As promised, here are more Uganda activities, this time in partnership with Education Forum Africa (EFA), our other partner organization, of which as of early this year I have been on the Board of Directors. We’re based in the capital city of Kampala but the work is mostly in some very remote rural areas. We focus on keeping kids in school and addressing the reasons they may not be attending. In many if not most cases, lack of money to pay for school fees, uniforms, and supplies is the main thing. Rural areas depend on income from various harvests (bananas, coffee, etc.), which is seasonal and meager at that. So many children are orphans or may as well be, given the frequency of abandonment. I am astounded by the numbers of children I’ve met who may or may not have a father in the picture AND have also been abandoned by their mothers, only to be raised by an impoverished grandmother who heads a household of children. In my email to you back in June, I explained the other issue relating more to girls not going to school, and we work on addressing those things as well: child marriage for girls, lack of menstrual hygiene supplies, and gender based violence (GBV) and abuse.
Uganda is a relatively small country, so there is a lot of collaboration between organizations. One Future at a Time, EFA, and A Bright Child-Uganda work as partners in sponsoring children’s education, and have paid school fees and bought uniforms and supplies to keep some of the most vulnerable children in school.
On an EFA outreach to a school in the town of Jinja in the northeast part of the country, we met two boys, ages 15 and 16 and unrelated, who were living at the school. One had been abandoned by both parents and the other had been abandoned by his mother and left with an abusive step-father, so he ran away. Neither had any way to pay school fees, but the school sort of adopted them and let them sleep there – not in the boarding section, which required fees, but on thin straw mats on the floor of a storage room, which was littered with paper trash. (See photo.) They had no pillows, no blankets, one large towel between them, no school uniforms, the clothes on their backs, and that’s about all. You, dear donors, bought them mattresses, pillows, bedding, bath towels, school uniforms and shoes, school supplies, and various necessities for daily living. And we paid their school fees. I wish I could convey to you their appreciation.
This is one of many similar stories, and let me happily add that four of these rural outreaches over the course of this fiscal year are being supported by a small grant we received from UNICEF-USA. There will always be more need than resources, so it’s important to celebrate our successes, and I want to share some of them with you since they wouldn’t be possible without you.
Charles, our little guy, now about 4 years old, with hydrocephalus whom I’ve updated you on periodically: 2 years ago, his head was so heavy with fluid that he couldn’t keep it upright, couldn’t sit without flopping over, and was blind from the pressure on his optic nerve. With the surgical, medical, and rehabilitative treatment we have paid for over the years, his vision has improved a bit, and when I saw him a few weeks ago, he was able to get himself from lying down to sitting up totally unassisted. This truly is a miracle. In the photo, he is with Isaac Lwanga, Director of ABC-Uganda. Charles’s mother expressed her great appreciation, but one thing really stood out. She said that because of her son’s unusual appearance, he was stigmatized and no one would touch him. It meant so much to her that I touched him as someone would touch any child. On my part, I didn’t give holding a child’s hand a second thought, but it just goes to show that the simplest of kindnesses can be so significant to another person.
Mary, age 16: I first met and described her to you in April. She had some severe neurological deficit after an undiagnosed incident 5 years ago that left her mute and not able to voluntarily interact with her environment. We took her for a thorough physical assessment and she was treated for toxoplasmosis, a parasitic brain infection. After all this time, complications had set in and her family had given up hope, but with ongoing rehabilitation, she has slowly progressed, and the milestones are that she can now write her name and can do simple tasks at home and in the family garden – and here’s hoping for more milestones. In the group photo, Mary is in the front row, center, with her mother and baby sister on the right. The fact that she was engaged enough to look straight ahead at the photographer rather than hanging her head down as usual is also a sign of progress. We take nothing for granted.
By the way, the woman standing behind them with the red headscarf is Charles’s mother. And next to Mary on the other side is Vincent, who I wrote about in my last email a couple of weeks ago. With gratitude, let me say that two of you are his angels. One of you as I previously mentioned, donated for us to get him his hot-rod wheelchair, and now another of you has made a generous donation with a specific designation to purchase an industrial knitting machine for him to use at our vocational school so that he can work on contract with a local business to make scarfs and school sweaters. We were practically in tears as he expressed his thanks for this opportunity that had previously been unimaginable. You can’t tell very well from the photo, but those crutches are way too short for him, so I think we’ll spring for better crutches.
Staying with the same photo, the young man on the far right with the black sweater is a 21-year-old named Francis. He looks hale and hearty, but what you don’t see is that he lost his right leg as a passenger on a motorcycle taxi (boda boda) accident and cannot afford a prosthesis. I intend for One Future at a Time to get that for him, and with it would come some physical therapy for rehabilitation.
Christine: She is our teenage girl who is legally blind. I wrote about her last year. She is a very intelligent young lady and somehow managed by having school friends tell her what was written on the blackboard, which she couldn’t see, and in her books, which she could read only with great strain, holding the written materials literally in front of her nose. We took her to a specialty eye clinic where she got the strongest prescription glasses I’ve ever heard of, plus additional magnifiers for reading. She came to visit me a few weeks ago, all dressed up and smiling, and we sat outside visiting by some bushes with beautiful tropical flowers cascading down. Here’s an example of her success… In the middle of our conversation, she saw an ant on my forearm and picked it off. I hope you understand what a big deal this was for someone so visually impaired.
These small miracles happen because of your support as well as your encouragement and friendship, and from the heart, I wish you many blessings in return.
Donations can be made by:
☐ Depositing a check to One Future at a Time in any branch of Bank of America, writing on the back “For deposit only to One Future at a Time” and the account number (3250 1095 5956).
