HOW CAN YOU HELP?
SPONSOR A CHILD
We have a HUGE waiting list!
The cost to sponsor changes as a child progresses in school:
* Primary School - Grades K - 7: $225 per year
*Secondary School - Grades 8 - 13 $375 per year (Some schools also require boarding)
* University - Please contact us. The price depends on the university and the program of study. $1,500 per year is a ball park figure.
* Special Children - The cost depends on the situation. These are usually orphans who have no place to live. The cost depends on the situation.
MEDICAL SUPPORT
There is no healthcare support system for these children. Parents and guardians cannot afford medical expenses so children typically are simply not treated. We maintain a pool to help with medical expenses for our sponsored children. The pool is running very low today!
We will use your designated Medical Support gift for medical expenses for our sponsored children. The money will be held here and sent to Uganda when medical expenses arise.
SHOES FOR CHRISTMAS
Before we left on one of our first trips to Uganda, we tried to collect gently used children's shoes. We packed them in our bags, and quickly found that this was no way to handle the needs of the kids there! But we packed what we had collected and took them with us. A few days into the trip, we went to a small village about 80 miles from Kampala. We found more than 50 kids waiting for us when we arrived. The word had spread through the pastor there that we were bringing shoes, and the kids lined up before we could get out of the van. We had only two pairs of shoes left!
The kids stood quietly while we selected two who got shoes. The rest got pencils, and they took them so very graciously wihout any outward sign of disappointment. One tiny girl got a pair of bright pink flip flops and you would have thought they were made of gold!
I couldn't forget those kids standing there looking up at me hoping for shoes then turning and walking away with a single pencil. I collected money for shoes before I returned to Uganda the next Christmas and we bought very nice leather shoes from a small shoe factory in Kampala.
We went back to that village with more than 100 pairs of shoes! And we gave away every single pair!! When we finished passing them out, I looked down at the ground in front of the stage where we were working and saw a little girl wearing a huge smile and a brand pair of shoes. She had her hands behind her back and when I bent down so that I could hear her, she pulled out the now not very pink flip flops. Since she had new shoes, she wanted us to give the flip flops to another child.
For the last three years, we've bought shoes and socks for children in Uganda at Christmas. We buy them locally because the cost of transporting shoes from America is prohibitive.
The cost is $15 per child. Anyone can participate! Click here for more information.Shoes represent hope for desperately poor children in Uganda because no one can go to school without them. There are other programs like ours for poor kids, and there is a government sponsored program that helps a tiny fraction of the poor children go to school. Every school requires that every student wear shoes, no matter how poor the child or who is paying the school fees. Parents and guardians who could afford fees at a subsidized school or who find complete sponsorship for their children with an aid program still must come up with a "large" lump sum for shoes, So owning shoes is the first step in getting into school. Also, students in all grades must always wear shoes every day with their required uniforms. As children outgrow shoes, they find themselves unable to return to school unless they can find new ones.
For only $15, you can provide the hope these shoes represent to a poor child in Uganda!
UNDESIGNATED GIFTS
Although we work very hard to control expenses, unexpected things happen with great regularity in Uganda! Undesignated gifts will be used to offset the unexpected.
COME WITH US TO UGANDA!
Each summer, we go to Uganda to check on our sponsored children. We are planning a trip for early July this year. Contact us for details.