S. Henry

Henry is here with his mother and siblings outside his house.  He is wearing the red shirt.  Below is Henry's mother.  She is part of the bead making cooperative.

Henry above is 2nd from the right in the front.  Below Henry is 2nd from the left in the front with the blue button-up shirt.

 Henry talking to Hellen and giving her his details so that she can find him a sponsor. 

Henry is the child I started sponsoring way back in 2009 because he was the closest one in age to my daughter Morgan.  At the time, he was listed as 4 years old.  Morgan wrote him a few letters.  When we got a letter from Henry, it said he was 7 years old!  Wow!  He aged 3 years in just a few months! LOL!  So goes one of the problems with sponsorship programs that are formed in the slums or villages- a lot of times birth dates and age are unknown because they are home births, and no one sees the importance of notating the specific day a child is born. 

Like Vanesa, I stopped the CUS sponsorship of Henry when I was not happy with where my money was going or not knowing where my money was going.  I kept in contact with Henry because his mother started making beads in our bead making cooperative.  Now that Maureen is in charge of the CUS sponsorship program, I am sponsoring Henry again.

I will stick with those 2 CUS children- Vanesa and Henry.  I still have the other 2 Ugandan children from Tiffany's group, too- Jenina and Waird.  4 Ugandan children- 2 girls and 2 boys =)

Books that were sent to CUS for Christmas...

I sent the first wire for income to the MIC group on Monday. Innocent was able to pick it up today. They are all so grateful from every one's help, and they wanted me to let you all know that. There is another wire being sent to them this Monday. There will be a small "shop" set up at a local charity gig on Friday where (*fingers crossed*) 50 necklaces will be sold.

Now, in news about the school age children, Innocent said that they have really been enjoying the books that we sent. They have found the books very interesting and have a hunger for more!! That is very exciting!! I have lots of children's books to send that I will gladly donate again. If anyone would like to pay for shipping, please contact me. No amount is too small. I will send as many books that I can for the amount of shipping raised.

*I know a lot of you are disappointed in the lack of pictures from the school. I will be taking pictures before I mail them, and you can see that the kids are enjoying them... But, I can't guarantee any pictures on the Ugandan end. We did receive a picture of the box that the books were in last time, but not the kids receiving the books. We sent over 110 books for $110- so, about $1 per book!!! There are now approximately 300 children at the school now, so we have only provided a book to 1/3 of the children (though they are accessible to all).

Introducing Proscovia (Prossy for short) Nalubombwe

A post by Barbara:

Just before Christmas I began sponsoring a three year old street child called Precious. Once sponsored she was due to start baby class in February. Unfortunately, the lure of their homeland in the north is so strong that even destitute families make the trek back at holiday time but then cannot afford to return. This appeared to be the case with little Precious who still has not returned.

Taking Heather's advice I decided to sponsor another child instead who would be more likely to remain at the CUS school. The problem was that I had already bought things for Precious even a necklace with the letter P. Looking for a child of a similar age I had an Ah Ha moment and asked Kate if Brian Kasumba's little sister had a sponsor. Since Macky sponsored Brian I figured that we could help the family more together since the mother has four children to support as outlined in previous postings.

Fortunately, Prossy's former sponsor was not able to sponsor her this year so I became her new sponsor - and the necklace is now hers!!!

According to Kate - Prossy was an adorable little girl. The photo I took of her where she is looking into the camera is one of my favourite photos of all the children. She was shy but warmed up to me very quickly and soaked up any attention given to her. I noticed Prossy was also very mature for her age (about 6), she didn't have to be told twice to do something and was very respectful.

For example, the little children would come and shake our hands or give us a hug, while the older girls would come up and go on their knees to greet us. Prossy did exactly like the older girls. She also helped care for babies by carrying them on her back or helping feed them. When we went to Didi's World (an amusement park outing) she was just so excited. She squeezed my hand and whispered to me "Auntie, I am so happy now." That moment prompted me to take her photo where she's waking up the stairs to go on her first ride. [If you look closely you can even see Kate reflected in Prossy's shining eyes!!]

So, now it will be my turn to spoil Prossy and hopefully make her as happy as she was on that day.

