Julius by the goat pen he is building


Happiness and joy in our family are beyond imagination for having got this golden moment to write this first letter to you my dear friends. On behalf of my wife and children and from the bottom of my heart wish to thank you very much for your generosity and support that you have been sending to us. I want to thank the Almighty God for hearing my prayers and having answered my prayers.

Before you came into my life, life was miserable, looking after my family and providing basic needs was increasingly becoming difficult and we had resorted to living without basic needs. I didn’t have enough food to feed them, money to pay their school fees and books, we never had enough clothes, no money for medical care but I want to tell you that since you started assisting us every thing is changing.

We have started to see some improvements because we can afford to eat food and we get satisfied, the first things we did was also to buy exercise books, pens and school uniform for my children, we have bought clothes and hired labour to clear land for planting pineapples which I want to grow on a large scale. We bought 2 chickens and already one has chicks and we have 2 goats. All these we never had before. Our GFR case workers have helped us in teaching us how to save and spend on priorities.

I am now 43 years of age while my wife is 36 years now, my children are still young, three of them are going to school and are studying well and there performance in class is average but given the current situation, I am convinced that they are going to improve. We grew crops and we hope the yields will be promising than those of last season. We hope to have plenty of food to eat now from our gardens. Our health is slowly improving and most of us are well apart from my wife Jackline who got skin rush but she will be fine because we bought Samona jelly which cures rushes.

I plan to improve on the condition of my house which we are staying in because it is in bad condition. I pray that I save much money to construct a strong house with iron sheets. I also want to start income generating activities for sustainability of our income so that we can be able to meet more family’s needs. I want to buy more domestic animals and chickens, mattresses and blankets plus other items that are important and urgent.

We are working hard saving every penny in order to execute our plans and move forward for better life. You have been there for us and because of you we are solving each need step by step. Lastly, I want to thank you for your support, if it wasn’t you life would still be miserable, but thank God we are well and life is changing to better each day that comes, we feel joy and have hope and trust in the Lord and we are committed to improving our welfare with your help. Thank you for loving us and God bless you so much!!

We love.
Musobozi Julius

Update from KIWANUKA AGNES

Kiwanuka on her business of selling charcoal


Kiwanuka bought a sewing machine


The family together


We are so glad for this opportunity to communicate to you as we send our greetings to you and thank you for the kind of support you are sending to us. We pray so much for your entire family to be blessed by God because you have supported us so much! Back to us in Uganda we are quite fine and we want to thank you so much because your support has kept us in good health.

I managed to start the business of selling the charcoal and it still doing well.

Another initiative we had started was to do some tailoring. I even bought a sewing machine and some times we get some clothes to work on them. For example those which are torn and even new ones to make like dresses out of them and even making some school uniform for the children and this money helps us in feeding especially, and other things at home.

Lastly but not least we want to let you know that the work you are doing is so great to us and we appreciate so much and may the Lord bless you for that!

Love you!

Update from NALULE JOYCE family #107071

The whole family standing together



NALULE JOYCE with her pigs and piglets

We are extremely happy for this opportunity again to write to you and send our greetings to all of you and your friends! Your sponsorship has helped us so much and we really appreciate you so much!

We are also informing you that if it wasn’t your financial support which you are sending us we would be in trouble now because as you Lukenge 7 years and six months old has hernia. Therefore I first buy for him some medicine from the nearby hospital to relive the pain but I am now trying to make sure I gather some money and take him to the hospital. My tuberculosis reduced otherwise I would be in danger now.

The rest are okay and Nakikubye Agnes 6 years and some months old is still in primary two whereas the twins (Babirye and Nakato) will start schooling next year and Mpiso is soon making four years old and Kalule is still very young. They are now in their second term holiday but they will be going back soon in period of less than two weeks from now but I am not worried at all because I know I will be able to buy some of the school materials as usual and this is possible because you are sponsoring us.

