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UPDATE FOR 2013
How do you like these pictures of our barefoot businesswomen? In Uganda, if the husband dies, his brothers take all the property. They don’t believe women own property. In a Third World economy, the widows are unable to get jobs anywhere. They are taking their jobs as goat herders very seriously. They looked weak and hopeless when I first met them. Don’t they look wonderful now!!!
Many of you know that I was unable to go to Uganda in 2013. My son and his family are on furlough from their missionary work for one year from May 2013 to May 2014. I can’t go there when they aren’t there, because they do all the setup, buy all the supplies, take care of me, and take me around to the meetings. However, our work with the widows has gone forward in my absence. We continue to pay Dr. Sam to go out to doctor the goats and re-train our widows every three months. He recently sent over 300 pictures to fill us in for the past year. He is putting the motorcycle that we bought him to good use. It was remarkable to see how many widows have built up their herds during the past year! I cried for joy when scrolling through all the pictures. One widow’s “first” baby goat was triplets! There are many, many twin goats due to good care. As I have said before, the sale of one goat can bring a year’s income. These widows now have far more than sufficient milk for babies and school fees (pronounced skullfizz) for their children.
Last year, I told you how some widows have sent their children to private boarding school to catch up to their grade levels. It is exciting to hear their stories. Two have sold some goats and bought plots of land! An unimaginable dream! Another sold a goat because she had malaria, and needed to go to the hospital (you have to pay in advance there). Two have bought milk cows. This will bring good income although cows are harder to handle and have to be driven to water each day. Faith, our original widow from 2006, has sold a goat and bought a bicycle – transportation! One widow gave her grown son a goat for a bride price so he could get married. The widows can repair their mud block homes when the grass roofs have blown off in storms.
It will be interesting to return in 2014 and hear each widow’s update. It will be the 4th year for the 40 widows who received goats in 2010, and time for them to gift us with a goat. (We ask for a goat in the 4th year. That gives them time to have sufficient income so it won’t be such a burden to give a goat.) Several of them lost their first goats, but we gave them replacements and keep working with them. So they may not be so far along in building their herds. Goats have died from a kind of pneumonia, tick fever, African killer bees, and the most frequent cause is eating plastic bags and getting them impacted in their intestines. Dr. Sam gets frustrated if the widows don’t call him in time. He could operate on the goats and fix them up just fine. Yes, there are several people in each village who live in mud huts but have cell phones. Dr. Sam then pays them back for air time used. Last year, we gave Faith, our first widow, a cell phone, and are experimenting with her ability to make good use of it. She can charge people a few shillings to use it. There are cell phone towers all over Uganda, as land lines are unreliable and the poles fall over during the rainy seasons.
In addition to our 105 widow families, we have been setting up dairy goat herds with mission groups. The biggest project was in Meru, Kenya in 2011 when we gave $10,000 to fence a plot, build a barn and caretaker’s hut and buy a herd. They are trying to feed hundreds of orphans, and this should be a good income source. In the last report, they have a beautiful goat herd and are well started on their program. We have given $2,000 to brave Baptist Missionaries Marvin and Jewell Wright in NW Uganda near Sudan to the North and the Congo to the West. That isn’t a very safe area, and I don’t know if I will go up there to visit them! We have also given $2,000 to an orphanage that is in Liberia in West Africa, called “Bridges Of Hope West Africa”. It was established by several Rapid City Lutherans who saw a need in 2005, and have built a wonderful school and orphanage they call “City Of Hope”.
We have recently found a new orphanage that we want to help in SW Uganda with the Congo on the West and Rwanda to the South. It is called Potter’s Village, and a brave woman from England is running it. She rescues abandoned and sick babies. They contacted us and asked if we could find them a papa dairy goat. They said some babies can’t tolerate cow’s milk. Of course we already know that goat’s milk is better for the babies!!! We hope to give them not only a good papa Anglo Nubian goat, but some female Anglo Nubian goats, as well. This might not be accomplished until I get there next summer. Nothing happens there without a transfer of cash. We will buy the goats from our own widows, of course.
The next time you hear from me will probably be in September 2014 from Uganda if I have your email address and if I can send emails and pictures when sporadic phone service is working. We are a non-profit 501(c )(3) entity. We do not receive pay for our work and work entirely as volunteers. All that has been accomplished was made possible with gifts that you have given from the goodness of your hearts. Thank you so very much for your support. From Karen, Bonnie and Carol (karbonn@aol.com)