Questionnaire from Kikomeko Derick

Here is Derick's questionnaire:

How old are you: 12

How many brothers have you: 6

How many sisters have you: 1

Who do you live with: my mother

What is your favorite animal: rabbit

I am 38 inches tall

My eyes are brown

My hair is black

My favorite food: bananas and meat

My favorite game: soccer

My favorite thing to do: washing and mopping

My favorite color: yellow

What do people like about you: running

What things can you do well: mopping the house

What are some of ways you show others you care: helping them to get home, giving them my food, loaning them my pencil

Who is your best friend: Filbert

What other friends do you like to play with: Reagon

What other things do you like to do with your friends: ridding bikes, swimming

Questionnaire from Simbwa Henry for Morgan

Simbwa Henry is Morgan's only sponsor child. They hooked up last August as pen pals, and then, we decided (or I did) that $37 wasn't much to pay to just sponsor him. Morgan has sent him drawings and letters, but we have never gotten anything back. One reason for the lack of letters is that, for example, his mother can not read or write, so there are only a handful of people to help the children write letters.

When Morgan began sponsoring Henry, she chose him because he was 4 and she would be 3 in a few months. Well, typical for Uganda and other countries such as Haiti, Henry has no birthday. However, they do know he was born in 2002, which would mean he either is or will soon be 8!! OK, maybe it's just me, but he doesn't look 8 at all to me. Maybe because he is sitting down, or maybe because since for the past few months I have been thinking he was 4 because that is what I was told.

Anyway, here is Henry's questionnaire:

How old are you: 7

What is your birth date: 2002

How many brothers have you: 2

How many sisters: 0

What is your favorite animal: rabbit

I am 33 inches tall

I weigh 25 kgs

My eyes are: brown

My hair is: black

My favorite food: matooke (bananas)

My favorite game: riding a bike

My favorite thing to do: eat

My favorite color: purple

What do people like about you: I am a good boy. I do not fight.

What things can you do very well: sing

What are some of the ways you show others you care: help them, fetch water, wash plates

Who is your best friend: Mwanguzi Joshua

What other friends do you like to play with: Onyango Erry

Questionnaire from Nakaiza Vanesah for Jaden

Vanesah is Jaden's sponsor child in Uganda. As of yesterday, her mother will now be a part of the MIC group and start making beads!! We haven't received any letters from her, but Jaden has written several times. Luckily, Hellen sent a stack of letters along with the MIC items, so we were able to get something from her. This is what her questionnaire said:

Ways I show others I care: by loving them, sharing and playing together

Things I can do really well: washing plates and mopping house

What people like about me: (the person who was writing everything for Vanesah wrote her opinion) She is a bright girl and hard working.

Things I like to do with my friends: playing together with them.

My best friend is: Kayemba Isaac

Other friends I like to play with: Tracy Kuza, Jackline, Junior, Stella, Robin

Letter from MIC Sponsored Family

This family is an extremely large one. The lady in the blue shirt is the head of the household which totals over 25 people (in a one room home)! As you can see, the children are in desperate need of clothing, but even more importantly- FOOD! The children usually have to sneak out of the house early in the morning to dig through the garbage for discarded food. Sara decided to sponsor this family. She provided $30 of the shipping fee for their items to be shipped to sell. She send regular letters of encouragement, and is helping to sell some of the items. The sponsor's main job is to help the family help themselves. (On a side note, this family has some children who would like to be a part of CUS> If you would like to sponsor a CUS child from this family, please contact Kate.)

Here are portions of Grace's letter to Sara (not written by Grace, but using her spoken word):

Dear sponsor and friend,

I am Grace and now making 60 years in June this year. It is a great pleasure to write to you. Hellen is my friend and director of the school. I thank you for accepting to connect us with a way to sell the beads. Everything has gotten so out of hand here.

I lost my first husband in 1979. I had 4 children with him. After a short sickness with yellow fever, he died. Since then, I have gotten married to 6 other men whom I thought would support me and help me raise up the children. Instead, I ended up having altogether 20 children. 6 have since passed away, but I still have 14 who are alive. Each of my husbands were either drunkards, adulterous, or arrogant. 4 have died. 2 are still alive, but they left be some 10 years back. I have never been to school, and I struggled and raised up my children who, also, never went to school. Now altogether, I have 25 grandchildren. My 7 daughters, also, never settled in their marriages; plus, I lost 3 sons to AIDS and all of their children are with me.

