New School Uniforms!

Written August 19,2013:

Hi Sponsors! It's been a busy few weeks for our family, as our daughter Sarah was married on Saturday, and as the proud mother, I cannot resist including one tiny picture of the newlyweds! They are about to embark on a two-year volunteer stint in a rural community in Nicaragua. If you have children in school, you have probably just finished the task of getting them ready for the school year, outfitted with new school clothes and supplies. That's what SOVCO is up to this month, too. There is a long list of children whose uniforms have become quite worn, and our money this month will go to replace those uniforms. One thing you may not have thought of when supporting a child, is that your money is also going to support small local businesses like the tailors who make the uniforms for the children. And that is an important thing to do. With used clothing from developed countries flooding into Africa, tailors have found their businesses declining. But school uniforms help keep small-scale tailoring businesses alive. Most of the children have just one uniform, which gets washed once or twice a week, on Sunday. Most of the children do their washing themselves, and dry their uniform on the thatch roof of their house, like you see below. Here Aron and Gloria model the kind of state a uniform can get into after a year of that kind of treatment: And here is a fashion show of uniforms from the different schools our SOVCO kids attend: Gerald, Hamis, Reagan, Mercy, Babra and Patrick in the Koch Ongako uniform Aron and Eunice in the Kweyo uniform Paska, Scovia, Patricia, Babra, Eunice and Winnifred in the cheery yellow Bethel Gulu Christian School uniform Joseph is our only student in the beautiful purple uniform of St. Bakhita Primary School. Nancy in the uniform of St. Mary Immaculata Isabella, from Christ Church Primary School Arach Eunice in the uniform of Koch Koo Primary School Caroline in the uniform of Laminlawino Primary School Juma attends Bwobomanam Primary School Winny in the uniform of Goma Central Primary School Flavia attends Layibi Green Primary School Levi attends Lacor Primary school, in the lower level. Christopher also attends Lacor, but in a higher level. Most schools have a different but similar uniform for the different levels of school. Here you see the differnt girls uniforms for Kirombe Primary School: Trecy in nursery, Janet in primary, and Franka in high primary: So, if you think getting your kids ready for school is a lot of work, imagine getting 57 kids ready! And as always, thanks so much for your financial support in making this happen for the SOVCO kids.

Find out why your kid is yours.

Hello, SOVCO sponsors! Here is Gerald, who is sponsored by friends from my church. He has a catarract in one of his eyes, and last year soon after they began sponsoring him, he was able to have an operation, which has helped somewhat, but not completely. This picture was taken not long after the operation. Both of Gerald's parents have died, so he is living with his grandmother, who is 75 years old and caring for eight other children on her farm. One would be tempted to pity him, but Gerald is one smart cookie. He was number one in his class, and Tonny says, "our Gerald is very intelligent and every teacher is really appreciating the tireless efforts that he is putting forth to challenge other fellow children." Gerald likes science, math and English. He wants to be a pilot. At the recent Annual General Meeting, Gerald asked permission to recite a poem that he had written in Acholi. He did this in front of all the guardians and special guests, like head teachers and even a minister of education. John, our friend who sponsors Gerald, suffers from Parkinson's disease. He's had countless surgeries and adjustments of medication and the deep brain stimulator in his head, and right now has a gash on his head that makes him look like someone you might feel pretty sorry for, too. But John, like Gerald, does not resort to self-pity. He still sings in our church choir, and when he starts to fall over, one of the tenors pulls him upright, and he keeps right on singing. He goes walking with his wife Carolyn, and always shows up for events at church. Until recently he maintained a hiking path through his woods and loved hunting for mushrooms in the spring. It's getting harder and harder for him, but, like Gerald, he presses on, doing as much as he can. I believe that God has matched each sponsor and child; that there is something shared about each pair. What is it about your child? It's time to write letters again, and hopefully over time, you and your child will find your common ground. Think of that when you write. You may want to consider sending a nice card this time, and in your message somehow express one essential thing about yourself.

