Tag Archives: Uganda

by

Culture Smart: Guatemala

CultureSmartBook

Culture Smart’s Guatemala book

The “Culture Smart!” book series is a great way to gain insight into your sponsor child’s culture and country.

I recently read Culture Smart’s Guatemala book for the second time in preparation for my upcoming Compassion tour to that country.

The books are fairly short; the Guatemala book was only 136 pages, starting out with a chapter giving a brief history of the country, its geography, climate and even politics.

Other chapters cover topics like values, religion, customs and traditions, home life, travel, business customs and communicating. Often the book highlights differences in the cultures of Guatemala’s Latino population and its Maya population as well.

In this series, I’ve also read Culture Smart’s books on Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia and Ireland.

There are books available for many more countries, including these countries where Compassion works: India, Ecuador, Thailand, Colombia, Brazil, Uganda, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Peru, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Philippines, Dominican Republic, Ghana and Mexico.

by

Sponsor a Child

The following children are in need of sponsors.

For only $35 per month through World Vision, you can help a child’s community to fund projects that provide clean water, nutritious food, basic healthcare, educational opportunities and economic development assistance. Each community, along with World Vision, determines its most pressing needs.

You can also build a relationship with your child through letters. Will you consider changing a life today?

PriyankaIN-WV

Six-year-old Priyanka from India.

Priyanka is six years old, and she lives with her father, who is a farm laborer. She is in primary school and enjoys studying the national language. She helps at home by carrying water and likes to play with dolls.

The typical home in Priyanka’s community in India is made of wood, with a thatch roof and dirt floor. Rice is a staple in the diet.

Your sponsorship helps to provide Priyanka’s community with improved health through access to clean water and training in nutrition and hygiene. It also provides tutoring, vocational training and leadership training, as well as innovative agriculture and livestock training.

JuanPabloCO-WV

Juan Pablo, 7 years old, from Colombia.

Juan Pablo lives with his mother and one sister. He is seven years old.

Juan Pablo is not in school at this time. He likes to play with toy cars and helps at home by putting toys away.

He lives in an urban community in Colombia, where the typical home is constructed of wood with cement flooring. Common foods are rice, eggs, beans and plantains.

Your sponsorship helps to provide Juan Pablo’s community with special healthcare, vaccinations against major diseases and special feeding programs for undernourished children. Your support also helps to reconstruct the community, which has been devastated by an earthquake and war.

DeborahUG-WV

Eight-year-old Deborah of Uganda.

Deborah, 8, lives with her father and two brothers in Uganda. Her father is self-employed, and struggles to provide for the family.

She is in primary schools and enjoys foreign language. At home, Deborah helps with cooking meals. She likes to play outside.

Deborah’s community in Uganda has been severely affected by the HIV and AIDS crisis, leaving many children without parents. The typical home is made of mud and bricks with tin or thatched roofs. Common foods are cassava, maize, sweet potatoes and beans.

Your sponsorship will help to provide Deborah’s community with improved healthcare and support, emphasizing assistance to those affected by HIV and AIDS. Your support also helps children to attend school, and gives farmers seeds and training on new farming methods.

OpherZA-WV

Opher, 9, from Zambia.

Opher is a 9-year-old boy living with his mother and three brothers. His mother is a farmer.

He is in primary school and enjoys foreign language. Opher helps at home by running errands, and he likes to play soccer.

Opher’s community in Zambia has been affected by the HIV and AIDS crisis. The typical home is made of brick or mud with a thatched roof. A common food is a porridge called nshima, served with vegetables or occasionally meat.

Your sponsorship would help to provide Opher’s community with new wells for clean water and reading and math clubs to improve education. Your support also would provide instruction on the prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS, care for orphans and agricultural training for farmers.

DianaBR-WV

Diana, 13, of Brazil.

Diana, 13, of Brazil, lives with her parents and two sisters. Her father is a driver, and her mother is a vendor.

She is in junior high school and enjoys mathematics. Diana helps at home by being good, and she likes to play video games.

Diana lives in an urban community where homes are built of brick, and are small and airless. Common foods include bread, biscuits, cereal, vegetables and meat.

Your sponsorship yeps to provide Diana’s community with greater access to nutritious food and improved healthcare and hygiene. Your support also helps to provide education and tutoring to school-age children, teach mothers to read and fund skills workshops to help older children gain employment.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor or have any questions, please contact me in the comments section below.

by

Compassion Bloggers visit Uganda

This week, the Compassion bloggers are visiting Uganda. It’s only two days into the trip, and these talented writers have already shared many wonderful stories.

You can follow along by clicking here.

Image

You’ll read about a young girl who is able to smile again after growing up on the run from the Lord’s Resistance Army. You’ll follow along as another young girl gives a condensed and humorous presentation of her daily life. You’ll meet a young boy who, despite a tough first impression, has a heart for leadership and ministry. You’ll be exposed to poverty, but more importantly, you’ll see Compassion making a difference in the lives of children and families, bringing hope, faith and love to the area.

