This week I started my ministry in Uganda. We are working with an organization called Raising Up Hope Uganda (RUHU). Our Host Patrick, the one who is running RUHU, is an extraordinary man who wears many hats. I will share later on in this blog some of his many projects. Raising Up Hope gives homeless children a chance to get off the streets and go to school. There is a home for girls 5-15, a home for boys 5-15, a transition safe house for teenage girls who were living in the slums ( two with one year old babies), a transition safe house in the slums for boys and the village of hope. They also run a free community school.
Patrick is so passionate about this work, he says that the Lord gave him this purpose for his life. He sleeps maybe two hours a night and spends his entire day doing things for the children and the organization. He never rests.
The only opportunity these kids have is to go to school, but schools are expensive, so Raising Up Hope (with the help of an organization in the states called Beautiful Response- who all donations go through), finds sponsors to send the children to good schools. The older the the kids are and the better the school is, the more school costs.
So the school we have been working at is a free Christian school that Patrick started for the children who can’t afford to go to school. It is run by a beautiful and sweet woman named Jackie. It teaches basic English, math, bible study, and things such as how to wash yourself. They also provide the children with one good meal a day. While there, I’ve had the opportunity to meet some of the children this past week. One little girl’s father has been in prison for three years for buying a cell phone he didn’t know was stolen. She and her sister live with their mother who goes around washing clothes to make a living. Another little boy, whose parents died , was being sponsored when his uncle showed up saying he would take responsibility for him. So his sponsor dropped him, and then his uncle died. Now he is the only boy in the boys home who doesn’t go to boarding school because he isn’t sponsored. Another boy on my class is one of eight siblings who live with their mother in a small two room home that has been without a bathroom. Their father was killed in an accident and their mother was hurt in an accident soon after, leaving no way to provide for the children. RUHU and beautiful response have helped her start a business and have built a bathroom on their home. Those are three stories among dozens. The children are very poor but thankful for what they have. They try hard at school, some really excelling. Each of the students at the free school can be sponsored by someone to go to a better boarding school. There are roughly 150-200 students who are not sponsored. There are also about 40 children in boarding school currently who aren’t being sponsored, a beautiful response and RUHU have been working around the clock to find funds to pay for them.
We have also been visiting the slums in Kampala. There are about 60 boys out there who are homeless. Patrick started renting a small two room house where 25 of the boys live all the time and the rest can sleep at night. The stipulation is, to stay there they have to be clean. It is a rehabilitation type house. See a problem in the slums is gasoline. They boys huff it to fight off hunger pains, emotional pains and other physical pains. Then they become addicted to it. When we go out there, the majority of them are high and out of it. It is heartbreaking. Seeing the few clean kids is what gives you hope to keep going because only God could have kept them clean or given them the strength to get clean. Patrick’s program provides basic medical treatment (some of them honestly need a hospital) and food twice a week. The 25 that live in the house are provided with clothes, daily food and schooling. These boys (if they stay clean) will be moved into the village of hope once there is room for them and they have completed the transition program (1 to 2 years). I’ve made friends with a fourteen year old boy who is one of those 25. Has has been in the safe house for a month. He is clean, respectful and very intelligent. He told me I had a Japanese name (which is true) and that Arnold Schwarzenegger was the governor of California once (he is a big deal here).
The village of hope is their vision and biggest project. It is a large compound that (for right now) only the boys live in. They also have dug a large well for the property. It is the only one in the community. They are building a large church, a two story chicken coop that will hold 2,000 chickens, a garden they will tend themselves and a pig pin. They also hope to move the school out there and a clinic. Their hope is to eventually house all of the orphaned children in RUHU’s care. They currently have two houses built for the boys, neither of which are furnished with enough beds for the boys. Patrick lives there with them.
The girls house holds maybe 30 orphaned girls ages 5-16. They are given housing, clothing, food and care. I haven’t met the house mother yet and I’ve only been to the house once. But when I was there I found the girls to be playful, loving and joyful. We sang Hymns that they knew and played games. They really wanted to sing the American national anthem, which was pretty precious.
The safe house for girls that we visited houses 5 girls who are straight from the slums. It is like a transitioning house for girls. A house mother lives with them as well as two of the girls babies. Two of the girls have gotten sponsors and are currently starting boarding school. One of our girls has been going there everyday and helping the house mother out with cooking and cleaning.
Uganda is… Different. The driving is crazy, I can’t even fully explain it. People are just all over the road, honking, passing, cutting people off. It’s the norm. It’s pretty hot during the day, but comfortable in the shade and when there is a breeze. It gets relatively cool at night. The house we are staying in is really nice. There is no running water, but we have electricity, beds, an indoor toilet and shower area and occasionally wifi! It has been a good transitioning please for us to start. Our host is nice, funny and passionate about his work. All in all, this has been a very good experience thus far. You can really see Gods hand in the work going on here. It is one of the best, most meaningful organizations I have ever seen. I am thankful to be a part of it. Patrick started it when he was only 16 with the help of his best friend and local pastor, William. Patrick is currently only 24 years old (he turns 25 this year).
If you feel led to donate to RUHU, you can do so by going to A Beautiful Responses’ donation page. Here is the link:http://beautifulresponse.org/raising-up-hope-for-uganda/
My team and I appreciate your love, encouragement and prayers. It is hard to believe we have only been here a week. It feels like a lifetime. Currently, we have sick family members at home, homesickness, sickness, food struggles (for me), and we are just learning to live and do life together as a team. Those are some things you can pray about for us. Also that we are continually dying to ourselves and having hearts like Jesus!
I love and miss you so much! Thank you for taking the time to read and catch up on my life! 🙂
