Day 5: Child Of Hope

After a sleep in the Mbale house we headed to the organzination: Child of Hope. I've been holding back tears since we left the gates.
First: Child of Hope is an organization started by Bex, a European, and her Ugandan husband Moses. Once married on their honeymoon Moses had a dream to start a nursery school and so they did. The organization works in the slums and takes one child from each family and educates them. They provide food, clothes, health and education.
We toured the village. Let's talk.

Parents leave in the morning and the kids are all left alone with no food and no supervision. The older kids watch the younger.

Many had no shoes, most had clothes that were tired together to close holes, covered in dirt even though they were washed and many had no clothes at all.

They make on a good day 1,000 shillings a day: that's 0.30. Thirty cents! Rent is 25,000 a month: $7. Many can't get that so they go out begging on Fridays. During the day the women go to town and look for food in rubbish bins or pieces of old coal.

They have a tap for water but someone owns it and it costs 200 shillings to fill one bucket:

If they can't afford that, which many can't, they just go to the river to fill their buckets.
The village brought me to tears but the things is that while it's hard this is their way of life. Is there better? Yes. But hand outs do not help. Change has to come about in the right way, for the right reason, and with the right mindset. It's tough.
The organization Child of hope: Uganda is an incredible one that is doing it correctly. They have a sustainable project and they are good people doing good things.

Here is one of the classrooms.
If you are looking to donate to a great cause this is it.

You can also donate to HELP intl for the orphanage we are about to head to. I promise that both these companies are helping in the correct way, through organizations on the ground, and with sustainability.
This morning I was able to fund 7 teacher's salaries for 3 months with one click of a button.

We are so incredibly blessed in the US. Regardless of where you are in life you can always give. You can always help. As my mom always says: money is a tool.
It's not how much you have but what you do with it that counts.

This hut is made of mud bricks. It has a straw roof that leaks when it rains. It is maybe 6 feet in diameter and it holds on average 6 people. It is almost bare inside. If you have more you might have an old piece of foam for you and 5 kids to lay on.
This is life here. Change your outlook. Be grateful for what you have no matter how much or how little it is something unimaginable to most in the world. It's not our job to so called change the world but it is our job to be kind, to help one another and to love in service.