Crazy cat video and the kids

I was planning to write about the final storyteller from our AGM, a shy, motivated, and intelligent Ik girl who was awarded a full scholarship to a University in Kampala, but I left my notes in the office.  So instead, enjoy this short video of our crazy cat.

This video makes Natalie laugh and laugh.  Our cat will attack anything that moves.  Two days ago I found a lizard head on our carpet.  Just the head.  I’ve found two squirming lizard tails in the past week and she also attacked a bird recently, leaving feathers all over our dining room.  Crazy cat.

And a few recent pictures of the kids:

Nathan’s favorite thing these days is music, and every time he enters the sitting room he heads straight to the CD player and turns on a CD, then he and Natalie dance and laugh together. 

Our church recently had a special service at the beach, so here is a picture of Natalie with Lake Victoria in the background.

 

Surprising storytellers

   As I was busy trying to get the laptop and projector set up for our Annual General Meeting, I noticed two young girls enter the room and head toward the back.  I was surprised to see them because the meeting was for our partners, who are all adults, and I was curious about who they were and why they were there.  I was even more surprised when I found out that they had offered to come share their stories as beneficiaries of Mengo's HIV/AIDS Clinic.  Here are their stories:

Monica (left) is currently 13 years old and is in seventh grade.  As a young child, she was thin, had a poor appetite, and was generally very sickly.  One day her mother took her to Mengo to be tested for HIV and she tested positive with a very low CD4 count.  Her mother explained to her what it meant to be HIV positive, and started taking her to Mengo regularly for treatment.  She also joined the Mengo clinic's childrens club and Mengo sponsored her and paid her school fees all the way from first until seventh grade.  In Monica's words, after several years of treatment she is now, "healthy, good looking, and ok."  Her advice to us?  "Everyone should go and get tested.  If they are positive, they should take good care of themselves.  If young children are positive, they should give them treatment and take good care of them."

Asumpta (right) is 15 years old and is an orphan.  Her father died when she was only 2 years old, and her mother died when she was 4 years old.  After her parents died, Asumpta and her siblings went to live with her uncle and his family.  When her sister noticed she was sick all the time, she took Asumpta to Mengo where she tested positive for HIV.  She was enrolled in their program and started taking ARVs.  Once she started treatment, she stopped getting sick, was able to attend school regularly, and joined the adolescents club at Mengo for HIV positive teenagers where she learned that "it's not a crime to be positive."  Through the adolescent club, she has learned skills, gained self confidence, and has learned how to live positively.

I was so inspired by the courage and confidence displayed by these young women.  In Uganda, HIV/AIDS is still stigmatized and many people are ashamed to share their status with their spouses and families, let alone in public (I did get their permission to share their names and picture).  For these two young teenagers to share their stories with a room full of adults was both inspiring and surprising.  We are grateful for the work that Mengo has been doing to restore the health and give hope and encouragement to young women like Monica and Asumpta.
 

Small investments yield huge returns...more HPF success stories

As part of the storytelling component of our Annual General Meeting last Friday, Hope Prisons shared several success stories from their income generating projects.  Because MCC’s partnership with Hope Prisons only focuses on primary education, Hope Prisons had to think outside of the box about how they could empower families so that children could continue their education into high school and beyond.  With only a very small amount of money for a “pilot project” in income generating activities, Hope Prisons was able to turn this small investment into huge returns.  Because I was so impressed with the stories that William shared, I decided to devote another blog to telling some Hope Prisons stories. 

Here are some of the most inspiring stories of what these women were able to do with a little bit of capital:

 

Beatrice is a single mother who has two children that are being sponsored by Hope Prisons.  Her husband was in prison for several years and then abandoned his family upon his release, and Beatrice had been struggling to provide for her family.  When William first met her, she was living in a very poor house in terrible conditions.  With the money given to her by Hope Prisons, she was able to set up a small food vending business where she cooks food and sells it out of her house.  The income she has earned from the business has enabled her to move into a good house and provide a better life for her children.

With the small loan that Betty was given, she was able to open her own salon.  With the profits she made, she was able to pay for both her daughter and son to attend high school.  Her daughter, who was able to finish high school, is currently studying to be a nurse.  Her son is in his second year of high school and is performing very well.  After serving a five year prison sentence, her husband was released and is back with his family; however he has not been able to find work since he was released.

Florence and her husband separated after he was released from prison.  Although Hope Prisons works with ex-prisoners to transition back into society and encourages them to return to their families, it is common for men to abandon their families after being released.  The combination of having been away for so long as well as the pressure to provide for their families amidst the difficulty of finding employment drives many men away.  With her loan from Hope, Florence was able to open a small retail shop.  With the profits from her shop she is able to take care of her 7 children, 4 of whom are currently sponsored by Hope Prisons. 

The final inspirational story is about a young boy who was almost forced to drop out of school in only fourth grade because his father was sent to prison.  He was accepted into the sponsorship program, and was consistently #1 throughout primary and secondary school.  After finishing secondary school, he performed so well on his exams that he was given a full scholarship to study medicine at Uganda’s largest public university Makerere.  This is one of the most prestigious scholarships a Ugandan student can receive, and it is even more impressive in light of all of the challenges this young man has faced in his life, and the fact that he almost didn’t make it to fifth grade.  He is currently in his second year at the University and is looking forward to become a doctor and give back to his community.    

I'll be sharing more stories and photos from our AGM in the next few posts...