We live in a small single room home that was once rented for us by a church. Now, I am the one paying the rent. My major problem is that I do not have an income. I hope that you can help us sell the beads because this way we will be able to buy our own land, build a home, and feed the children. It pains my heart to see my grandchildren starving with hunger.

I am forever grateful for your help in this business. May God bless you,

Grace

Fundraiser Help & Fun for the Kids!

In an effort to help these slow moving fundraisers, these items have been donated to the group. Mack has donated the cute animal pens above. They are really cool. My girls both want one, so I will be purchasing at least 2 of them myself. They write smoothly. AND, you can squeeze their head/body to make their eyes pop out! $2 will be donated to the fundraisers for every pen purchased!

The video handheld games a fun & delicious! My girls each got one during the last round. There are still 10 left of the ones that Mack donated, BUT I donated an additional 400 plus candy! All 410 games are the white freeze tag games and are filled with Willy Wonka's Runts candy. I took a video of Morgan playing the game. Both of my girls think they are the coolest games ever, and they take theirs on our long car rides. $4 will be donated to the fundraisers for every game purchased!

There should still be some of these items available come time for the Christmas packages, but that is a while away. These items are available now to be shipped anywhere in the US. There are, also, shipping rates for Uganda and Haiti. You will notice that it is set up differently than before. There is the amount paid for the item which goes to the fundraisers and then a seperate cost for shipping.

If you have children in the CUS or HH4H programs, you will need to order by 2/25/10. I will be shipping out the packages to Haiti & Uganda at the end of this week.

You can order them here. Enjoy your pens and games!

Jaden's Sponsor Girls

Mikerange lives in Juchereau, Haiti and is 7 years old

Leydi lives in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and is 8 years old.

Vanesah lives in Kampala, Uganda, and she is 7 years old.

Jaden now has a 3rd sponsor child. I wish I had recorded her last night. It was wild to watch her try to pick the 3rd child. She wanted all of them, of course.

Here is how the third one happened:

When I was searching the His Hands for Haiti site for a sponsor child, Jaden saw one that she wanted. Her name is Woobiana. Well, I wasn't 100% sure that she really wanted to sponsor another child, and I knew that I did want one. Of course, I was looking at the boys because I have always had a close bond to the boys. I took on a boy instead of giving her another girl.

Then, I noticed that Woobiana's sponsorship was pending, and then, still pending for awhile. I asked Jamie how long the children remain "pending" before they are released to a different sponsor. When she heard that the original sponsor couldn't take her after all, she contacted me.

When we finally got home from the doctor & pharmacy last night, I showed Jaden Woobiana's picture again. When she heard that she was 8 years old, she said that she would rather have one who is 5. Thus began the process of her trying to figure out who she would sponsor. She narrowed it down to a 4 year old, a 5 year old, a 7 year old, and Woobiana the 8 year old. She said she couldn't decide and just wanted them all (yeah, right!!!) It took her about 20 minutes to finally say that she was making Mikerange her final choice. Whew!

It was strange to see Jaden so confused about who to pick. She is only 5, but she reminded me of the struggle most of us are in. How many times have you seen a child you really wished you could make room for on the budget? Or how many times have you taken on yet another child when you said you could not take another one?

So, that is how that happened, and now Jaden has one more child to write to!

More Letters from Uganda

These are the rest of the letters I received from CUS. I only got individual pictures of 4 of the children (out of 12), and one of my sponsor children was never pictured even in a group or even verified that he still attends school. I am still waiting on letters from two of my sponsor children.

ONE DAY SALE!!

These cool games were generously donated by Mack!
In an effort to raise funds for the current fundraisers & help with the postage of some of the smaller packages, these are being offered in a one day sale.
For one day only, you can purchase these & STILL get them included with your summer reading packages-
The countries included in this offer are Guayaquil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, The Philippines, Mexico, Uganda.
$2 will go toward the current fundraisers & $2 will go toward the shipping.
I have:

11 blue soccer games

15 white asteroid games

To order, visit the web store

Thank you for your kind donation, Mack!

