Victory Nursery School Graduation

My travel to Barrio Lira was relatively uneventful. Though at one point we paused for about an hour to unload the “tipper” of its cement baggage. Yes, about 30 people rode atop this tipper along with a few chickens, my box of Bibles, some lumber, and several kilo of salt. Never have I been so grateful to use my white skin as an excuse to ride in the cab. Thirty minutes in this sun and I would have been FRIED, let alone the 3 hour ride we had.

Agnes, this woman I love and admire so very much, came running when I arrived at my little mud hut. Such a joy to witness true sacrificial service to the Lord. The 12 hour journey along with a residual cough rendered me exhausted and so Agnes fed me well and sent me to bed. My normal sleeping habits are rather poor – four to five hours – but this night I slept in my cozy hut for 12 hours without waking.

Beginning at 11 am, the graduation ceremony was fully packed by 1:00. As is the custom in Uganda, various speeches and performances rendered small cash tokens donated for school development. I took the opportunity to remind people that God’s economy is like a river (never ending abundance) rather than a cake (finished when the last piece is gone). I reminded them that faith means believing that we can give it all away and that God will still take care of our needs…sometimes even more plentifully than we had before we gave it all away. And the people gave…

As the guest of honor, a position that felt very awkward in this community where I’ve many friends, my speech making was scheduled for last. I took the opportunity to tell the story of the shoes – this time the story was entitled Little Black Shoes. The school shoes illustrated the difference between the life of a child with a Christian education and the life of a child without a Christian education. The simple illustration helped people see the value and need for specifically Christian education particularly given that so many parents are ill equipped to teach their children from home.

We discussed the various people who have an influence on children and their Christian education (parents, community leaders, church leaders, those gifted by the Spirit, and mature Christians).

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7).

We discussed the content of a Christian education (Law of God, general wisdom, fear of the Lord, and knowledge of Jesus).

“My purpose for writing is that…they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

We discussed the purpose of a Christian education (impart information, inspire trust and obedience, inspire wisdom, holy living, and preparation for adulthood).

“For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless…” (Proverbs 2:6).

I believe that people resonated with these admonitions in that they can see these results in the children who attend Victory Nursery and Primary School. I thank God for Pastor Patrick’s faithfulness to teach the children the traditional academics alongside biblical principles for holy living. His small school is making a difference in this community and I covet your prayers that he would continue to be encouraged to follow the vision God gave him about helping these children.

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School Requirements for Faridah from Alane

A small part of Owino market where shoes and supplies are purchased.

A beautiful lady in America wanted to help raise support for Surprised by Hope and joined with a small group to make school bags for the children in East Africa. Another beautiful lady in America sponsored one of those school bags so that a child can have what she needs when returning to school. And…another young lady is on holiday (school is out between terms) and tromped over to my house with her toes peeking out the ends of her close-toed shoes.

 

Off to Owino Market I went in search of the “requirements” needed before a child is allowed through the doorway each new term. Books, pens, pencils, and more filled my shopping bag. Shoes, though, shoes must be on that list. School children are required to wear black shoes with stockings or they are sent home from school. Shoes it is.

Sheffar, Sherit, Faridah, and Ramah with their new shoes.

I laid out all the goodies that go in the new school bag for Faridah – who consistently scores at the top of her class – and she simply could not believe her eyes. I stretched the budget a bit so that she AND her siblings could put on their new shoes.

My neighborhood families are so precious and I see them working hard every day to meet their basic needs. None of them asks me for money as so many other people do and so helping them in some small way is such a joy.

Tief and his sisters need school supplies and shoes too
 (so does Eme and her brother, not pictured).

The problem comes when I realize that there is NO POSSIBLE WAY to give this gift to one family while the children from two other families look on and receive nothing. So, um, would you like to sponsor a school bag with requirements for Tief and shoes for the three children? Or perhaps you’d like to sponsor a school bag for Eme and her little brother? Just $25 is all it takes to sponsor one bag so that the Tief and Eme can be ready for the next school term.