When it comes to livestock keeping, you have helped us so much because you remember we had some pigs and one had produced some time back, this other one also produced 6 piglets but the first piglets when they grew up we sold them off and the money helped me so much in paying for the school fees of the children and many other needs at home and even accomplishing our latrine which we had built some time back but we also saved some little money on our bank account. To add on that we also bought two sheep and one goat. Also our sweet potatoes and beans which we planted are now mature and we have enough food supplemented by our bananas. We also grew vanilla but it is not yet mature enough otherwise in the same way we are praying hard to have our house expanded because it is very small and with those few words we want to conclude by saying wishing you all the best!

Yours in Christ!

Family Sponsorhsip Update: RWANDEME DEZI 105049

I take this opportunity once again to hold a pen and a paper to write a word of appreciation to you for the love and care you have offered to my family. I first of all thank the almighty God for having given me such a good and kind friend. I am very grateful for the financial support that you send for me every month. It was really timely because I had almost nothing to use in up bringing the orphans I was left with. I was extremely excited for the cow that I received as a gift and for the miscellaneous gift which I used to buy blankets, mattresses and goats. It really took me by surprise and I was very happy to have received it. The cow and the goats are very healthy and doing very well. It is almost producing a calf because it is six months pregnant. We have already realized a grate change in our lives in aspects of health, diet, livestock, clothing, education, agriculture and business as a result of your support.

With the miscellaneous gift, I bought mattresses, blankets, goats and clothes for the children. Your support has generally changed the lifestyle of my family. We change diet quite often and eat good food that is even fried. We can afford meat twice in a month and 2 cups of milk every day to mix with maize porridge. The children look very healthy
because they eat three meals a day, something that never used to happen in the past! They even perform well in class. I have 6 goats and the children like them very much. We are still living in the old house and it is now in a very poor state. I am doing some repair on it and I am seriously planning to build a new one using my savings and your support. The children have enough clothes, school uniforms, shoes and scholastic materials. We have household items and garden tools. I am now dealing in charcoal business which I sell in Bigodi trading centre. I am also selling rids and stones because demand for those items is available in our area. This business will give me addition income to boost my family’s welfare.

I am growing old and weak but I am happy that my grand children can have something to eat and have a good and caring friend. I just pray for you every day to God almighty to grant you more years. I have a big garden of cassava and I hope to get good harvests that I will sell and get some good money. I am a strong catholic and I pray every day. I belong to the group of charismatic born again under the Catholic Church and I am the head of the laity in my village. My grand children are in holy childhood in the same church. We attend church every Sunday and the catechist visits us once every month. We hold prayer meetings in our charismatic congregation every Thursday and we praise and thank God for his wonderful mercy towards us. I remain eagerly waiting to see you, thank you very much for loving us. God bless you.
With lots of love,
Rwandeme Dezi

Family Update: KASIRYE GETRUDE #107010

Although I am growing old but I am very happy that I can now see some improvements in our lives. Like I told you that I want to improve on our house I have already started buying iron sheets and after I have acquired enough of them I will be able to roof it with iron sheets. I always buy one by one such that I can be able to do other things for the home. So far I have bought six iron sheets. You know we didn’t have a latrine for along period of time, we were using some pit latrine which was almost full and not built, we could even fear to use it during day time because one could see you since it was not built but now we, managed to pay some people and they dug for us a pit latrine whereby they about to finish and immediately we shall build it and in the next report you will be seeing a finished photograph of a latrine.
Like you know we have been with two goats, we have gone ahead and bought a pig, we want to increase our livestock slowly, we also have hens and they have now multiplied.
This is where my business will lie mostly and on handcraft like making mats and baskets, as you will see the mats in the photographs. These mats help us to get some income even though it is quite small but we are able to buy some small things at home like paraffin, sugar, soap and salt.

We finish our message by wishing you God’s blessings and we pray for you so much!

Family Update: KAMBUGU YUNIA #107006

To God be the glory, who gave us you to help us and given us life may his name be praised all the time for he has been good to us!
They told us you stay in Naperville, how is life there and the United States in general? For us, life in Uganda is just fine and we want to thank you for the entire support you give us, we have experienced a trend of positive change in our lives for good and our lives will never be the same again!

