Two Incredible Ugandan Moms

This was written for Mothers Day 2013:

Dear Sponsors, With Mother's Day right around the corner, I want to introduce you to some of the mothers I met in Uganda last summer, and the children they care for. Acan Lilly Arach Eunice First, meet Lilly, mother of four and auntie to six nieces and nephews, who also live with her, including Arach Eunice, who is sponsored by our friends, Jay and Brenda. Lilly became guardian to them when their mother became too weak with HIV/Aids to care for them. Lilly seems to be a woman with limitless energy. Besides the endless "digging" that everyone has to do, she cooks for a local cooperative restaurant one week of every month and she is an active bead-maker in the Women of Hope Arts and Crafts Project. She loves making beads, because it gives her a chance to sit in one place for awhile! Lilly always looks fresh and put-together, in spite of all her hard work and ten kids to care for. She loves all the children God has given her equally. Alanyo Joska Lakaraber Winnifred And this is Alanyo Joska and her daughter Winnifred, who is sponsored by my sister, Tracy and her family. Joska is a beautiful person, with a kind and gentle smile for everyone she meets. Her husband died six years ago, leaving her with six children to raise. Winnifred is the youngest, and they are clearly very close. Joska is a woman who gives of what she has. She is very supportive of SOVCO, and serves on the board of directors. Just this morning, Tonny told me he met Joska while she was weeding her beans close to the road. She invited him to come and see the goat she is raising to donate for SOVCO's annual general meeting. When I was heading home last summer, Joska gave me two bags of beans and some rice to take with me. Today I was reading an article by Beth Kuenstler, the director of Kiva, an organization that grants loans to women in developing countries. She said, of the women she has met, "what stood out most was the richness of their spirits and the kindness they put out into the world, even though they lived in what most would consider to be unbearable situations. The hope that people can hold for themselves changed my belief in humanity." This is how I feel about Lilly and Joska, and so many others of the mothers and grandmothers, and just plain kind women who care for our sponsored children. Happy Mother's Day! Sally Front row: Agenorwot Paska, Adyero Agnes, Akello Isabella, Komakech Aaron, Angom Mercy, Joseph Sunday, Janet Sylvia, Anena Caroline, Ambrose, Okello Patrick (#2). Second row: Adong Patricia Achora, Opiyo Gerald, Apiyo Scovia, Apiyo Prossy, Ajok Mercy (both eating mangos, which are in season), Adong Brenda. Back ro

SOVCO Staff

Nancy is interviewed for her profile by Francisca, a volunteer. As you know, an organization is only as good as the sum of its parts. So I think it's time to introduce you to the people who work directly with our children, our Ugandan staff. This weekend they were set to sign new contracts. At left is a typical moment in the SOVCO office a simple brick building by the side of the road. People who are passing by stop by and poke their head in the open door, and sit down on the plastic chairs for a chat with the staff.

You probably know about Opiyo Tonny, our director. He is a young man of 27 years, and he is the one who started SOVCO, when he came back to Ongako after finishing his university degree in Information Management. He has lots of energy and organizational skills, and he can talk a blue streak! It's fun to hear him switching back and forth between English and Acholi.

I have not met Yaru Kevin, because she was just recently hired as a Program Director and especially as a mentor for the girls. Kevin has a degree in Public Administration, and before beginning to work at SOVCO, she worked for SALVE, an organization that works with street children in Jinja, a city in the south of Uganda. She gives the kids lots of practice in English, and she herself is learning Acholi, as she is from a different area of Uganda.

Ocan Oscar, on the left, has been a faithful volunteer for many years, and we are now able to provide him a small salary. He comes each morning to open the office and maintains a presence while Tonny and Kevin are out visiting schools or homes. Odoch Collin, on the right, does these things, too, but I think he goes out on errands more often than Oscar.

Acan Beatrice is the very talented trainer and designer for the Women of Hope bead project, an income-generating project for women in the community. She is only twenty years old, but she grew up making paper beads with her mother, who is a master beader for Bead for Life, a well-known paper bead company. Beatrice is also Tonny's wife, and they are expecting their first child soon.

So, I think they are a great bunch of young people with vision to help the needy in their community. The do all this good work with very little remuneration. I hope that as time goes on and SOVCO grows, we can begin to pay them what they are worth!

Cell Phone Love

Hello, Sponsors!

Yesterday morning while I was still sleeping, my cell phone rang next to my bed. When I answered it, I heard Tonny's voice: "Hello, Mum! I am here at the school with some of your children, and they want to hear your voice!" What a wonderful way to wake up on a Saturday morning, with ten sweet conversations that went something like this:

Me: Hello. 
Kid: Hello, Mum. 
Me: How are you? 
Kid: I am fine, Mum. Thank you, Mum.