Compassion’s goal is to find sponsors for 400 children in Uganda this week, and already 109 children have been sponsored. Would you consider partnering with Compassion to provide a child with education, healthcare, nutrition and the gospel? Would you consider bringing hope to a child in need?

Please click here and select Uganda to sponsor one of the 602 children waiting to hear they have been chosen.

by

Love in Letters: Big Hugs and Lots of Love

I’ve fallen into the habit, when writing to my sponsored children, of using the same closing to my letter every time. I always write, “I send you big hugs and lots of love.”

So when I received this letter from 18-year-old Edwin in Uganda today, I was touched to see my own familiar closing. 

Edwin ended his letter: 

“God bless you and your family. I send you big hugs and lots of love.”

Image

Edwin, 18, Uganda

Edwin writes in English, and often shares many interesting details of his life. In this letter, I learned that Edwin’s grandparents celebrated “Golden Jubilee” in August, which was their 50th wedding anniversary. A church service including all the grandchildren was part of the celebration, and Edwin composed a song on a keyboard and sang it at his grandparents’ party.

Edwin also let me know that Manchester United is his favorite soccer team, and he listed some of his favorite players.

This young man is serious about his studies, and always asks for prayers that he do well in school. I look forward to seeing where God leads him in the future and am thankful to know him.

If you are interested in sponsoring a child in Uganda, please click here and enter Uganda in the search window.

by

Kisses from Katie

Image

“Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption” by Katie J. Davis

It’s not often that you run across someone who has determinedly decided to forgo the “American Dream,” but that’s just what a young woman from Nashville did.

At 18 years old, Katie Davis traveled on a short mission trip to Uganda over Christmas break during her senior year of high school. It was a trip that changed the course of her life, causing her to make decisions that surprised her family, boyfriend and friends.

Upon returning home after the trip, Davis continued to feel the Lord calling her back to Uganda. She decided to answer that call by giving up college and returning to the country that had captured her heart.

It was a shocking decision made by a young woman who seemed to have everything going for her. Her book, “Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption” tells that story.

Davis wrote, “I hadn’t realized what a transformation had taken place while I had been in Uganda, the spiritual richness I had experienced in material poverty and the spiritual poverty I felt now in a land of material wealth.”

Hers is an amazing story of faith and determination, and I can’t help but be in awe of how the years have played out for Davis. Facing extreme poverty, hopelessness, disease and sometimes death of those she cared for, it is incomprehensible that this young woman was able to hold up under such pressure.

But hold up she did, and years later, Davis remains in Uganda, making a difference every day.

Davis established a ministry called Amazima in 2008, which sends 600 orphaned and vulnerable children to school through an education sponsorship program. It also feeds lunch to more than 1,200 children in the slum community of Masese every week day. Amazima hosts Bible studies and worship services and implements vocational training programs in the area.

And as if all this weren’t a huge accomplishment, by the end of her book, Davis is in the process of adopting fourteen girls, who live with her in her home in Uganda. She cares for these children daily, as their mother, all the while, caring for members of her community as well.

Davis’ inspiring story is well worth reading, and for more stories after the book ends, visit her blog at http://www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com.

“I have learned that I will not change the world, Jesus will do that,” Davis wrote. “I can, however, change the world for one person. I can change the world for fourteen little girls and for four hundred schoolchildren and for a sick and dying grandmother and for a malnourished, neglected, abused five-year-old. And if one person sees the love of Christ in me, it is worth every minute. In fact, it is worth spending my life for.”

To donate to Davis’ ministry, Amazima, visit http://www.amazima.org.

by

The Queen of Katwe

Image

“The Queen of Katwe,” by Tim Crothers, is the story of an incredible young girl, who against many odds, surprises many by learning and mastering the game of chess.

Phiona and her peers are growing up in the Ugandan slums of Katwe, an area in the country’s capital city, Kampala, where children don’t know their birth dates or even how to spell their own names. It is a place where children struggle to eat each day, where parents die of AIDS regularly, and where families move from shack to shack, living wherever they can afford.

In this life of day-to-day survival, one young man, Robert Katende, working for Sports Outreach Institute, begins a ministry first focused on soccer, then on chess, and the game captivates the children of the area. Katende relates well to these children, as he, too, grew up in the severe poverty of Katwe. In fact, Katende’s story of survival and pulling himself out of the slum is quite as impressive as Phiona’s.

Considering these circumstances, it’s no wonder that a bowl of porridge is what first attracted the children to Katende’s group.

Phiona is a bit of a late-comer to the group, but after following her brother there one day, she becomes a fixture. She learns the game first from a much younger girl, but soon surpasses many in playing ability. She later practices using bottle caps and a chessboard drawn on scraps of cardboard.

As Phiona travels out of the country and experiences other cultures, her eyes are opened to the fact that there is more out there, more to reach for, than Katwe. On these trips to chess tournaments, she sleeps in hotel rooms on real beds and eats from buffets with endless amounts of foods offered. But after each tournament, she must return to the reality of her home.

It won’t be an easy road for her to reach her goal of becoming a Grandmaster, as many young women much more privileged than Phiona can attest. But where she had nothing to strive for before, she now has a goal and, more importantly, hope.