My grand children are happy too for the support that they are now studying with some support from your initiative, which I receive from you. They like studying so much and we are all Christians in our family and we like praying so much! Nsubuga who is 15yrs and Esta 13yrs, are now in primary 5 altogether. Whereas Bule is now a p.7 candidate and he will be joining secondary school next year. The three; Kasasa 5yrs, Nakanja 4yrs and Baruka 4yrs also started schooling and they are all happy as you see them in school uniform. The children are now at school for their first term syllabus and they always come in the evening with exception of the three young ones who come out at midday.
There is great achievement at home and in our lives because apart from our cow we bought the other time, we also bought other two sheep and a goat. We now have some animals, which will soon providing us with some milk like for the case of our cow. So far we are able to get the manure from all animals, which we use in our fields. We are very happy that our sheep produced two young ones and they are now very many, even one of our goats conceived! (Our cow was not photographed because it had gone to graze far away).

Concerning our coffee and bananas we planted, have got enough manure from our cow there is enough rain for them to grow well. We also harvested some beans and the maize therefore we have enough food to survive on in our family. We also ground some maize flour from the maize for both our consumption and sold off some little to the shops. We have already cleared the fields for the next season. We are now experiencing heavy rains and we are waiting for them to reduce such that they do not damage our crops. Usually this would be the planting season but the weather changed and we are sure we shall plant in this month maybe by the end of this month there the rains will have reduced.
We want to finish our letter from here and pray that, May God bless you abundantly!

Love you very much,

Family Update: BIRUNGI PUROSI #107004

It is my pleasure for this opportunity to write to you for another time and to send you our heart felt greetings and thank you for the entire support since 2007 up to now! It’s very great and it has helped us in many ways in our daily lives, thank you so much!
I no longer suffer with my children like in looking for food or other family needs like before sponsoring us.

My children and I are all fine, Akim is now three years old and he will be joining schooling possibly next year but he is still young to start schooling. I also baptized my youngest boy, remember you started sponsoring me when I was pregnant and I later produced of which I informed you and you are aware of that, now this young boy was baptized Faluk Musisi who is now 1 year and six months old. They are all fine and they and I am sure they will grow up with your support though my husband abandoned us. You really mean a lot to us for such support and we are so thankful and pray that God to reward you a thousand times!

I bought three goats however two died, I also bought a bicycle which I use to do for me some business of buying and selling bananas. Other things we bought include food, clothes, utensils and other things like mattresses.
We cultivated cassava, maize and beans. If you were not sponsoring us we would not have managed because we had to hire land, buy some seedlings and pay for labor in clearing the fields where we cultivated. I want to start on building a toilet because our toilet is now old but we have already started digging the pit latrine whereby we are left with building it and we hope to do it soon.
I also want to tell you that this second year is for doing business and that’s why I am struggling hard to make sure I put some thing in place and I will concentrate on mixed farming. We shall keep on buying other things with time and in the next letter we shall be able to give you the update on our progress but as per now I beg you to finish our message from here!

May God bless you!

Family Update: BAGUME CHRISTINE #107002

It’s our pleasure to write to you as we send to you our greetings and to thank you for the support we get from you every month! It has done many things for us and our lives will never be the same again! We thank you so much for that!
We are doing well right here except that we have been with some cough but we got treatment and we are now okay!

My children are now studying since it is time for schooling and they are doing well at school, they also have the school materials like books, school uniform and others. If you were not the one I would not have managed to keep them at school up to this time.
Lydia is now 12 years and she is in primary four now, Yosam is now 10years old and in primary three, Brenda is now eight years old and in primary two whereas Scovia is in primary one and she is now six years old. John who is the last-born has now turned four years old and he is in nursery school but he hasn’t got serious because he is still young in mind. We also bought clothes for all of us and we now have what to put on. We are happy to tell you that we no longer have feeding problems like ago. We buy food now and we are able to feed ourselves from our own fields now like this season we are going to cultivate maize, beans, sweet potatoes and maize. We have been with some harvests for the last season.

