Mentors
Moving Mountains has partnered with StepUp Uganda to bring education programs
and trade skills to individuals in the village of Katosi so that the community
can become empowered and self-sufficient. By raising the funds for educational
programs for the children and valuable trade skills for the women, we are
empowering them with the knowledge necessary to earn a living so that they can meet
the basic needs of the people of the village. We know that if we were to
provide the people of the Katosi village with the things that they need, like
housing, food, or clothing, the joy would be short lived; however, if we supply
them with the knowledge to earn these things on their own, they are able to
envision a life or promise. When they realize that the skills and knowledge
that they can obtain through these programs gives them the ability to provide
for themselves and others, for years to come, their eyes light up with the
endless possibilities and hope for the future. With this realization and hope
for the future comes an unquenchable eagerness to learn that many Americans may
find anomalous of what we are used to witnessing in our country; however, it is
this unquenchable thirst t that drives these women and children to share their
knowledge and skills with others within the village. By teaching just one
individual, we can cause a ripple effect that has the ability to bring about a
major change in the economic and health status of the village of Katosi.
The
Katosi village mainly consists of widowed women and young children. AIDS, a
prominent health concern that affected over 92% of the population, had left
many children orphaned and many women lost, without their sole supporters. The
widows and young women were expected to care for the old and dying, as well as
the many children of the village, without the skills or means necessary to care
for themselves, much less the many orphaned children. After a visit to Africa,
in 2005, StepUp’s founder and President, Kathy Darnell, knew when she first
stepped foot in the village of Katosi, that she had found her calling. After
almost a decade of dedication to her work in the Katosi village as director of
the Ssejinja Children’s Foundation-Durango (SCFD), in 2012 StepUp Uganda was formally
founded. StepUp Uganda’s quest is to encourage the growth of the community and
culture by providing basic funding for sustainable projects. Unlike many
organizations, the success of StepUp relies on the village’s participation in
the projects; thus, strives to promote a difference that is both
self-sustainable and designed by those who are affected by the change, the
people of the Katosi village.
Since
Kathy first started her missions in the Katosi village in 2006, the movement
towards growth and prosperity of the village has grown immensely; however,
there is still a major need for funding for several of StepUp’s projects that
will allow for the community to thrive, the Widows Group Sewing School and the
John Bosco School for the orphans. The Widows Group Sewing School is a means
for vulnerable young women from the village to gain a trade skill that will
allow them to earn an income that will help them provide for themselves and to meet the needs of the many orphans in the
village. By providing education and the skills in the trade of sewing, these
young women are able enter into contracts that allow them to make uniforms for local
schools which helps to provide a sustainable economy for the village. We pray
that you will help us raise the funds necessary to send thirty of these
vulnerable young women to trade school and supply them with the means necessary
to provide for their village.
The
second project that we need help funding is the John Bosco School for Orphans. The
school is a small wood structure that was built by the Sekalalas, a local
family, was intended to be a place where they could help by teaching a few of
the local orphans. In 2010, when the school opened, 87 children, ranging in
ages three to twelve, attended the first day of school. Within three months,
there were over 365children attending the school, and within that year, another
grade level was added, bringing the total attendance to 435 students. As you
can probably imagine, the good intentions of the Sekalalas were overshadowed by
overwhelming demand for more teachers, more supplies, and a more suitable
building to house the many orphans. The small, seven room, wooden structure
with dirt floors could no longer sustain the schools needs for the amount of
children who wished to attend the school and have an opportunity of a better
way of life.
With
the funds you help us raise in this campaign, you will be playing a major role
in the development of the Katosi village. $15,000.00 will go towards the Widows
Sewing Project. It will cover 30 vulnerable women’s tuition to attend a year of
sewing classes and provide each woman with their own manual sewing machine upon
graduation. These women will then have the skills necessary that will to
provide food, adequate healthcare, education, and shelter to the people of the
Katosi village. These women also promise to “pay it forward” by helping to
educate and mentor other young women from their village by sharing the skills
and knowledge that they were blessed to be given the opportunity with this
campaign. The other $15,000 will go towards the John Bosco School for Orphans.
The money will be spent on bringing the building up to code so that it can be
registered with Uganda’s equivalent of the Board of Education. This would include
a new tin roof and replacing wood walls and dirt floor with blocks and
concrete. We hope that by including the young men on the construction of the
project, we will be able to equip them with valuable masonry skills that could
also help them to earn a living. Any money left over from the construction of
the school would be put towards books and other materials for the school.
Just
imagine a place where children are huddled on a concrete floor, around a
teacher, who is showing them pictures of the births of all types of life forms,
explaining how each came to be. That spark of excitement in the child’s eye as
he/she makes the connection that we all started from something so small and
became something so great. That excitement that makes him/her run to explain
what he/she has learned with his little brother or sister. Imagine the children
holding hands, running out into the World to discover and observe those same
origins in nature that caused their excitement and wonder. The next day, they
bring in their object of fascination to share it with others in their class,
causing and uproar as they realize the connection from what was taught to them
the day before and what they were now holding in their hands and sharing that
knowledge with the class. It is that same wonder and excitement that we have
the opportunity to share with the people of the Katosi village as we come
together, as humanity, to give birth to something truly beautiful. It is not
what the money will provide, in materialistic sense, but rather, the hope and
wonder it brings. With that wonder comes faith and it is faith that will sustain
all that is good for evermore. Just as with anything that God has ever created,
we must rely on the love and giving of our surroundings if we are to grow and
evolve. With kind actions and love of others, we are all given hope, and when
you have hope, you dream. When a dream is born, it is love that blossoms.
Now imagine that you
are one of the people who helped to plant that seed of hope!
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