Viola lives in the slums of Kampala, Uganda with her parents and five siblings. Living conditions in this area are cramped and unsanitary. Viola’s family lives in a small, brick, two-bedroom house. The whole family shares one room and the other one is used to house chickens and a goat that are being raised to sell.
When the lockdown measures hit the world this spring, each of our programs had to pivot from their normal services at schools, churches and community centers, and venture out with more home visits to care for our children. This cost a bit more, but we knew it was what we needed to do.
Viola is one of the children our team in Uganda visited. During one of the home visits, we realized that Viola and her siblings were sleeping almost on bare ground. They were sleeping on thin, dirty, browned pieces of pad that had to be put together for one to sleep on, along with torn-up blankets that can hardly bring warmth in the cold.
Our staff realized Viola was one of the children who, whenever they got the chance to meet up with her, either had a cough or flu, and if not, she was complaining of back and body pains. This could have been a result of the poor sleeping conditions.
Our Uganda team got together and decided to get two mattresses and three blankets for the family.
Our Uganda team reports, “The joy, gratitude, and tears in their eyes when receiving the beds and blankets was worth a memory in our hearts and they now sleep comfortably like they should.”
God used this pandemic to lead our staff to Viola’s home where they discovered this serious need for a real bed. God reached out to Viola with His tangible love not just in spite of this horrible season, but through it.
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9 yrs. old
Entered the program: January 2019
Gideon lives with his grandmother and several cousins in a two-bedroom house made of burnt bricks and a cement floor. Gideon is the youngest of all the grand children and shares a bed with his grandmother while the rest of the children sleep in the other room on two tiny beds. Every morning, the children go to the community borehole to collect water before they go to school. The kitchen is outside and also houses the goats and chicken that the family keeps. The latrine is in very bad condition and the local authorities have often advised them to repair it but the family has no resources.
Gideon's cousin, Johnson, is also in the Light A Candle program.
Plus bonus group fundraising ideas!