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Kamuli Tailoring Program

What started out as a group of five women quickly grew to a group of twelve once word spread that a free tailoring training program was established in that new little church in Kamuli. The teacher had to put a stop to the size of the group – more people wanted to join – simply for manageability purposes. Yet they are already talking of when the “next” group begins.

Ms. Shelby and the women’s group of Beaverdam Baptist Church wanted to be part of lifting a group of women out of spiritual and economic poverty and establishing them in Christ. Tailoring skills training was an excellent way to do that. The numerous opportunities to draw parallels between the kind of ordered creativity that goes into tailoring and the ordered creativity of the Creation story helps evangelism make sense to pre-Christians.

The provision of sewing machines and the essentials needed for teaching and practice, as well as the salary for the teacher, enables the ladies to gather four afternoons each week. They come to Calvary Chapel Kamuli – a church planted by friends Augustine and Joel – to spend time with their teacher. They begin with a bit of theory and end with a lot of hands-on practice. I had the opportunity to sit in on parts of the training and saw that this teacher was doing a lovely job and the ladies are progressing well.

We seem to have found just the right combination of teacher, church, and community to successfully achieve the goal of helping these ladies become productive members of their community, their country, and the body of Christ. I pray we can continue to support and encourage any number of groups wanting to learn work skills through the church here.

Rose measures and cuts her sample shirtpocket.

Sewing paper is the first step to learning the craft.

She models the paper sewn shirt.

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School Requirements

The actual school supplies will come from Uganda and be provided
according to the specific school's requirement list.

A 12-year-old boy goes door-to-door selling some rather sad looking carrots to earn money for school fees. Yet earning money for fees is not enough. Children in Uganda are also expected to provide brooms, toilet paper, soap, mops, and an assortment of other items necessary for the general upkeep of the school. Along with those school-related items, children need their own supplies such as composition books, pens, pencils, and the like. Yes, these are only part of a long list of requirements needed before this carrot-selling boy and so many other children like him are allowed to begin.

Often children who are able to pay tuition without the help of sponsorship cannot attend because they’re not able to provide all the requirements. Or sponsors have stretched their budget just to provide for tuition but need a partner to provide requirements so the child can get the benefit they intended. It’s like dangling a carrot in front of the child…attending school is just within reach…but not quite. Will you join together with children like this carrot-selling boy or with tuition sponsors from other organizations who cannot close the gap? We long to be sure the children who are halfway there can finally eat that carrot.

For $25 you can sponsor a durable and cute school bag, made with love by a Surprised by Hope friend, filled with many of the supplies needed to help children start and stay in school, and to focus on learning rather than earning. Click here to find out more about how you can help.

 

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Teaching Supplies for Bubembe Island

Pretty much anything is hard to come by on Bubembe Island. Unless it grows there, the item must be brought from Kalangala Island and nothing gets to Kalangala Island except by the mainland. You can only imagine what that kind of distribution system must cost the residents of this remote but beautiful place.

We learned that this coming year will include a full week of school (formerly classes were held only two days each week) and we learned that the community is paying the teachers who are willing to come some ridiculously small amount of money. Teachers here, like in America, are responsible for their own teaching materials as are children responsible for their own school supplies. We want to give the children every advantage possible.

Thanks to one very kind and generous giver, these teachers are well prepared for the coming school term and all the children enrolled in that term – regardless of whether they’re enrolled in VKids Trust Uganda or not – have books and pencils to start the term off well.

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Flashcards in East Africa

Flashcards are such a fun gift. You know children will play with them and you hope they’ll remember some of the principles. Still, they have fun sorting through these cards and when challenged to help their younger friends learn, the older children quickly agree to play teacher.

Honestly, I wrote down photo numbers for more than six different locations where the flashcards were given and now I can't find half the photos. Everyone loved the cards though :)

The Sanctuary Babies Home - F is for Foot.

