 8, is a native of Rona, Masisi, in the Congo. Nfunibwa and his older brother Muisha lost both of their parents during the rebellion launched by the Congolese Rally for Democracy. Their father was murdered, and their mother was burned alive by the Hutu military.

The orphans’ stories are heartbreaking, said Wallace, and her students are excited to know that the way they spend their Tuesday night can change the lives of children on the other side of the globe.

The collaboration started in the winter of 2005, when Wallace heard about the need for clean water in Africa. After joining with Be A Hero, a nonprofit organization with projects around the world, NVLA was able to sponsor a water project to provide fresh, clean water to children who previously walked two miles each way several times a day just to fetch water.

Last year, NVLA’s mission was to bring electricity to the orphanage. The school set a goal of $3,000, but before long, local businesses and Harvest Middle School joined in to help send $18,000 to Mamma Jeanne’s. The money, said Wallace, brought electricity to the orphanage and helped build a school on the property.

This year, when Wallace asked Mamma Jeanne how the school could help, she told her that their greatest need was for safety from guerilla warfare in the area. What they really needed was a rock wall around the property.

“The fighting is very close to the orphanage,” said Wallace. “It’s really, really dangerous.”

Recently, she said, children have been stolen from their homes only 20 kilometers from the orphanage. Goats were stolen from the property. The orphanage has a little plot of land to farm that was donated by Congolese doctors, but they can’t get to the land, 30 kilometers away, because the roads are blocked and dangerous.

Aidan Harvey, a fourth-grader at NVLA, said he is sad to know that there are children who have so little. He sees kids at school, he said, who throw out most of their snacks before the end of the day. Some “only want the orange and throw the rest away.” But some places in the world, said Harvey, “kids don’t have anything.”

It makes Harvey feel special to be involved in the concert, he said, and to know that he’s helping a kid like him who has so much less.

The school’s efforts “really open (students’) eyes to the rest of the world,” said Wallace. “It shows them that they can make a difference, even as a child. … They really understand that (the orphans) need help, and they want to help, and they can. Children can help.”

To make a donation, or to sponsor a child at Mamma Jeanne’s Orphanage, call NVLA at 253-3678.