Often, Mission Direct volunteers will say of how, when preparing for their trip, people ask them,
‘What’s the point? There is poverty all over the world. What difference can you really make?‘
Well, let me tell you a few stories of some differences they’ve made this summer.
Kitazigurukwa Special Needs Unit
This summer a dormitory has been built.
It’s not just any old dormitory – it’s a dormitory in which over 15 children with disabilities will now get a chance of education. This is so rare in Uganda, and so special. Children are going to come to a place where they are loved, accepted, valued, where they can make friends and be like all other children. These 15 young lives will be utterly changed because of the facilities which will soon be ready for them at Kitaz.
Simon
Simon came to me, and some of the volunteers, one day at Kitazigurukwa Primary School, where he told us his story. He is in P.6 class (year 6). He has no parents, he lives alone, and walks 5km to school every day. He can’t attend a closer school, because he’s been kicked out of them all due to failure to pay school fees.
Even at Kitaz, Simon was two terms behind in the payment of school fees, but luckily the headteacher had not sent him away.
Some of the volunteers were moved by his story and have paid A FULL YEAR of school fees for him. It’s one situation, and it’s one child, but he has a name, and a story, and now continued education thanks to the generosity of the volunteers.
Teeth
Forgive me that I don’t have all the technical details, but Liz, a dental hygienist, treated the new adult teeth of over 80 children. That’s 80 children who now have a better chance of a good, healthy set of teeth. They also received toothbrushes, toothpaste, and the most popular gift of all, a balloon.
Alice and Tom
Dear Alice has many children, is widowed, and her youngest son, Tom, is severely disabled. Her daughter-in-law won’t even enter her home because she’s scared that she will get the ‘curse’ that Tom has.
One of the teams went to Alice’s home on a home visit with the Chilli Children Project. They built a drying rack and spent time with Alice and other neighbours around.
Upon going into the house, some of the volunteers were appalled by the conditions that Alice’s family were living in – no mattresses, sleeping on random bits of material on the floor, no lighting, walls crumbling away.
The very next day, they clubbed together a significant amount of money to buy the family a new mattress, mosquito nets, food for three months, soap, vaseline, toothbrushes, toothpaste, torches etc.
Again, this is a single case in a multitude of homes in need. But I promise you, when I delivered the gifts to Alice today, the smile and gratitude she expressed, showed me that it made a HUGE difference to her. It hasn’t pulled her out of poverty or cured Tom of his condition, but it’s made her life a little easier, it’s shown her that people care about her, and that people love her.
What difference can you make?
This summer, these are just a few of the lives that have been changed.
That’s a world of difference.
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