I have achieved many things out of the sponsorship and I am so grateful for that! The following are the achievements; like I told you last time I bought a piece of land and I am trying to develop it. I want to embark on building our own house. So far I have bought five iron sheets, I have also bought some poles for building however they are not enough but will keep on buying others slowly by slowly. I also bought two goats and lucky enough one produced.
I want to work hard such that I can be able to build our own house and even expand and settle our livestock whereby we can make it our business and a way of earning a living since we are in the village.
We hope to achieve all the above because we have already put some things in place we just need some time ahead because putting up a structure like a house is not some thing easy! We shall keep on updating you on any progress and we shall keep praying for you in every aspect such you can even get more good jobs to live a happy life.

We wish you God’s blessings!

Family Update: MWESIGWA LEONARD #105081

It has been God's mercy that we got kind people to help us at a time when we lost our parents. I thank God for your love and kindness that you are showing us despite not knowing us. Your support was timely and a blessing from God because it would have been challenging for us to survive. I would have given up to my young sisters because of lack of basic necessities. We thank you for your generosity which has restored our hope and strength. We sleep without worries for the next day because you are there for us.

Your support has assisted us a lot especially in our education and feeding. We are all in school with old uniforms because most funds are spent on school fees since two of us are in private secondary schools. I am now in senior two and despite the heavy responsibility that I have, I can still manage to perform well and last term I got the 27th position out of 120 students in class. Esther and Rosette are in primary seven and sat for mock exams and their results were good because they were all in second grade. Sharon is in primary four and is doing well too. We are struggling with education having limited resources but somehow we are trying and God's is helping us. We only need new uniforms, shoes, swatters, school bags to protect our books from the heavy rains and other scholastic materials for next year. In terms of dressing, we are very grateful because we have at least two pairs of daily clothes and two pairs of Sunday clothes. We attend church every Sunday and we usually pay a tithe every two months because of the school fees problem.

Our neighbors are very friendly to us now and are always with us in case of any problem after the field officer talked to them. Our aunt comes home every week to check on us and see how we are doing. We also sometimes go to visit our relatives especially our grandfather who was taking care of some of my sisters but he lives far away from our home. The biggest problem that we have is that we have a small house which the community had built for us but is not strong because the supporting tress are hanging and might collapse when heavy winds or an earthquake comes and we cannot afford to make some repairs on it at the moment until January when we hope to make a saving if God wishes. But with God nothing is impossible. Health wise, we are fair except Sharon who they say might have measles according to the symptoms and we are yet to take her for checkup and ultimate treatment. We have also been maintaining 10% savings per months on our bank account according to the way we were trained.
We pray a lot and we trust God will do everything for us. Thank you for accepting to be our Parents and for all the love and care we are getting from you. We love you very much and look forward to seeing you in our home one time. God bless you dearly, protect you and reward your efforts.

Best regards from
Mwesigwa Leonard, my sisters and brother

Family Update: OKANGO IBRAHIM #106008

We are so happy for this great chance to write to you this letter for sending our sincere greetings to you and then thank you for your help to my family.
We received your help when we were very poor, we were without anything but now we are very pleased for what you do for us. We can eat, dress and children go to school.

As you know the family was so poor, we live with our children; they are 2girls and 2boys.Their names are as follows;

1. SANYA Patrick
2. WESONGA Aaron
3. NANDERA Morin
4. TAAKA Fiona

We are all fine and in good health. Our work is to cultivate, the problem we have in our agriculture is that our land is not fertile .We think that after getting manure the harvest will be good.
My wife and child WESONGA has helped me so much in every thing in order to get what to eat. SANYA Patrick is crippled he can’t do work like cultivation.

Before getting your sponsorship, we used to get problems in finding what to eat, dress and ways for survival was a problem. Now we are getting your help, we can get for our selves what to eat, we can dress and life is improving day by day.

With your sponsorship we have goats, a pig, mattresses, we have rehabilitated our latrine, buying food and other different issues, really you have improved our lives, we praise God for that.

