I interviewed 88 of the sponsored children.
Hard Facts
All 88 children I interviewed had someone close to them that has died. Mom, Dad, Brother or Sister.
This includes children that are 4 and 5 years old. HIV, Malaria, Typhoid, TB are all realities to these children.
One child had her baby brother sold, she did not talk about him, the pain is too much.
80% of the children I interviewed want to be a doctor, nurse or pharmacist. They want to build hospitals and pharmacies. Many are praying their mom lives long enough for them to care for them.
It is the dry season, everyone in the village was dehydrated. Sever dehydration is tough to witness, dry swollen lips,there hands were cold to the touch. A couple children dreamed of having a bike to make it easier to fetch water. Many walk for hours to get a couple gallons of water from a bore hole filling a jerri can, they carry on their head and walk another couple hours home. How they still functioning is beyond my comprehension.
Not one child had a selfish dream, not one child's dream was just for themself.
Home Visits
Interviewing the children ripped my heart out, how could so many innocent children have to deal with so much is incomprehensible to me. Interviewing the parents made me feel hopeless. The parents are hard working and determined facing odds that would break most people.
Viste, 4 years old in the baby class. His Grand parents care for him. Their son died and his mothered left to marry another man.Vinancia, Visite's Grandmother is blind. Her husband brought her to Uganda from the Congo when she started going blind in 2011. He was hoping to find a traditional doctor to care for her. She has never seen a doctor and is totally blind now. They left everything they own in the Congo, they live in a tiny storage room. Allonysia (her husband) works on other peoples farms and is paid by crops. They pay
$2.00 a month to live in the storage room. He does not earn that much in a month so it is difficult for them to pay their rent. He works from sun up to sun down.
My commitment to them.
- Viste would not need to walk 2.5 hours to school any more we will provide transportation.
- We would provide their monthly rent
- Vinancia would be brought to a doctor to have her blindness evaluated.
He was born in the village and has 9 children. Most of his children are adults but all of his brothers and sisters have died. He is caring for all of their children. Angel is one of his sisters children. Angel is deaf, at the age of 3 she spilled boiling porridge on her neck, it became infected (scare tissue very visible) Thomas said around the same time Angel started loosing her hearing. He thinks it is connected but could never afford to take her to the doctor.
Thomas dream is that all the children he cares for receive a full education and know God.
He grows coffee, cassava ,sweet potatoes for food and sale. But it is the dry season so the gardens were barren they had no food.
My commitment to Thomas
- We would take Angel to a doctor for evaluation.
