Priorities for Hope Home

We are so proud and delighted that six Hope Home girls have the opportunity to attend secondary school this year! A big thank you to everyone who made this possible by donating towards the ESCAPE Scholarship fund. Without your support, these girls would not be able to attend school.

Our main concern right now is that our girls will be able to attend school, hassle free. Because they are all girls who will be living at Hope Home, they will all be going to day school.

In Uganda, there are day schools and boarding schools. The majority of students go to boarding schools as just going for the day may be too far and transport too expensive. All of our girls will be going to day school and then returning to Hope Home in the evening. Our concern right now is that since Hope Home is not yet open, they will be forced to go back home after school.

Returning home after school poses a number of problems for the girls. We have already noticed some jealous feelings surfacing among guardians who would rather not see the girls go to secondary school. They see this as a lose of labour, as most of the girls cook, clean, take care of small children, fetch water, and do any other tasks the family tells them to do. Coming home after school would also not give them the opportunity to study peacefully, something important to their academic success.

Because of this, we will be opening Hope Home early and starting off with our six graduates. They are Darphine, Dinah, Ketty, Rebecca, Scovia and Betty. It is just as important that the other 8 girls can join as soon as possible. If you would like to see the doors of Hope Home open to all our girls as soon as possible, please consider making a donation. Our priority as of now is to be able to properly feed and home the girls. We are so grateful to everyone who has already donated and those that plan on giving!

Hope Home will need $66 each month to cover an entire month's worth of food. Consider skipping a restaurant meal once or twice this month, and instead feed our girls twice a day for 31 days with your donation!

Future Hope Home girl, Auma Susan, helping prepare lunch at CUS. Molly, Darphine, and Betty are also in this photo.

One girl too many

I am very sad to report, but we have lost one of our future Hope Home girls.

Nyapendi Betty was living with her step mother who did not see Betty as her own child. Her father was rarely home, as he had work in another district. He did care for Betty as best as he could, and was not abusive to her like his wife was. Being away so frequently and having little financial means to improve Betty's situation, this care came in the form of Betty knowing her father loved her. Within the last few weeks, her father became increasingly ill. He was made aware of the Hope Home plans and was delighted that Betty was included in the project plans.

When Hellen recently went to check up on Betty, she learned that her father had passed away. With his passing, her step mother went with Betty to a village in Northern Uganda. When the step mom returned to Kampala, she did not come back with Betty.

This situation plays out over and over again for many of the girls. This is why Hope Home is being created, for girls like Betty. Betty, like all of our girls, are on a list made up of girls who are "at-risk". Being on this list means that you are presently living in an abusive household, and are at risk of things getting a lot worse. Forced and sold into labour, prostitution, and marriage are what commonly happen.

We cannot let this happen to another one of our girls. Opening Hope Home all depends on donations. If the remaining funds needed came in tommorow, Hope Home would be able to open in the same week! 13 amazing girls would finally be able to live in peace.

Please consider making a donation or purchasing a needed item for the home on the online shop. A big thank you to everyone who has already rescued a girl or made a donation. You are making the future brighter for some very special girls!

Around the World Necklaces

We are excited to announce that there is now a fashionable way to help Hope Home!



Please check out www.aroundtheworldnecklaces.blogspot.com to purchase a beautiful necklace in support of Hope Home.

Online Shop: Outfit

It's hard to believe that we are already 16 days into the new year! The preparations for Hope Home continue, and we are now $2,023 away from being able to open.

The online shop is now up and such an easy and efficient way to help provide a safer present, and brighter future to our girls. Many of the needed items have a number next to them, which represent how many more are needed.

One of the items we would like each of our girls to have, is their own outfit. They will choose their outfits from the market which can be anything from jeans and a cute t-shirt, a dress, or a skirt and blouse. Whatever they feel most comfortable and happy with.

The outfits the girls currently have belong to their host family. As a way of humiliating the girls and to 'discipline' them, there have been incidences where the guardian will strip the girl of her clothing, or an article of clothing(such as a t-shirt). This is a way to punish a girl, and remind her of her place in the home, as a servant with no belongings.

We want to counteract this act of cruelty by giving each girl her own new outfit, one that she will choose and keep no matter what the future holds for her.

To be able to provide an outfit for each girl, we need 7 more outfits. These outfits will go to:

Auma Christine, Auma Susan, Athieno Darphine, Awor Winifred, Bukirwa Zaituni, Kwagala Rita, and Nyapendi Betty.

Each outfit is only $5.55. If you would like to purchase an outfit for one of the girls, please visit our online shop. If you would like to purchase all 7 outfits please make a donation of $38.85.

Thank you for helping a girl feel special, and bringing Hope Home one step closer to opening!

Meet Susan!

Susan is one of the girls who will be living at Hope Home once it opens. The following is a post by Kate, who met Susan and 9 of the other Hope Home girls on her trip to Uganda in June 2009.

I met Susan on my trip to visit Christian Upliftment Primary School (CUS). After years of working with the school as a sponsorship and fundraising coordinator, it was amazing to finally see it in person.