When you order, just put in paypal comments the country & then child's first & last name. I don't need anything else, unless the child does not currently have an order going out. Also, you can still order (for this one day only) animal pens, tic tac toe games, and beanies. Special note: The webstore is not removing an item when it has been bought, for this reason, I need you to tell me which specific beanie baby you want ahead of time. You may, also, just give me your 1st, 2nd, & 3rd choices in the notes section. It is such a pain, I know. Until I figure out a trick for it, this is all I know to do.

A Letter from Derrick

This is the letter I received from Derrick (he is the one in the back row with his head tilted). I don't know how long he has been in school and if he can write. I was expecting some paragraphs, since he is 10 years old. Maybe he hasn't learned to write yet. Anyway, it was still special to get a letter from him.

A Letter from Nakaiza Vanesah

This is one of my CUS children Vanesah. She is, also, supposed to be Jaden's penpal... However, it hasn't been working out very well. It is extremely difficult to get letters from the CUS children. Jaden has sent 3 letters to Vanesah since August. I have sent her 6 since September. This is the only letter we have received. Does this count as a letter? I'm not sure... I even sent all 12 children questionnaires to fill out, which I have yet to receive. As you can see, Vanesah wrote this letter on the 30th of Ocotober last year. It left Uganda around the middle of December. Then, it got lost for a couple of months while I tried to find out what was going on. When it was located, it was finally shipped out to me from Canada on February 3rd!!!

I am so frustrated, especially for my girls. Jaden has never received a response back from her pen pal Vanesah (so I told her this letter was hers). Morgan's pen pal Simbwa Henry received her letter, and hopefully all of mine that I sent (along with gifts for all 12 children- sticker books, bracelets, necklaces, lollipops). We have not received any letters or pictures from him.

The problem is not the children but the way the letters are handled. I have exhausted my efforts and will just throw my hands up. I don't know what else to do. Of course, I haven't stopped writing to them, and I still hope for future letters. So for those of you with CUS children in the same boat, I feel your pain.

Last Call for all CI, CUS, & HH4H orders!

I know I have been very silent about this lately. With so many packages planning to go out at once (instead of having them spread out), it has been wild in my house. Tonight is the absolute last time to order, as I have to have a cut off to be able to organize some of the chaos. You will then start seeing all of the items placed in each package. Just as I did with the Chile & DR packages, I will post the pictures first for you all to look over. Then, you can let me know if I forgot anyone or anything before I pack up the box and ship it out.

For the Christmas packages (orders will start in August/September), I will have things set up a little differently to make it easier on my end. There is no need to explain it now, so I will wait until the day comes that things are being ordered for Christmas. We will, also, have the MIC items available in time for those packages, so dolls can be purchased for the HH4H & Zambian children.

To make a final order (must be ordered by midnight tonight), click here And, YES, a package will be sent to CUS Uganda. Small orders are allowed, so one to three items per child should be the max ordered.

What is going on at Make a Change?

Today I decided to break down and tell every one a few of the things that are coming up and some things that are already going on at Make a Change. This is very important, especially for those who do not follow the group regularly. There are so many things going on at one time, it can be hard to keep up.

For those of you who do keep track of the group, you have seen a lot happen in less than a year's time. I am sure it will surprise you to know that what you see is only the tip of the iceberg!! Here is a list of things that are going on/are in the process of being started:

1. The fundraisers have been a huge success. As you can see by the posts, we have helped many families and continue to help more and more. Numerically, we are on fundraiser #19, but we have had emergency fundraisers and an A&B fundraiser that make us over the #20 spot in fundraiser completion. The exciting part is getting the pictures and thank yous back from the field. When you get a chance, take a look at the complete projects page of the web-site. I would like you to take a close look at the faces of the children and their parents. Pause for a minute & really look at them. Then, try to put yourself in their shoes and imagine just how they might be feeling. It is truly AMAZING!

2. The summer reading packages are in full swing. A package is going to almost every community center that CI services. In each package, there are smaller packages for each child whose sponsor wants to participate. I would say an average would be about 10 children will be serviced by one package (as more sponsors begin to participate). That means that as the packages arrive to their destinations some time in the spring, they will be given to those children they are destined for... And, THEN, by summer we will have lots of photos & thank yous from some very happy children. Each sponsor will get their own pictures & letters, so it will be up to the sponsor to forward the correspondence to me to be shared with the group. I have a feeling I will have to post more come summertime! (right now I only post 2 times a day). To participate, and send your sponsor child items, check out the web-store. Any excess funds made from the purchase of the items in the web store goes directly to our fundraisers!!

