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Uganda 2017
Dear Friends of Help Orphans And Widows. Even though I wasn’t able to go to Uganda this year, our vital work continued. The top pictures 1-5 show Dr. Sam giving food to 145 of our 245 widow families because of the drought and famine. This is the first time in 10 years we needed to give food because of the drought. Dr. Sam is such an important part of our charity. He didn’t just ask us if we would pay to feed them, he insisted. I recognize a lot of those widows, and they are very dear to me. Picture #1 shows them joyfully waving to the camera (us). Picture 4 shows some of the children included. We rejoice that we could take care of them in this way.
Pictures 6-8 show some of 10 crippled widows who received mattresses from us this year. I asked Sam if we could give wheelchairs to 3 or them because I know they just sit in the dirt all day. He didn’t think that was practical, and asked us to give mattresses to 10 of them he identified. He said their families couldn’t afford to give them mattresses, and they sleep on the hard floors, which is very uncomfortable. I surely recognize Ikoolit from 2012 in picture #7. We hear she died this year, but we think we made her last years better. Her family has been successful in raising her herd thus far.
Dr. Sam sent hundreds of pictures of goats, and it was difficult deciding my favorites. In most, the goats have their backsides turned toward the camera because they don’t like Dr. Sam. Picture #9 is Leah, a real superstar from 2008. Picture #11 is delightful to see the children and mom holding 4 baby goats. Pictures 12 and 13 are such a familiar sight in front of their huts. Picture 14 shows how dry everything is as the widow stands under a mango tree with her herd. In picture 15, I recognized widowTeddy from 2008 right away. She is a group leader, and very enterprising. Picture 16 shows a pile of cassava roots (we call them tapioca) drying on the ground and a big turkey in the background. And I really enjoyed picture 17. I recognized the BEAUTIFUL goat right away belonging to Arigo Elizabeth from 2016. Her herd multiplied quickly with twins and twins again!
You may remember that we give only Anglo Nubian dairy goats because they are native to the area. At first, it was hard to find farms that raised them. They were pretty wild, and sometimes got sick because of moving from a different area. Now, since our widows give us back a goat in the 4th year, we are able to get them plus buy extras from them. That’s the way it should be, isn’t it? Their goats are really tame and healthy. Every year, we also have to replace some goats that have died. Dr. Sam has implemented a program I will call “Goats On Layaway”. When a widow has a financial need, he will pay her for a young goat, and wait until it is old enough to give to the next widow. So far, it has always worked out ok.
Anglo Nubian goats, if well cared for, have far more twins and triplets than other varieties. AND, they produce baby goats every 5 to 6 months. European type goats have winter and summer factored into their genes, and only produce baby goats once a year. Every goat our widows can sell is worth approximately a year’s income. As you can see, some of our widows are wealthy!!! They have food for their families, they can afford school fees (pronounced skull fizz by Dr. Sam), several have bought cows, a bull to plow and rent out as oxen, and some have even bought land!!! I can’t imagine it! It has turned into far more than just providing milk to hungry children.
My missionary son and his family are in the US again on their 4 year furlough. For that reason, I couldn’t go to Uganda in 2017. They take care of me, transport me around, help me get supplies, and volunteer countless hours helping the charity. They were taking food to several villages, and saw some really needy people. Just before they left on furlough in April, they helped their local little hospital in Ngora set up a sickle cell anemia clinic. It just needed someone to take the responsibility and get it started. There were 94 patients the first time. Now, 6 months later, they are treating 725 patients, mostly children! It is such a painful ailment, and most of the children who have it don’t make it to adulthood. Especially if they get malaria, which is another assault on the red blood cells. I asked Dr. Sam to identify if any of our HOW children have it, and we are now having them treated in the different area near Soroti where they live.
Thank you for your support. We are three women from Rapid City who saw a need and established a 501(c )(3) non-profit Charity. We do not receive pay for our work, and work entirely as volunteers. All that has been accomplished was made possible with gifts you have given from the goodness of your hearts. You can read about our beginnings, and yearly updates if you go to our website www.helporphansandwidows.org Also, these pictures on the website will be much larger and easier to see than on this pictoral. There are many heart-warming anecdotal stories about our work with these dear, grateful people. In Uganda, it is tradition to believe that women do not own property. When their husbands die, the brothers come and take all her property. Jobs are not available in the outlying villages, and our widows gratefully make a success of raising their goat herds.
Sincerely, Karen, Bonnie and Carol
Help Orphans And Widows
PO Box 9362
Rapid City, SD 57709