Good Samaritan Orphanage Center

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.

Mama and Girls' room

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.  

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.

Lucy's school in Tororo

A team of 11 headed to Tororo, a four-hour drive east of Kampala.  This was a follow-up to a trip we took there in March.  Last time we had a teacher in-service training and lots of teacher materials were brought in.  A roof was put on a pole building to make a covered school.

This time the men sanded and painted 18 desks for the school.  It’s not enough for everyone but it was a good start.  

We had games, crafts, and Bible stories for the children.  They loved coloring and making flowers out of coffee filters and pipe cleaners.

We got to serve lunch to everyone - matooke (cooked bananas), rice, beans.  In March  we watched the children eat porridge (like cream of wheat) with leaves.  Lately they haven’t had enough food to serve the children anything so they have been cutting the school day and sending the children home.

The highlight for me was handing out dresses to the girls and shorts and tee shirts to the boys. With their crowns that they decorated and their new clothes they looked like princes and princesses.