Life in a Mud Hut

Written in June, 2013:

Hi Sponsors! About a year ago, I showed you a lot of pictures of typical housing where our children live. But half of you are new sponsors since then, and may not have seen that email. SOVCO is not an orphanage or a school. Almost all of our sponsored children live with relatives in a mud hut with a grass thatch roof. It's not as bad as you might think, living in a mud hut. Some huts, like the one above, are neat and tidy. The thatch is cut straight and even, like a bowl-over-the-head haircut. The walls and door are strong and sturdy. The yard outside the house is swept bare to discourage snakes, and there is a ledge at the threshold to further discourage them. That ledge makes a nice place to sit outside and work or chat with neighbors. Most families live in compounds of huts where their families have lived for generations, except for during the war period, when it was unsafe to live in their homes, and many families took refuge in special camps. The father, mother and grandmother have their own separate huts.The younger children sleep in a hut with their mother, aunt or grandmother. As you can see, washing is hung on lines or laid on the roof to dry. This is the compound of Regina, the woman I asked you to pray for recently. She takes care of several orphans, many of whom are not related to her. When a boy is about twelve years old, he makes his own house for the first time, as Richard has done. Then he will live alone. Inside, the circular space is divided with curtains to create living and sleeping spaces: A strong tree trunk in the center of the house supports the roof, which looks like this from the inside: Bedding, clothing, mosquito nets, and even mattresses are hung over ropes in the middle of the day to keep the inside space clear for other activities, and to keep bedding fresh. Some houses are not as nice, of course. Many compounds have a special hut just for cooking, and the family members share the kitchen. As for the latest news, Regina is feeling better, but two of the girls, Barbra and Winnifred have been sick a lot again. They think Barbra may have sickle cell disease, and Winnifred may have asthma. Both of them have been getting treatment at the best clinic in the area, at Lacor Hospital. We are so grateful for the motorbike, which has been used to get Regina and the girls to the hospital. With school fees, gas, and medical bills, this has been an expensive month. The staff was planning to get by on half their salary, but I was able to use some of the bead money to give them the money to cover the salaries. So, as always, I thank you all for contributing to the good work the SOVCO staff is doing! God bless you!

A Widow's Gift

Hello SOVCO Sponsors! I am doing children's story at our church again this Sunday. I just looked to see what the pastor's text is, and it turns out it's I Kings 17:8-16, the passage that tells about a poor widow giving her last bit of food for the prophet Elijah, with the result that from that point on, her food never ran out. This made me think of Joska, and the goat she raised and donated to SOVCO last week so that the children and their guardians and all the SOVCO community could have a fine meal on the day before school started for the new term. Joska is a widow. I've probably told you about her before; she's one of my favorite people in Uganda. She's raising six children alone, and is deeply committed to the work that SOVCO is doing in her community. The pictures Tonny sent really tell the story of the goat party last Saturday "but one" (as they say in Uganda): First, there were games for the children. From left to right: I'm not sure, Agenorwot Paska, Adong Patricia, Lakaraber Winnifred (Joska's daughter), Apiyo Scovia, not sure, Adoch Janet Sylvia, and I don't know the last two girls. Maybe you do! Next, kids who didn't get mosquito nets last year because they weren't yet in the program, got them this year. The kids I think I recognize in this picture are Steven, Juma, Nancy, ?, Godfrey, Lakica Mercy, Jacob, Patricia (Rachel's), Christopher, Louis, Gloria, Janet, Flavia, Caroline, Joseph Sunday, Paska (Amy's), Levi, Alex, Angom Mercy. Tonny, correct me if I'm wrong. Then, Tonny asked who wanted to read a message I had written to them, and Godfrey's hand shot up! He's been studying English in Kirombe Primary School. Tonny says when he asked, "can anyone read Mum's letter for us all?"..." he came very fast and very confidently and read it clearly for us all and every one clapped his/her hand for our boy Toolit Godfrey." I can't remember what all I said in that letter, but it was something like, study hard and make your sponsors proud. Then it was time to eat, and everybody had to wait in line while Auntie Kevin (with her back to us) and Tonny's wife Beatrice (in a blue skirt) and others served the meal of goat meat, rice and beans. The girl kneeling and getting beans is Fiona. Everybody had a great time, as you can see! Ivan seems to be entertaining the other boys, and Aaron is really enjoying the story, along with Hamis (in red) and Patrick (Loren's). And here is the mother of the feast, Joska herself (in blue), enjoying the meal with her friends. Let us pray that, like the widow in the story, she never goes hungry again! This week has been a busy one for the SOVCO staff, as children start the new term, and the staff goes from school to school paying fees.Thanks to you, they are able to do that! God bless you!

