HELPING ORPHANS PROSPER THROUGH EDUCATION

We have been fortunate to be able to visit the children in Uganda every year, except through the 2020/2021 Covid outbreak. Each year, we brought them some small gifts, but mostly purchased what they needed from local vendors in order to support the community as a whole. But through the love and compassion of many people, we bought them local gifts such as hand-knit teddy bears, clothes, book bags and pillowcase dresses. Some of these dresses were made by teenagers at Holy Trinity High School in Torbay, Newfoundland as a class project.

Last month the team concluded our annual “Baskets of Hope” fundraiser. Marjorie, who is a gardening guru, has led this project for seven years. It has garnered quite some attention and the flowers are a hot commodity every year. Each spring, hundreds of flower baskets are prepared in her garden to be sold within our community of support. The team, as well as some dedicated friends and volunteers, put in countless hours making this project work. From scouring local stores for the uniform straw and wire baskets, nursing the array of Begonias and Lobelia from the local flower shop "Rise and Shine Nursery", building and lugging the soil and tossing the compost.

We first met Cathy seven years ago at the age of 13. She was living with the other twenty-three children at the orphanage home, destined to live her life in poverty, uneducated, pregnant with a child on her hip, and another at her feet, all hungry. H.O.P.E. is committed to helping educate all 24 children, giving them the opportunity that they never knew existed. An opportunity of education which would provide for them a chance to break the cycle of poverty that they are in.

Currently all 24 children, half girls, half boys are being educated. Most are in boarding schools where they live during their schooling terms, and back to the home while they are on break.

The youngest, Jeremiah, is five years old and is in kindergarten. The oldest, Nelson, is 22 year old and currently is in law school. Cathy, our recent high school graduate, told us seven years ago she wanted to be a teacher, and we are so proud that in September she will set her dreams in place.