Konoweka Orphans and Widows Hut Children

Marurui Slums, Kenya

Marurui Slums, Kenya

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Schools in Barrio, Lira

The cool morning was the perfect time to tour the small compound holding the start of a one room schoolhouse. The church-run school is in the process of being built using funds collected from church members. Over the course of one year, the community contributed enough money to raise the school building this far (I would guess the amount needed to build this far to be less than $1000). Try looking at this school as the result of having given abundantly. At this rate, they expect another four or five years of building before completing the structure to support the primary school’s children in this part of the district.

Head teacher, Augustine, and Pastor Patrick

Pastor Patrick’s vision is to educate orphans and to do so by using the small tuition fees from those who can pay to compensate for the orphans who cannot pay. Just about the time this structure is complete, current students will be graduating and a secondary school will be needed. I’m told there are no secondary schools in the area and expect the reason is that people can scarcely afford to send their children to primary school let alone to send them to the more expensive secondary level. For those few who can afford to pay, no opportunities exist nearby.

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Bubembe Children Need Education

During our visit we learned that the government brought two teachers to the island. These teachers serve two days each week and then return to the mainland. Pretty much all the children are in baby class, regardless of their age, because they’ve not had teachers on the island. The children are learning letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and other simple lessons. Only two of the children Vickie enrolled in her sponsorship program attend school as the others were sent home for not paying all of the school fees.

The cost of tuition is 7,000 UGX per term and there are three terms per year. The annual cost for parents to send their child to school is 21,000 UGX. Wait, I’ll change that to USD in a moment. In addition to the cost of tuition, children need requirements – pens, books, etc. I’m not sure exactly what requirements are needed for this school because the children are day scholars but I’ll make a guess…maybe 25,000 UGX annually.

Here’s the math 21,000 UGX for tuition and 25,000 UGX for requirements = 46,000 UGX. For the equivalent of about $25.00 USD a child on Bubembe Island can attend school two days each week for a whole year…$25.00. Can you imagine a community so poor that they cannot afford to send their child to school?

Julius, Vickie’s brother, says the people are fishermen and they do save up some little bits of money for education but when the fishing season is poor they dip into that savings to sustain themselves and then when the time comes for paying tuition the money is gone.

To finish this school year, the children need about $5.00 and for the whole 2012 school year they need $25.00…that’s $30.00 total through 2012 provided the government doesn’t make any changes. Do you want to help Vickie ensure these kids get the education they need?

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TTATCC School

Clapboard siding covers the small four “room” school in Buwenge. Makeshift seats for the children cover the ground in orderly rows. Blackboards are cracked and holey…but they work. The school and its contents are the result of the community working together to provide some meager place to gather the children for learning every day. Although class sizes are small given the small village they’re in, current grades include primary 1-4 and baby class. Five years of education that began in 2006 when TTATCC was founded. Each year a new primary level class is added.

The leaders of TTATCC hope to add children to the school who literally pick garbage from the dumpsters in Jinja. I’ve seen these children. They stand in the trash piles and pick through the content. When they find something of value, they eat it. This kind of life is what Gabriel described from his early childhood before going to Africa Foundation Home run by Kefa Sempangi. My heart goes out to them and I feel compelled to help…how could I not!

How can I accept that children of God are eating garbage? Most of us think of American garbage standards…a half-eaten hamburger, leftover rolls, that last piece of pizza. None of these luxuries exist in Uganda. Garbage is garbage here. Corn husks, the last oil from fried chapatti, a rotten egg, rice with maggots. Such may be the meal of a child whom God so dearly loves as He watches us simply pass by.

TTATCC is an organization moved to help these children. They’ve done so much to develop their little community already, but their resources are severely limited. Please pray that God would open the storehouses and shower this village with unexpected hope.

Kibirango Moses in the forefront with the primary 4 children.
Moses is a FIFA football (soccer) coach working with the children.

