My colleague Renee recently told me about this orphanage in Entebbe. She had been so upset about the needs there that she wasn’t sleeping well at night. Today my Kampala team members, Tammy and Angela, and I went to visit.
It is a small orphanage/school that has only about 22 children who live there with the orphanage “mama”. The other 100 students live locally or come across the lake on a ferry from the islands.
We visited each class and greeted the students and teachers.
We gave out avocados to each student. They had no other food.
They are able to cook porridge when there is money but often there is not. The kitchen area was almost empty. There was a charcoal pot to cook on but very few utensils.
They had only one bathroom for the whole school. Three others are being built but are not yet completed. There were only two bedrooms for all of those 22 students and the mama. More rooms are being built but still have a long ways to go.
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| Mama and Girls' room |
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| Boy's room had 3 double-bed bunk beds and a single. |
My friends and I decided that this might be a place where we can help. Most of the orphanages in Kampala are connected to other organizations and really haven’t needed help. Today we brought a 120 kg (250+ pounds) gunny sack full of beans. We left it at Sandy’s house to distribute in smaller portions throughout the week.
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| 120kg bag of beans |
We plan to meet with school personnel to see what can be done, even if it is only to help feed the children.
I was there for 6 months and they have everything they have because of my colleagues and I. I took an HIV positive kid to all his medical appointments and send money to a contact there to put him through a real school in Kampala. It is a constant effort to keep those kids clothed and fed and all my sources that spent 100 thousand dollars making those kids happy and full have been pulled out of there.
ReplyDeleteHi, Lynn and Jan, have visited the orphanage many times on my way through Uganda to South Sudan. Have lost the contact info. I had for Mama and the young ladies there. Do you have phone #'s, email addresses for any of them?
ReplyDeleteAre you in Uganda now? Have you been to the orphanage recently?