3. We have done a reading program for CUS in Uganda as well. Two large priority boxes full of books were sent last year (over 100 books were sent!). One of the big boxes has already arrived along with a package full of bead bracelets & necklaces. These bix boxes of gifts will be given to the children when they return to school in February.

4. Shortly, I will be providing some information on how you will be able to help in a mass IGP (income-generating project). I am gathering information now on setting up several women with a group business. The business will provide these women with the life skills they need to survive & take care of their families. They will receive training in a craft, and will participate full time in the business. The products they produce will be brought here to the US & sold. Once sold, the money will be divided with the group of business women- We will have constant feedback & pictures. I will tell you about the women, and we will get to see first hand the items they are making. Then, we will make the business happen for them, and watch their lives transform!!!

5. Some of you have been following this group long enough to remember what I said about 1 year ago. It would be great to have a group of volunteers to go out to these poor communities & help (hands-on!!!) Some of you expresses interest in this as well. The good news is that despite the nay-sayers (which, by the way you can always find one if you are looking for them), I will soon have more information on this aspect of the group. I will be speaking with a representative of an organization I have worked with in the past. I am supposed to catch up with him next week, since he is presently in the Dominican Republic. I will be speaking with him about how we can get our sponsor children's communities in to their projects & how we can participate. The realization of the dream will probably not happen until 2011, as it will take a lot of time to plan. BUT, it is great news all the same!!

Those are the 5 bullet points I wanted to get out there, so that you all will know what is going on. It is much more than you see (as you can tell), and I try not to think about it all at once- It is really overwhelming what all we have the potential of doing. It is the purpose of the group- Make a Change is about making an everlasting change in people's lives and the world. The group is not about me- It is all of you making a difference together!!

This has turned into a full-time job for me, though I don't get paid to do it. I do it because it is exciting to see the difference it makes, and I would hope that someone would do the same for me if the roles were reversed. I do many things behind the scenes to get the projects completed, and I can always use some help (no matter how small). I will have some ideas for those who wish to help coming up this afternoon... So, stay tuned!

Bracelets, Necklaces & Books for CUS

Great news!!! As you can see, one of our large boxes of books & the medium-size priority box of necklaces & bracelets have made it to Kampala!! (our 2 boxes are on the bottom) The children are still on Christmas vacation, but will be returning in February. They are going to be in for a treat!!

Thank you all who participated~ I can't even imagine how the children will react when they see all that is waiting for them!

I, also, want to say thank you for your patience. It takes so long to get a package to Uganda, and replies back from the children. I can guarantee you that your kind gestures have not been in vain! Please remain patient for the children~ They have been through and continue to go through more in their short lives (depending on how old they are) than most of us will ever go through if we live to be 100 years old!!

A Real Tear-Jerker

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

Box of Books #2 to CUS in Uganda!

Another big shipment of books is headed to Kampala, Uganda!!! Thanks to these great folks who contributed money for shipping:

McKenzie Fritch

Sharon Clyburn

Suzanne Lowry

Janice Wilkinson

Brenda Hagood

I was able to give 62 books, and the box weighs 14 pounds!!! Wow! We have now given CUS over 100 books in time for Christmas!

I am still willing to keep up with my end of the bargain, and I will ship out as many books as you all can pay the shipping for. If you would like to contribute to another shipment of books, I will ship out the books as soon as the contribution gets to $50 (one large flat rate box costs $51.25 to ship to Uganda). Of course, I will keep you posted as the funds come in to let you know how we are progressing. Payments can be sent via paypal to hhamilton2002@hotmail.com

I am, also, hoping that within a few weeks we will get the pictures of our first shipment to Hellen at CUS. Thanks everyone!

Meet Akenda Joshua

For whatever reason, Akenda Joshua was not at school when Hellen gathered my group together to take a group picture. She finally caught up with him & gave him his uniform. He was very happy to learn he has a sponsor. (He looks pretty happy to me)