☐ Mailing a check made out to One Future at a Time to 3640 Riverview Drive, Redding, CA 96001-3932.
☐ Donating by credit card right from our website www.onefutureatatime.com or from the “Learn More” button on our Facebook page, which links you directly to our website donation page.
Oh, and let me not forget to tell you to mark the evening of Saturday, March 14th on your new 2020 calendars for our 4th Annual Community Sing-along fundraiser.
Uganda is a relatively small country, so there is a lot of collaboration between organizations. One Future at a Time, EFA, and A Bright Child-Uganda work as partners in sponsoring children’s education, and have paid school fees and bought uniforms and supplies to keep some of the most vulnerable children in school.
On an EFA outreach to a school in the town of Jinja in the northeast part of the country, we met two boys, ages 15 and 16 and unrelated, who were living at the school. One had been abandoned by both parents and the other had been abandoned by his mother and left with an abusive step-father, so he ran away. Neither had any way to pay school fees, but the school sort of adopted them and let them sleep there – not in the boarding section, which required fees, but on thin straw mats on the floor of a storage room, which was littered with paper trash. (See photo.) They had no pillows, no blankets, one large towel between them, no school uniforms, the clothes on their backs, and that’s about all. You, dear donors, bought them mattresses, pillows, bedding, bath towels, school uniforms and shoes, school supplies, and various necessities for daily living. And we paid their school fees. I wish I could convey to you their appreciation.
This is one of many similar stories, and let me happily add that four of these rural outreaches over the course of this fiscal year are being supported by a small grant we received from UNICEF-USA. There will always be more need than resources, so it’s important to celebrate our successes, and I want to share some of them with you since they wouldn’t be possible without you.
Charles, our little guy, now about 4 years old, with hydrocephalus whom I’ve updated you on periodically: 2 years ago, his head was so heavy with fluid that he couldn’t keep it upright, couldn’t sit without flopping over, and was blind from the pressure on his optic nerve. With the surgical, medical, and rehabilitative treatment we have paid for over the years, his vision has improved a bit, and when I saw him a few weeks ago, he was able to get himself from lying down to sitting up totally unassisted. This truly is a miracle. In the photo, he is with Isaac Lwanga, Director of ABC-Uganda. Charles’s mother expressed her great appreciation, but one thing really stood out. She said that because of her son’s unusual appearance, he was stigmatized and no one would touch him. It meant so much to her that I touched him as someone would touch any child. On my part, I didn’t give holding a child’s hand a second thought, but it just goes to show that the simplest of kindnesses can be so significant to another person.
Mary, age 16: I first met and described her to you in April. She had some severe neurological deficit after an undiagnosed incident 5 years ago that left her mute and not able to voluntarily interact with her environment. We took her for a thorough physical assessment and she was treated for toxoplasmosis, a parasitic brain infection. After all this time, complications had set in and her family had given up hope, but with ongoing rehabilitation, she has slowly progressed, and the milestones are that she can now write her name and can do simple tasks at home and in the family garden – and here’s hoping for more milestones. In the group photo, Mary is in the front row, center, with her mother and baby sister on the right. The fact that she was engaged enough to look straight ahead at the photographer rather than hanging her head down as usual is also a sign of progress. We take nothing for granted.
By the way, the woman standing behind them with the red headscarf is Charles’s mother. And next to Mary on the other side is Vincent, who I wrote about in my last email a couple of weeks ago. With gratitude, let me say that two of you are his angels. One of you as I previously mentioned, donated for us to get him his hot-rod wheelchair, and now another of you has made a generous donation with a specific designation to purchase an industrial knitting machine for him to use at our vocational school so that he can work on contract with a local business to make scarfs and school sweaters. We were practically in tears as he expressed his thanks for this opportunity that had previously been unimaginable. You can’t tell very well from the photo, but those crutches are way too short for him, so I think we’ll spring for better crutches.
Staying with the same photo, the young man on the far right with the black sweater is a 21-year-old named Francis. He looks hale and hearty, but what you don’t see is that he lost his right leg as a passenger on a motorcycle taxi (boda boda) accident and cannot afford a prosthesis. I intend for One Future at a Time to get that for him, and with it would come some physical therapy for rehabilitation.
Christine: She is our teenage girl who is legally blind. I wrote about her last year. She is a very intelligent young lady and somehow managed by having school friends tell her what was written on the blackboard, which she couldn’t see, and in her books, which she could read only with great strain, holding the written materials literally in front of her nose. We took her to a specialty eye clinic where she got the strongest prescription glasses I’ve ever heard of, plus additional magnifiers for reading. She came to visit me a few weeks ago, all dressed up and smiling, and we sat outside visiting by some bushes with beautiful tropical flowers cascading down. Here’s an example of her success… In the middle of our conversation, she saw an ant on my forearm and picked it off. I hope you understand what a big deal this was for someone so visually impaired.
These small miracles happen because of your support as well as your encouragement and friendship, and from the heart, I wish you many blessings in return.
Donations can be made by:
☐ Depositing a check to One Future at a Time in any branch of Bank of America, writing on the back “For deposit only to One Future at a Time” and the account number (3250 1095 5956).
☐ Mailing a check made out to One Future at a Time to 3640 Riverview Drive, Redding, CA 96001-3932.
☐ Donating by credit card right from our website www.onefutureatatime.com or from the “Learn More” button on our Facebook page, which links you directly to our website donation page.
Oh, and let me not forget to tell you to mark the evening of Saturday, March 14th on your new 2020 calendars for our 4th Annual Community Sing-along fundraiser.
