Our director, Nathan Kaija, spoke to the girls about our vision for their empowerment and nurturing. We hope to walk a longer journey with the teens, helping them make wise choices in career, health, education and spirituality. In addition to the workshops, a mentorship program will be designed to achieve this.
As we prepare the children to return to school soon (The government is finalizing preparations for their return), we've had two centre day meetings with them this month.
We decided to meet the older ones alone and the younger ones separately on a different day.
For the older group, we had Patience Kaija, a volunteer trained as a teacher, speak to them about making responsible choices. We were also able to have fun games and listen to their Christmas stories.
The younger ones had fun time too playing games, getting to know each other (there are some new ones who joined recently), and learning how to relate with parents and elders. They too shared stories of how they spent the holidays.
We congratulate you upon entering a new year 2021. We sincerely hope you had a great Christmas celebration.
Many thanks too for your support that enabled us buy new clothes for all the children.
It meant a lot to them and their families were excited!
As we enter the month of December, we are excited that Christmas is around the corner. Its been an eventful year as we shall be reminding ourselves in the coming weeks.
However, this is to inform all our friends and sponsors that we shall not have a Christmas party this year because of the Covid situation. We prefer to keep the children safe by not exposing them to large gatherings. Its easier for adults to gather because they can keep distance, wear masks etc but its hard to enforce these protective measures with children.
However, we encourage sponsors to go ahead and send a Christmas gift to their children so that they may celebrate it with wonderful memories.
We will keep you updated as the weeks go on.
(PHOTO: Colin Kibasumba stands with his gift, given to him by his sponsor.)
For a long time the peaple in the villages we serve have suffered with the problem of water scarcity.
Homes in these villages don't have piped water in their houses and have to move out to get it. Most times they buy it from those who have water tanks at their homes or the community taps which serve many peaple.
However, during the dry season (June-August), the problem is worse because families mainly depend on harvesting rain water. So when there is little rain, peaple walk for up to 5km or more to the main water source in town.
We and the supported families are so grateful to one of our sponsors who funded us to construct a water tank for our families to use. We also thank the family that allowed it to be put in their secure compound within reach of our children.
They now have access to safe water within a short walking distance from their homes! The availability of clean water will help to improve on the hygiene and general health of our supported families.
God bless you so much!
As we mentioned earlier, we have been giving special attention to the needs of our female teenagers in this period. The reason is the high risks they are exposed to because of finding themselves at home for a long period (7 months now). Covid 19 restrictions are beginning to be eased now and cases are reducing. Schools have been allowed to reopen but for candidate(final year students) only.
The problem of child abuse, defilement and teenage pregnancy during the lockdown has been widely discussed in the media here of late.
Over 6,000 teenage girls have gotten pregnant in the last 6 months of lockdown here in Uganda.This presents a very serious challenge to their health (some are as young as 14) and their education, as many are denied a chance to continue with their studies and in some cases forced to get married prematurely.
We want to intervene and empower more young girls in our community to protect themselves in this period. We have decided to go beyond our own sponsored girls and organise a monthly workshop for atleast 70 teens for the next three months.
Each monthly workshop will cost 5,000 SEK to organise. This money will facilitate us to hire a hall that is spacious, get a public address system, sanitory towels to distribute, plus several conditions for prevention of Covid 19 like masks, sanitizers, etc.
We want the first one to be held on 12th November 2020.
This can only be possible through our generous contributions. Please consider making a contribution towards this noble cause too. You may email us at: falccokisoro@hotmail.com for more details.
Thanks always!!
Since March 2020 when schools were closed in Uganda as a measure to curb the spread of Covid 19, students have had a hard time adjusting to a seemingly indefinite holiday. Girls have particularly been hit hard, with reports of teenage pregnancies on the rise in many rural districts. We decided to start a program to sensitize and protect our teenage girls in this period. In this mini workshop they are taught on matters of sexual and reproductive health, values and career choices. Interactive discussions are also held with their facilitators. They will be supported every month with sanitary towels and a female volunteer is always on standby to attend to their queries. We pray the situation normalizes soon. Thanks for your material and moral support as we walk with our youth through this difficult season.