And each conversation was accompanied by the laughter of all the other children in the background, amazed to witness a conversation on two sides of the world. The same laughter occurred last August whenever I would take a picture on my camera, and show it to them.

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The kids I spoke to on the phone: Front row: Paska, Patricia, Eunice, Aaron, Hamis. Back Row: Scovia, Babra, Winnifred, Thomas (spoke with a strong clear boy voice), Emmanuel (Still reluctant to smile, and a bit reluctant to talk)

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They are learning English, and promised to study hard, so that when I return, we can talk to each other in English. Did I ever write about why I love these children so much? They are so respectful, grateful, good-humored, hard-working and sweet (and they are not even boy scouts!) They told Tonny, "Uncle, we love what you, Mum Sally and all our sponsors did for our life and the efforts you are putting for our future to be a bright future." Some of the things they like about their new school are lots of classes, including PE, learning English, it feels safe, nice teachers and matrons, enough food, and it feels like a family.

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Acayo Eunice

Then, Tonny says, "Eunice surprised all of us by saying to me that, 'Uncle, me, am now saved from all evils because I have become a born-again Christian.' That is what our little girl Eunice said today while smiling seriously to us all."

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Alanyo Fiona

Back at the office, Alanyo Fiona visited Tonny with her father. She is also going to a new school in town, where her father lives, so that he can take her for regular medical treatments she needs. She also likes her new school and she loves doing homework (!) very much as she wants to improve her class performance. She told Tonny she prays for us all every day. For us, these kinds of statements seem unusual for children. But for these children, I really believe they are honest expressions of their spiritual lives. Everyone who works with African children seems to encounter this.

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Otam Levi

One of our sponsors has had to quit because of financial hardship, so we I am looking for a sponsor for Otam Levi. He is six years old, and his father died in a construction accident. He loves playing soccer and doing math, and is reported ly a humble and disciplined little boy. If you know of anyone else who would like to sponsor this little boy, please forward this letter to them or let me know.

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Finally, I want to share with you a song that I heard on the radio later in the day yesterday after speaking with the kids. It is called Heather's Song (click on it, Mom, then click on "Listen while you read").

Surprise! A Pile of Bricks!

Written in March, 2013:

Hi Sponsors,

Well, I woke up to another surprise from Uganda this week, and this time it was a big pile of bricks:

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Seven thousand bricks, to be exact. They made my day. Every time I thought about those bricks, I had to smile. Now you may may wonder, like my eighteen-year-old daughter, why I should be so excited about a pile of bricks halfway around the world.

Well, first of all, it was just the surprise of it. The letter started like this: "Mum, always I love surprising you. The surprise is I and Mr. Kisembo 
have prepared and already burnt some 7,000 bricks with our own little 
resources..."

But even more is that those bricks represent the promise of a dream that Tonny and I talked about last summer, that someday SOVCO can build a small school so that the children can get a better and more personalized education right there in their community.

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Tonny and his adopted father, Ojok Kisembo have a vision for their community, in which almost half of the children have lost at least one parent. Kisembo has a special concern for needy children. He adopted Tonny after he was abandoned as a toddler. He was cutting little Tonny's hair one day when the rebel soldiers came and took Kisembo and his wife away. Tonny ran into the tall grass that surrounds the house and hid until an old lady came along. He told her that Kisembo and his wife had been taken, and she cared for him until Kisembo escaped from the rebel group and came back.

After that, the family left the community for several years. But they love their ancestral village, and finally returned to help with its rebuilding. Kisembo is on SOVCO's board of directors, and has donated time, land, and other resources to help his son build an organization that addresses the needs of their people. He is a tall, practical farmer in his fifties, and he and Tonny together made this wonderful pile of bricks on a piece of land donated by Kisembo's mother's (and this is Hamis's grandmother's) daughter-in-law, who is also the aunt of Komagum Paska (that's the kind of community it is). And someday we hope those bricks will become a school!

I found a short video clip online that shows how bricks are made in rural northern Uganda. I sent it to Tonny, and he said, "yes that is very method we use to make the bricks. We don't have any machine but we use a local method like that method you have attached herein in this email for me to see, that is it." So if you would like to see that video, click here.

We don't know when this school will be built. To begin, we need another 10,000 bricks, and to finish, it will need roofing materials and finishing materials, of course., and then furniture. We will start small and dream big. Maybe next year during brick-making season, they will make more bricks. Maybe I will begin to look for grants for this type of project. If you know of a foundation or individual that might be interested in building a school in Uganda, please let me know. And keep this project in your prayers!