Primary 3

Primary 2

Primary 1

A gigantic baby class (kindergarten'ish)

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Kyamagemule Meet Hawthorne

Martin, the headmaster at Covenant Junior School in Kyamagemule, is a very kind and helpful man. The teachers seem to respect him. When asked what the barriers to success might be in this very remote place, the teachers were quick to point out that their salaries were insufficient to even provide shelter. Why would teachers come this far from home for substandard salaries? Because they love the children and because they have a job. One teacher pointed out that several of them stay in one room in the village to avoid excessive transportation fees and because that is all they can afford.

After meeting with the teachers, I talked to the team about the Hawthorne effect and suggested we develop some simple skill-building workshops that could take place during the time others conduct child sponsorship updates. Among the team members, we have enough education and teaching experience to provide a little something that would encourage and give hope to these faithful teachers. Just knowing that we care about them, according to the Hawthorne effect, ought to raise their performance and morale.

Mercy Uganda is thinking about creating a teacher's conference for those teachers where we have sponsored students. Perhaps we create a teacher-to-teacher program where a teacher from the States mentors/sponsors a teacher from Kyamagemule. With only eight teachers, this may be possible. I’m thinking something like sending over your old books, tools, and maybe clothing (these teachers need real, practical help too) where your donation would go directly to a specific teacher that you chose to sponsor. You can correspond with this teacher, who may have questions or need suggestions. Still…we need to think more about this. Your ideas are quite welcome.

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Homework in the Dark

Song and dance are common welcome gifts from the school children when we arrive in Kyamagemule. Unfortunately I cannot upload the video clip from here. Watching these children perform, right down to the tiny ones, is so much fun. The boys are quite adept at playing their drums too.

The sponsorship update on one child in Kyamagemule revealed a lack of paraffin (oil) at Joyce’s home, which means that she cannot do her homework because the house is too dark. As American’s we simply want to provide the paraffin for her. Culturally, we expect the paraffin would be used by the father and/or mother for cooking or for purposes other than light for homework and so…what is the best way to correct this problem of darkness? Perhaps the answer is to provide enough paraffin to fuel all the household needs so that there is enough for the lamp. But this is only a short term solution.

In reality we need to equip these people to produce their own income for paraffin and pray that they use

this paraffin for light to do homework. Alternatively, we need to help them find alternative light sources or alternative routines. Educating and equipping people who live so very far from any real marketplace to get paraffin from that same very far away marketplace is no easy task. Pray that God reveals an alternative solution to which the family may agree.

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School Requirements

Many parents have the luxury and pleasure of sending their children to their first day of school with a new backpack, some unused crayons even though the old crayons are barely used, a set of markers…maybe the kind that change colors, pencils with Barbie printed on the outside, and a few fancily-designed folders to hold their papers. We might also send them to their first day in a new outfit. I don’t recall any of these items actually being required of the students, although today things may be slightly different.

Parent sending their children to school in Uganda are given an arms-length list of requirements for each of three terms in school. In addition to the items we’d consider to be school supplies (paper, pencils, etc.) and clothing (uniforms, shoes, casual wear, etc.), children are expected to bring with them: two containers of black shoe polish, four rolls of toilet paper, mopping rags, laundry soap, a broom with a handle, two local brooms, three kilos of sugar, and so much more. Not only are students required to bring these items they’re also required to surrender them to the dispensary for general school and student use.

Those cute pencils sponsors purchase for children make their way to the dispensary and may never be used by the child herself. That sugar is sold to children who are given pocket money to make their food taste a little better. This means that a child is required to bring three kilos of sugar and may never get to eat that sugar because she spent all her money on the sugar in the first place and thus has no pocket money to purchase the sugar for her meals a second time.

Many parents cannot afford these requirements let alone tuition fees so their children stay home until the money is collected. A child may begin the term two or three weeks in, which expectedly hinders their studies. Mission emphasis seems lacking when schools send children home for lack of requirements.

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