Four months now NANDERA Morin has had persistent cough and chest pain, she has been taken to health units but there is no improvement, she is not in good condition.

Concerning education, WESONGA Aaron finished his secondary education, SANYA Patrick has finished his Ordinary Level he is pursuing secretariat studies at LUMINO POLYTECHNIC, the remaining two are still in primary level, they are doing well at school, they have uniform, but school materials are not enough, we will buy others step by step according to our possibilities.

We thank you for that caring spirit that you have shown to us, praise be to the Lord.

Love you,
OKAANGO IBRAIM

Family Update: ODAKA BASIMESI #106015

We are so happy for this great chance to send you greetings and thanks for the great help to my family.

We were completely without any thing before the help but now we have things like mattresses, clothes, shoes, mosquito nets and food, we appreciate your assistance.

 

 

My general health is not good, I have general body weakness, and the eyes do not see properly, the rest of my people are good health wise.

 

We grow crops like sorghum, maize and cassava but a strange disease that has affected the tuber has affected it, it has made as to worry.

The soils have started loosing fertility that is because the fields for cultivation are not enough for us, with the sponsorship we receive we shall be able to solve the problem, God is praised for that.

 

The sponsorship has helped us a lot of things for example the mattresses, goats, mosquito nets, blankets and food can be got, God is good.

 

Children are studying well in school; AJWANGI she is in primary four, NANDREA she is in primary three, BWIRE is in primary five, OKUNGA he is primary five, WEJULI he is primary one, ANYANGO she is in nursery school. There are three boys and three girls.

It used be to so hard for us to get uniform and other school materials for this children, now with sponsorship we are able to get them easily, we thank you and also pray for you.

 

The poor house we hard has been renovated the kitchen is also at home now, we are happy for that assistance.

 

We are praying that the mercy of God be upon you, be blessed, best wishes from all the family members, merry Christmas a happy new year.

 

With grate love from ODAAKA Besimesi.

 ODAKA BASIMESI

Family Update: Nyamirere Joy #105099

THE FAMILY STANDING IN FRONT OF THEIR SWEET POTATOES PLANTATION.

 

 

Happiness and joy are beyond imagination for getting such an opportunity to send my warm greetings to you and your family. I hope you are well and God is taking good care of you. I want to thank you very much for the support you are sending to me since January. Your heart is so kind and God will reward you well. You are getting us out of the extreme poverty and we have now started living like any other person in the community though we still live in a ram shackled house we hope for the better.

 

You can’t imagine that hunger was going to kill me first before my grand children, it was because of hunger that I used to walk with a stick but now after having bought enough food and ate for one month I am glad to tell you that I no longer use the stick when walking. I no longer bend these days I walk and stand upright now. My children have started looking well and no longer malnourished they are changing and putting on some weight though they still sleep badly. On Saturday 8^th march 2008, Esta fell in the wale where we fetch water and she was nearly drowning but thank God she was rescued by one of the locals called Emanuel who had gone too fetch water too. She had swallowed a number of liters of water, he made alarm and people around the village came, placed her stomach hard and she vomited it, we later took her to the clinic in Kamwenge and she’s now okay.

We grew some food crops like sweet potatoes, cassava, beans and maize and soon we shall be harvesting the sweet potatoes.

 

From the money we have been getting, we bought clothes and school uniforms for the children and we look good in our clothes. We bought food and these days we eat at least two meals daily. I got sick for 2 weeks and paid for the drugs that I got from the clinic, I also paid the money for medication of Esta who had fell in the wale while collecting some water. We bought a Jerican for fetching water, 3 plates and 3 cups. I also paid for exercise books, pens and some school fees for my grand children.

 

We now plan to rehabilitate our house which might collapse at any time or catch fire because there are many wild fires set by cattle keepers who want fresh grass for grazing their cows, we want to construct a toilet and buy domestic animals to rear them. We also need blankets, mattresses, mosquito nets and shoes.

 

We thank you very much for your prayers and the financial support we have been getting from you. May the Lord continue to bless you forever.

Yours faithfully,

 

Nyamirere Joy