TRANSFORMATION STORY

The story of Miriam Zihaawe for the last 10 years has been the Falco story. She is one of the very first children to be registered and supported back in 2009. At that time, we only offered sensitization meetings for parents and children plus monthly domestic support in form of soap, body jelly etc. We also assisted with some scholastic materials like books for the children whenever we could. The pictures below trace Miriams growth and transformation in this decade with us. The earliest pic is when she was 8 years, receiving gifts from our volunteer in 2009 in the presence of her mum. Miriam is now 18. At that time, she was struggling to stay in school, lacking basic school and personal necessities and having to walk home from school for an uncertain lunch every day.

However, through the sponsorship program, she was able to go to a better school, with lunch and other school requirements provided. She has now completed a hair dressing course and is working and contributing to her family's income.
Many thanks to her sponsor who has made all this possible!

POTATO GROWING

Our campaign of developing local capacity to solve local problems is taking shape!

The potato garden has been planted and the shoots are out of the ground, thanks to you our partners.

We continue to watch and give good care so that we maximise the harvest. It takes a lot to get a good harvest: fertilizers, spraying, weeding etc. Here some volunteers inspect the progress of the plants.

The journey has just begun. Lets keep working till all our families are sufficiently empowered

SKILLING THE YOUTH, CHANGING COMMUNITIES

Berina Mujawimana is yet another beneficiary of our transformational initiatives in Kisoro. She has gone through the life cycle of our support and is now ready to be graduated. Shes getting empowered to face life, take care of herself and support her family. The photos show the journey from when we met her, at 12 years. She was living with her 4 siblings and mother, having been abandoned by their Dad many years ago. Life was hard, she was struggling to stay in school and the mother was struggling to get odd jobs just to put food on the table. For the 6 years that she's been in the project, Berina has got life skills, become more confident and been supported to study and get a skill in tailoring. She's now practising with a machine owned by a relative, shown in the picture. We are still raising funds to buy her her own tailoring machine so that she may be fully self employed. A new one costs about 2000 Kr. Any contribution towards that will be highly appreciated!

WELCOME TO 2020

We welcome you all dear friends to a new year 2020.

We said goodbye to 2019 in a bigger way than we have ever done.

Thanks to your support, we were able to organize a Christmas and new year party for over 100 children!

Our sponsored children were asked to bring along one or two friends and we were one big family.

We are committed to making this new year unique in many ways. Particularly, we will put much effort in growing our sustainability project of potato growing which is in its initial stages, hoping to start planting in a few weeks.

The long Christmas holiday will be coming to a close in about 3 weeks and then the children will report for a fresh academic year.
Please pray that they all start off strong and healthy.

THINKING SUSTAINABILITY

We would like to thank all those that donated towards our potato growing project. The land has been hired. We are now waiting for the owner to harvest his crops then we buy seed and start planting. That should be in a months time.

This is going to be a beneficiary run project, parents will spearhead it right from the planning stage up to harvest. Those that are able will participate in digging and others in different activities like weeding.

Apart from contributing towards the food security of the families, our plan is to put some of the proceeds into a revolving fund where parents can borrow and use to run their family businesses. The whole idea is empowering them towards self sustainability as families.

In the picture is part of the land(the owner hasn't harvested his maize yet), the seller, and a parents' representative.

CHRISTMAS AGAIN!

Its December and as usual we plan to celebrate Christmas and the new year in style!

This is the time of year that children look forward to most, not only because of the delicious Xmas cake, but the adventure of going to a new, beautiful place and having fun with friends.

We want to arrange a party for 100 vulnerable children, these include the sponsored ones, their friends and the registered but Unsponsored ones. We have estimated that 300 Usd would be sufficient for it.

On the other hand, we would wish that every sponsored child gets a Xmas gift of 20 Usd. This would be suffficient to buy a set of new clothes or pair of good, durable shoes as the need may be.

We request your generous contributions to the above plans. You may buy a gift for one or more children and/or contribute to the general party for all of them.

Just to remind us, this is how last Xmas looked like...

INVESTING FOR THE FUTURE

With only 30 Usd or 230 SEK per month, you may offer a child the gift of education