Barbara wrote:
"To those CUS sponsors who may be feeling very disappointed at not hearing anything from their newly sponsored children I want to advise you not to give up on them as things work very, very slowly in and from Uganda.
You may recall the sad story about my own sponsored child Jonathan O. who I began sponsoring last April. I did not hear anything for months and was beginning to despair of ever hearing anything about or from him. Then, I had the awful news that he had been taken out of school and was being starved and kept in chains in his own feces by his disturbed aunt. Fortunately, Hellen, the CUS director managed to persuade her to let Jonathan return to school where she fed him a special diet to build up his strength. More bad news followed when it was learned that the same abusive aunt was using him as child labour by forcing him to carry enormously heavy loads of cans of water for almost a kilometre every day.
In order to bring a little hope into his, so far, sad life I sent some funds to provide him with a cake and soccer ball for his birthday which was on 21st December. I hoped that there was enough there to also pay an adult to carry the water for him for at least a while.
As mentioned above it takes a long time to hear any news from Uganda but eventually I received the enclosed photos. These showed an obviously over-whelmed Jonathan with his cake and the disposable cake plates, serviettes and balloons which I had provided.
Then, just today, I finally received a drawing of a sun, tree, animal, car and a figure with arms outstretched. But the tear jerker part was finally receiving the hand drawing which Jonathan had been colouring in a previous photo. And, when I turned over the page there was a beaded THANK YOU MUM worked on it. Knowing that his own mother was deceased it was so touching to know that he now thought of me as his new mother. How touching is that?? In the same package I also received a similar beaded Merry Xmas card from Alice who was last heard of back in northern Uganda.
Two other examples from Katelyn was the trembling thanks of Macky's child for his new set of clothes and two other children breaking down in tears when they did badly in their school work fearing that their sponsors wouldn't want to sponsor them anymore. So, please don't give up on your newly sponsored children because it obviously means so much to them to have a sponsor."
Cheers
Barbara
You may recall the sad story about my own sponsored child Jonathan O. who I began sponsoring last April. I did not hear anything for months and was beginning to despair of ever hearing anything about or from him. Then, I had the awful news that he had been taken out of school and was being starved and kept in chains in his own feces by his disturbed aunt. Fortunately, Hellen, the CUS director managed to persuade her to let Jonathan return to school where she fed him a special diet to build up his strength. More bad news followed when it was learned that the same abusive aunt was using him as child labour by forcing him to carry enormously heavy loads of cans of water for almost a kilometre every day.
In order to bring a little hope into his, so far, sad life I sent some funds to provide him with a cake and soccer ball for his birthday which was on 21st December. I hoped that there was enough there to also pay an adult to carry the water for him for at least a while.
As mentioned above it takes a long time to hear any news from Uganda but eventually I received the enclosed photos. These showed an obviously over-whelmed Jonathan with his cake and the disposable cake plates, serviettes and balloons which I had provided.
Then, just today, I finally received a drawing of a sun, tree, animal, car and a figure with arms outstretched. But the tear jerker part was finally receiving the hand drawing which Jonathan had been colouring in a previous photo. And, when I turned over the page there was a beaded THANK YOU MUM worked on it. Knowing that his own mother was deceased it was so touching to know that he now thought of me as his new mother. How touching is that?? In the same package I also received a similar beaded Merry Xmas card from Alice who was last heard of back in northern Uganda.
Two other examples from Katelyn was the trembling thanks of Macky's child for his new set of clothes and two other children breaking down in tears when they did badly in their school work fearing that their sponsors wouldn't want to sponsor them anymore. So, please don't give up on your newly sponsored children because it obviously means so much to them to have a sponsor."
Cheers
Barbara
1 comment:
Indeed, the CUS kids do very much need our help, and seem quite appreciative of our efforts - despite the lack of letters (probably due to lack of a system). Just remember that Hellen is the only one out there in Uganda to organize everything that happens with the school.
I think it's wonderful that Jonathan was able to have a cake for his birthday! (not to mention a break from carrying water every day). These kids have so little, and I'm glad we are able to add little treats to their lives through packages and other special gifts. My husband was so moved by the story of my sponsored child getting a Christmas outfit, that he posted it on his myspace page ... and he referred our godson to the post after receiving a text message that said, "So, when are you bringing me my Christmas presents?" We told our godson that all our money this year was spent on buying gifts for kids who would have very little otherwise.
Mack
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