Uganda- Part 2

The next few days of our World Vision trip centered around these themes:
Chuch Partership, Microfinance Loans, Clean Water, Health, and Education.  Here are some of the highlights...

Faith Anna playing with some of the children during the meeting on church partnership

DAY 1- CONTINUED 
CHURCH PARTNERSHIP
After we met with our sponsored kids that first morning, we spent the afternoon hearing from several local pastors about Church Partnership.  Paul from WV spoke, who is over 4 ADPs (Area Development Project) including ours in Kyalulangira.  He talked about how the Church is leading the way in this development...and that World Vision merely supports them.  It was very empowering to the locals and really instilled a vision in their hearts for their people and community.

 A beautiful church that we met in with the pastors.

MICROFINANCE

Next we headed out into the villages to meet with three different families who had been positively impacted by World Vision's Microfinance Loans.

We were hearing from a local farmer who took advantage of these loans in order to help him get started by buying him several cattle.  With the cattle, he has been able to use the income he earns from the milk, cheese, and butter he sells- to not only pay back the loan, but to also buy seed and farming equipment he needs for his farming business.  He is now able to provide for his family and send his children to school.  All because he was able to borrow the small amount of money he needed to get started from World Vision.

 This is another wonderful way you can get involved with World Vison beyond Child Sponsorship.  Go to www.worldvision.org and look under the tab called Ways to Give.  Then scroll down to Microfinance.  They have pictures and stories you can look through to choose whom you would like to help with a loan.

 The family sent us with a basket of mangos for coming out and visiting them.  Faith Anna tried her head at carrying them the way the locals do!

 Faith Anna was always among a sea of children...

 Swollen belly from malnutrition.

 Paul Johnson, our local Team World Vision rep, with some of the Uganda World Vision team- Jonan, Paul, and Grace.

DAY 2- CLEAN WATER

We traveled over 2 hours to a remote part of Kyalulangira to visit one of the Clean Water Projects at a Primary School.  Here the children greeted us with traditional tribal song and dance.  It was beautiful.

Afterward, they asked the Americans to sing for them!  So Rick Brown and I led our group in a couple of songs.  It was a lot of fun.

Here Paul is speaking at a local water committee meeting.  He is again empowering the locals to really think through what it means to have clean water in their community.  He first asked the committee what their Knowledge of clean water was, then what were they currently Practicing to have  clean water, and lastly, what was their Vision for clean water in the future.  It was incredible.  He is a gifted leader and servant of Christ!

 This is one of the rain collection storage containers that World Vision is installing in the ADPs.  It works with tin roofs draining down into gutters that then drain into the containers.  This primary school had everything in place but the gutters.  They were hopeful that the rain gutters would be arriving soon so that they could begin collecting in the rainy season.

 Saying goodbye to the kids at the Primary School

 We then traveled to see an example of a "dirty water source".  There was actually a little boy at this icky pond with his yellow jerry can, collecting water for his family.  I couldn't even believe it.

 Another important function of World Vision is education.  Educating on things like straining and boiling the water that they drink, and getting drinking water from wells if at all possible.

 Walking to see another community's rain collection device that they already have up and running.

 This collection system already had the gutters installed and was fully operational.  It has already helped so many in the community- but there are still so many without clean water.  I began to feel frustrated, overwhelmed, and discouraged....that even though they were doing such good, there was still such a long way to go.  But this is not how the World Vision staff believe.  They believe that change happens one child, one person at a time.  All they need is one glimmer of hope to envision positive change.  That challenges my faith so much!  Romans 4 talks about how Abraham hoped against all hope....and it was credited to him as righteousness.  That's how this staff views clean water in Uganda.

Here is a YouTube video about a clean water project WV did in Kenya...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxBPp9bzBvs

 DAY 3- HEALTH
We went to visit an Outpatient Health Clinic that our church, The Heights, and World Vision together provided the funds to build.

 Such a beautiful, clean clinic- only a year old.  We were there on child immunization day.  So moms from villages all over traveled with their little ones to have them weighed, their growth charted, and to have their shots.  This is just another great example of how WV is supporting the local community in sustainable projects that will stand the test of time.

 Faith Anna with 2 of the clinic nurses.

 Moms and babies in the waiting area.

 Weighing babies.

 I even got to give shots!

 Isn't this a beautiful mom and baby girl??

 While I was giving shots, Faith Anna was leading all the kids in some serious games of Simon Says...

 This was the old health clinic.

 Very dirty inside, and wouldn't meet the health codes anymore.  They still use it for overflow patients, though, and to house the medical staff that comes in to work.

 Grabbed a pic with my cutie girl on our way home...

 I love this pic with the little one's tiny feet poking out from sister's back.  

 Another sister helping carry the baby on her back.

 They hang the fish to dry because it keeps longer.  

 In the afternoon, we visited 3 families that had HIV+ family members and heard how World Vision organizes support groups and provides HIV+ counselors.  One such counselor, Jolie, lived in Viola's village.  So we made a stop by  her house to say hello.

 Jolie is the lady in yellow.  She is HIV + and has chosen to become a counselor to help educate others and support their families through this disease process.  She was an incredible lady who promised to watch after Viola and her family.

 Viola's house

DAY 4- EDUCATION
On our last day with World Vision, we visited several schools and saw what a huge impact WV is making in the schools and lives of children through education.  It was incredible.  From supplies, to uniforms, to school desks, World Vision is there supporting the local community and doing all they can to get the children in school.  Above is a Primary 4 math class we visited- similar to our 4th grade.  There were 53 students crammed into this small classroom- but all so respectful to the teacher, paying attention, and doing their best.

One huge take-home I gained from this trip is how central CLEAN WATER is to eliminating the cycle of poverty.  When there is no clean water source, children are fetching water several times a day, from sometimes miles away.  Dirty water not only leads to disease, but it also takes so much of their time that they aren't able to attend school.  When they can't go to school, they can't get an education.  Without an education, they can't get jobs and earn an income.  With no income, they aren't able to provide for themselves or their family- so they go hungry and are in poor health.  No jobs also increases the amount of milling around, which increases things like promiscuity, which increases the incidence of HIV.  And on and on and on and on.....

If we could all just help our neighbors to have clean water, so much of this cycle could be broken.  We take for granted turning on the faucet and clean water pouring forth.  Showers, dishwasher, sprinkler system, garden hose, washing machine, toilets, cold water from the fridge- we think we have an endless supply.  But what if we didn't?  What if we started living like we didn't?  What if we started living with them in mind?  Check out this video about what life would be like without clean water....

http://www.worldvision.org/#/home/gallery/dirty-water-5-1191

 Team World Vision is another way you can get involved.  They are a sponsor of the Dallas Half on October 22 and the White Rock in December.  If you want to stay in shape AND raise money for clean water in Africa, sign up to run or even walk the 5 mile on October 22.

You can let your friends and family know, and they can sponsor you.  Here is my link if you'd like to partner with me for clean water!

http://support.worldvision.org/site/TR/TeamWorldVision/General?px=1134143&pg=personal&fr_id=1381

Thank you so much!  More from Africa next blog...