One on One

Written at the end of May 2013:

Hello, Sponsors! The best news in the past few weeks is that three more children have sponsors, just in time for the new school term, which starts tomorrow! These children are Trecy, sponsored by Nancy, and Ivan and Olivia, sponsored by Sherry and friends fromAccessories for Hope. Here is a picture of Trecy when she found out she'd be sponsored. Three girls sang a solo at my church this morning, and as I listened to them, I was thinking about the joy and wonder these kids experience when they find out they have been chosen by someone far away: Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth Would care to know my name Would care to feel my hurt Now, I am not saying you guys are God! But in caring to know the names of these children, and in feeling their hurt, you are clearly doing just what God would have you do. Individual child sponsorship gives both the child and the sponsor the very important experience of being special to someone. Tonny and Gerald, who had an eye operation, thanks to the collective medical fund which your sponsorship provides. We can't be actually be there to put our arm around them, most of us. Most of us can't afford it, or wouldn't relish the long trip it takes to get there. Some people just don't like spiders and snakes. But we are enabling the SOVCO staff in Uganda to develop one-on-one relationships with these children in our names. And the children sleep a little easier at night knowing somebody out there cares about them, specifically. This month has been one in which we had no school fees to pay, which gave us a bit of extra money to use for new mosquito nets for the children. Tonny took the trip to Kampala by bus to pick them up, and here you can see volunteers Oscar and Collin organizing the nets for distribution. Also, the staff was able to have a back-to-school party for the children on Saturday, as the term starts Monday. I hope to have pictures and news of that by next week for you.

Does Sponsorship Work?

Hi Sponsors, I came across an article I thought you would like to see. It's a report on a recent study that evaluated how effective child sponsorship programs are for children. And in case you missed it when I posted it before, the above picture is of our sponsored girl Barbara, in her first profile picture, before sponsorship, and the second is the same girl after a year of being sponsored.

Jewels for Schools!

The thing my sister Tracy and I like to do the best when we get together is generate ideas. This comes from my dad, the guy who invented the idea of using old caboose cars for camp cabins. And so, at Mothers Day lunch, Tracy and I found ourselves brainstorming apps for finding things in Walmart, and ways to raise funds to help kids in Uganda get a better education.

See, last summer when I went to Uganda to visit SOVCO (Support the Orphans and Vulnerable Children), a great organization I have become involved with, I took some visits to schools. The government schools where most children attend have about 100 children per classroom (and per teacher), but only fifty will fit at a time (crowded like this), so the children have to take turns, and spend half their day at recess.

Some parents have responded by starting their own schools. But the parents are poor, so the schools don't have basics like desks and blackboards. This one was donated by my brother-in-law.The man on the right is an eighty-year-old teacher, come out of retirement to teach for free, out of the goodness of his heart. The third teacher was not present the day I visited, because her baby had just died.

This commitment to the well-being of the children was also evident in this woman, the head teacher of a school that has become a leader in the local campaign for "girl child education." She was an idea gal, too, and we had a good old time generating ideas of how people like you could help motivate girls to finish school and get really good grades. The man is SOVCO director Tonny Opiyo.

And then there's the problem of school fees. Many of you already sponsor children like Hamis, shown here with his guardian, a blind woman of about 100 years old. His sponsors pay $20 a month to fund his education. This has allowed him to attend a nearby boarding school, taking the pressure off his "jaja" and giving him a much better education. But the necessity to send some of the children to boarding school, and as they get older, to secondary school, puts an extra strain on the SOVCO budget.

So the educational needs are great, but resources are hard to come by. SOVCO has great plans to someday build a school to cater to local children, and they have even prepared a big pile of bricks to use when the time comes. And there are shorter-term goals as well, like supporting the efforts of local parents, programs for girls, and helping children for whom boarding school is the best option. So here's what we came up with: Jewels for Schools!

A group of moms (called Women of Hope) in the village in Uganda make jewelry from paper beads, which I sell in the store where I work and on a website. Right now, I have a HUGE overstock of bracelets. So we were thinking, it would be great if you would be willing to take ten bracelets to sell at your school or workplace, or maybe at a farmers market or craft sale. Five dollars from the sale of each bracelet would go to the education fund, and the rest to Women of Hope as usual. There are two types of bracelets:

There are Simple Bracelets,which would sell for $10 And there are Wire Wrap Bracelets, which would sell for $15

So, what do you think? Would you be willing to sell ten of these bracelets to help the kids in Uganda get a better education? If so, I will send you the bracelets and cards with information about the project. And I will develop a poster or sign you can reproduce for a display if needed. All you have to do is reply to me and give me the address where I should send the bracelets, and if you have any preferences as to the type of bracelet you want. When you've sold your ten, send me a check. Maybe you'll want to ask for ten more! And another idea: this would make a great fundraiser for YOUR school! One third of the profit from each bracelet could benefit your school, one third for schools in Uganda, and one third for Women of Hope. Think what a great way to teach kids to care about those less fortunate! We could develop a curriculum to tell about the lives of kids in Uganda, each school or class could sponsor a child, the kids could have bead parties...oh, boy, here I go on ideas again! You get the picture...want to be part of it?