Children in REAL need

So I've been working in Uganda for over 2 years now. I love working with the children here, trying to help them attain a good education and teaching them the Word of God. One of the things I have been so blessed to be a part of during the last year has been going to do social worker visits to the homes of these children. It really gives you an idea of what kind of life these children have outside of God Cares schools.

Some children's parents have homes built when they had good jobs, but now cannot find consistent work to pay for things such as school fees. Most live in 1 or 2 rooms places that they rent. Keep in mind that when I say 1 or 2 rooms, I don't mean 1 or 2 bedroom apartments such as most people have in the U.S. I mean 1 or 2 rooms where each room would be 10' x 10' with no running water or bathroom facilities. Within the 1 room apartments, the family might consist of up to 7 people staying there. I think you get the point. Most of our children come from difficult circumstances.

While visiting some of these families, I really wondered in my mind, "If these people have such a nice place, why do they need sponsorship?" "Is it really helping them for the long term or are we just solving a short term problem?"

Then two days ago, I met some people who had brought two children to our ministry. In fact, these children were in our boarding section. However, I had only known one of them somewhat well...basically because he's one of the most difficult children to handle here, but at the same time, a student that many of the visitors we have had this summer have grown to love in part because he would do some things to entertain them. Joseph and Douglas began to tell me a short version of these kids' background. So while talking to them, I suggested that we visit the home since that is our requirement to add any child to our ministry.

Yesterday, Douglas picked us up and took us to their father's home in Nateete. As I looked around, I didn't see an area much different than the places I had previously visited. Small apartment buildings were everywhere, but I remembered that they told me the father rented a place for just 10,000 shillings (~$5) per month. I couldn't imagine such a place since most of the places I had visited were usually at lowest 50,000 shillings for a single room. Finally, we stopped and he pointed out the house to me. At first, I was looking at a different place, but finally, I saw it. It was just a house made of a stick frame and mud used to fill in the gaps between the sticks. I was deeply moved by the horrible conditions in which these children were formerly living. Then I remembered that Douglas told me that the father often could not even afford to pay his rent. That is truly how bad off they were. Their father, Ssali, was a gracious and humble man. He never asked for anything, and you could tell that he was very grateful for everything that Douglas and his ministry had done to help him. After chatting with him for a short time, we thanked him for his time and bid him farewell.

Douglas suggested that we talk to a neighbor of theirs to find out more about the story of Ssali and his children, Ivan and Frank. She told us of a father whose wife ran out on him when Frank the younger of the two children was only 2. Ssali struggled to provide for his family and the children resorted to doing some things to get some money for food. Frank has some tricks that he knows how to do. It's difficult to describe what he does, but it is pretty cool to watch. Some people collecting scrap metal in their neighborhood saw them and the tricks they could do and decided to exploit them. Think of something similar to the movie Slumdog Millionaire except that these kids were just picked up each day and taken to town to do these tricks on the streets to get some money. For that, they might be given 500 shillings for the day (equivalent to about 25 cents) when the people were taking in much more.

The neighbor thanked us for taking these children into our ministry and pleaded with us to not send them back to this area for the term break because they would again be exploited. We are trying to find a way to keep them with us at the school.

These are the kids that really need our help. I feel blessed to be a part of being able to give these children an opportunity to have the education that would have literally been impossible had this other ministry not brought them to us, and I look forward to partnering with this other ministry to help the really needy as well as orphaned children.