These are scenes from the Katoogo slum settlement in Kampala, Uganda, where the organization I lead runs a school offering free private education and meals to over 130 children in the colony. When our fundraising is stronger, we are able to accommodate 200 children in the school.
We often see children (those our budget will not accommodate) waiting outside the school with empty bowls, hoping to get leftovers at mealtimes. I'm being dead serious. Hunger is a real issue here, especially since the recent drought put the country of Uganda in a food crisis.
I wanted you to see what extreme poverty looks like and try to imagine living in conditions like this. You can see more photos I took in this community, including scenes from our school, on my photography blog at this post.
Charitable goal explanation. For those of you just tuning in, I'll recap what I'm trying to achieve with the "Monthly Donor Heart-Chart" and my goal of finding 50 new sponsors for these "hearts" which I like to think of as representing lives being transformed and, ultimately, saved.
Why am I seeking monthly donors? The orphan care, child labor response, and human trafficking response programs we've pioneered at Peace Gospel and She Has Hope— while sustained in part by small business enterprise— need charitable support to be fully sustained. The budgets of these programs have fixed, monthly expenses. Thus, while one-time donations are deeply appreciated, it's the monthly donations that give us something to count on and plan with. Therefore, long-term, they're the most powerful.
If you're willing to make a small monthly sacrifice of any amount to help ensure that the following merciful actions are fully funded each month, I would be grateful for your partnership with me in this effort. With your help, our monthly budget enables us to…
- Provide resident care for 290 orphans in 11 homes in Asia and Africa
- Operate 4 schools and 4 after-school care programs reaching over 1000 children
- Serve approx. 50,000 fresh meals to children in our programs
- Train 100s of girls how to avoid the dangers of human trafficking
- House, rehabilitate and empower 20 girls recovering from human trafficking
On to what I was able to create with just $1 worth of food today. Great dishes, just not enough. Rations are holding steady for now and it looks like I should have 3 corn tortillas per day the rest of the challenge. Happy about that because there's so much you can do with tortillas.
Click or tap on image to enlarge...
Breakfast. ▼
2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to the work of Peace Gospel's programs helping orphans, at-risk children of the slums, and human trafficking survivors.
3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.
4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!
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