Susan is the kind of girl who after just a few minutes with her, you would think you knew her forever! She has such a joy for life, and is always laughing and helping others. I saw this immediately when arriving to the school as she helped the younger children line up to wash their hands before lunch. Or in my own experience, I had been itching a mosquito bite so badly that it bled a little. When Susan saw this, she immediately ran to get water and started washing my leg and ordering someone else to get me a bandaid. She continually asked me if I was ok throughout the day.

One of the highlights of the trip, for myself and the children, was visiting the amusement park in Kampala called "Didi's World". Incomparable to the theme parks in North America, it had small car rides and an ancient looking monorail. But, it proved to be more than fine for the kids. They had a blast! Susan asked if she could try to take a photo with my camera of some of the kids on the rides. As I was about to show her how to use it, she was already aiming the camera at people and snapping photos. She proved to be quite the amateur photographer! I asked her if she has ever used a camera before, and she told me that she has not. However, she was observing me taking the photos and knew she could do it to! This is just one of many examples of her amazing attitude when it comes to learning, always hungry for more knowledge and ready for a challenge. When I told her that there are some people who take pictures for a living, she was interested in knowing more. I promised her that the next time I visit I would take her some photography books so she can learn more.

Unfortunately, Susan does not have a home life which will allow her to grow and thrive to the best that she can be. She is determined, kind, and very intelligent. In North America and Europe, qualities like these are often looked for when giving out school scholarships and student awards. I would like to one day see Susan in Primary 7 with a scholarship lined up for high school, college, and then university. I may be getting a bit fast tracked, but what I truly want is for Susan to be able to live in a safe home, where these are the kinds of things she think about. No child should be worrying about if they will be abused today, or sent away to be a house servant or married off. But these are the things Susan and the twelve other girls have to worry about, day after day. It continually amazes me how strong each one of them are, and how much they value their education.

Hope Home has two main goals . The first is to rescue at-risk girls, who are in what we call the "danger zone"- girls like Susan. The second is to empower the girls once they have been rescued to continue their education. This will lead to them to becoming healthy, independant, educated young woman. The future of Uganda at its best!

Susan cooking lunch and teaching a younger student how it's done!

These girls are all truly amazing. There are so many worthwhile projects out there, and it can be daunting to think of starting up a new one. $3,000 is a lot of money, but I think for what it can do, it is so little. We can rescue Susan and all the other girls if we all do what we can. Even purchasing one item for a girl or the home will bring us one step closer to being able to open Hope Home!

You can take a look at the cost analysis post for more details on what is needed and the cost. Take a look at Susan's page to see what see needs by going here.

The Power of your Purchase

Have you ever heard the above saying before? With Christmas only four days away, it is peak season for shopping across the globe. Walking through a shopping mall can leave you feeling physically and emotionally exhausted. Everyone is on the look out for the perfect gift, at the perfect price. Finding that magical present for that special someone in your life can leave you with a sense of accomplishment and peace of mind.

At Hope Home, our Christmas list is the same as our wish list. Despite the girls being from ages 9 to 15, you won't find many similarities in their Christmas list to other girls their age. On the list you can find items like blankets, sanitary napkins, and eating utensils.

Why would anyone ask for a blanket for Christmas?! These thirteen girls are in need of everyday items to be able to move into Hope Home. Hope Home will provide them with a much better gift than toys or sweets- a safe and loving home. This is something that each one of our girls does not have right now, as they are all living in a home where they are abused. Your donation to help purchase the much needed supplies for the home will help rescue thirteen girls!

I know many people are probably wondering..

"How can purchasing an item truly rescue a girl? "

Hope Home has three basic needs we must meet to be able to open the home. This is rent, food, and the individual and collective needs of the home. These are things like beds, curtains, shoes, laundry shop, etc.

The home will only be able to open once every girl has the majority of her needed items purchased for her, as well as the collective needs of the home. By purchasing a blanket ($9.10) for Tracy or a mattress($31) for Molly, or even the curtains and door for the home($45), you are bringing all the girls one step closer to being able to be rescued and live at Hope Home.

This Christmas, please consider adding one of our girls to your Christmas list.

Happy Holidays,

From our future home to yours!

$1000 Matching Donation!

From now until November 1st 2010, all donations that come in will be matched up to $1000!! That means that your $1 donation turn into $2, or a $20 donation turns into $40!

Hellen with 9 out of the 13 girls who will be part of Hope Home and Rescue Center.

We need to raise an initial grand total of $3,222.99. This will purchase all the necesary items the girls need(mattress, blanket,shoes, etc) and items from which everyone will benefit(cooking pots, bunk beds, washing soap, etc). This will also go towards 6 months of rent, the salary of two care takers, and food.

If you would like to know more about the specific costs involved, please go to the Requirements and Cost Analysis post.

If you believe these girls deserve a safe place to live and that they should continue with their education, please support them by making a donation. All donations are gratefully appreciated, and will ensure that our girls are able to live in peace. Thank you for caring about 13, very special girls!