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Sponsor a Child Sponsorship Program Sponsor a Child…and Help Uganda Grow There’s something different about Kabalagala, Uganda. It takes a while to realize it, but then you see: it’s a place overloaded with children but there are few adults. AIDS, combined with grinding poverty and other life-threatening diseases, has ravaged the community and stolen its parents. As a result, orphaned children overwhelm their extended families, whose scant resources are already stretched to their limit trying to care for their own children. Uganda has one of the largest AIDS orphan problems in all of Africa, and the slum of Kabalagala has been hit particularly hard. So many of the children suffer from the twin traumas of poverty and loneliness: the protruding stomach, the feeling that there’s nowhere to go, that there’s little hope for a better life. Sometimes they are haunted by the death of their loved ones, while they care for their younger siblings. No doctor comes calling when they are sick. Nights are mostly spent sleeping on dirt floors. Living on the fringe, street life is the recourse for many of these children, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. It’s wrong to let these children, who have suffered so much, fall through the cracks. That’s why, in 2006, i.HUG began a sponsorship program that works with donors and the community in Kabalagala to provide educational opportunities, healthcare, and other basic life necessities for the youngest, poorest, and most vulnerable of these children. One by one, i.HUG’s work is changing the lives of children in this area, offering them a chance for a childhood in place of the prison of poverty that has denied so many this basic right. How can you make a difference in a child’s life? Sponsors donate $360 a year to i.HUG, which partners with community leaders to ensure your sponsored child receives an education, a school uniform, books, and basic healthcare. In return, donors receive letters and photos from their sponsored child, along with updates on that child’s progress. So many children need help—but it starts by helping one. Together, with your support and compassion, we can Help Uganda Grow. Where does the Sponsorship money go? What are the benefits of sponsoring a child? i.HUG’s sponsorship program is appropriate for donors who wish to gain a long-term and deep connection with a needy child in Uganda. This one-to-one connection can be felt on both sides of the relationship—by the little girl or boy who can begin their new life filled with hope and the opportunity to go to school, and by the sponsor who has donated this opportunity, and engaged in the special bond that changing a life brings. Donors will initially receive a profile and photo of the child they are sponsoring to help them get acquainted. They will also receive letters from their sponsored child throughout the year and, if they so choose, electronic updates and photos of their sponsored child, as well as other i.HUG activities in Uganda. Click here to sponsor a child in Kabalagala, Uganda. A Day in the Life We hear so often that many children in Africa live in extremely poor, harsh conditions. But this information can often lose its meaning without a deeper understanding of the context—and what it means to not have enough money to go to school, or the doctor, or any of the many things that allow children to live a safe and productive childhood. To help foster a better understanding, we offer an account of a typical day in the life of a child in Kabalagala, Uganda. The sun rises and Alice takes her mat and blanket off the dusty, cold, cement floor. She rolls it up, and begins the job of sweeping the small house in which she lives with her grandmother and five cousins. Taking the yellow plastic water container, she leaves the house to begin her first chore of the day: because there is no running water, she must fetch water from the communal taps. Alice knows the importance of this task. The water she collects will be used for cleaning, washing clothes, cooking, and after it has been boiled, they will also drink it. The walk to the tap is easy—a five-minute walk down a sharp hill—but the walk back is much more difficult. It’s been raining heavily, and the hill is slippery, making the uphill climb on an empty stomach particularly tricky to do without spilling the precious water. However, Alice has found her own ways to enjoy the morning. Her stride falls in step with the many other children performing similar chores, as they skip and dance and tell jokes. This is their time, away from the eyes of adults, to have some fun before getting back to the harsh reality of life. Alice, like many other children in Uganda, is an orphan. Her parents died of AIDS when she was just five years old. She went to live with her Jaja (which means grandmother in her native language, Luganda), who was already taking care of her five cousins. Her brothers and sisters, who she rarely sees, went to live with different relatives on the opposite side of Kampala. She misses her brothers and sisters and wonders when her Jaja will have enough money for them to take the bus to go and visit them again. Even though she was young when they died, Alice really misses her parents. But she loves her Jaja, who despite her old age and aching legs, does everything she can to support the many children now crowding her home. Unfortunately, Jaja can only make a few shillings selling the tomatoes she grows on a small patch of land outside the makeshift house where they live. There’s little money left for anything else, not even medicine when the children get sick. But perhaps what’s most difficult for Alice is that she will not have the chance to go to school. She thinks of the unending days in front of her, fetching water and dragging it up the steep hill. When she begged her Jaja for the money to pay for school fees and a uniform, the old lady’s eyes grew wide and wet, and she said, “Who has ever heard of a Jaja who sold enough tomatoes to send her five grandchildren to school?” Alice knows how much this hurts her grandmother, so she doesn’t ask to go to school anymore. As Alice trudges back home carefully holding the container of water, she thinks about the long day ahead of her and the seemingly endless back-breaking chores. On the way, she hears the laughter of the children from the local primary school, who are outside having their physical education lesson. She turns her head away, and thinks about her trip to the water tap again later in the day, when she can play with her friends who suffer with her. There are hundreds of children like Alice who need your help. To sponsor a child, and help them lead a better life, click <here> for more information. Sponsor Now Click here to sponsor a child and Help Uganda Grow.

Sponsor a Child

Sponsorship Program

Sponsor a Child…and Help Uganda Grow

There’s something different about Kabalagala, Uganda. It takes a while to realize it, but then you see: it’s a place overloaded with children but there are few adults. AIDS, combined with grinding poverty and other life-threatening diseases, has ravaged the community and stolen its parents. As a result, orphaned children overwhelm their extended families, whose scant resources are already stretched to their limit trying to care for their own children.

Uganda has one of the largest AIDS orphan problems in all of Africa, and the slum of Kabalagala has been hit particularly hard. So many of the children suffer from the twin traumas of poverty and loneliness: the protruding stomach, the feeling that there’s nowhere to go, that there’s little hope for a better life. Sometimes they are haunted by the death of their loved ones, while they care for their younger siblings. No doctor comes calling when they are sick. Nights are mostly spent sleeping on dirt floors. Living on the fringe, street life is the recourse for many of these children, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

It’s wrong to let these children, who have suffered so much, fall through the cracks. That’s why, in 2006, i.HUG began a sponsorship program that works with donors and the community in Kabalagala to provide educational opportunities, healthcare, and other basic life necessities for the youngest, poorest, and most vulnerable of these children. One by one, i.HUG’s work is changing the lives of children in this area, offering them a chance for a childhood in place of the prison of poverty that has denied so many this basic right.

How can you make a difference in a child’s life?

Sponsors donate $360 a year to i.HUG, which partners with community leaders to ensure your sponsored child receives an education, a school uniform, books, and basic healthcare. In return, donors receive letters and photos from their sponsored child, along with updates on that child’s progress. So many children need help—but it starts by helping one. Together, with your support and compassion, we can Help Uganda Grow.

Where does the Sponsorship money go?

What are the benefits of sponsoring a child?

i.HUG’s sponsorship program is appropriate for donors who wish to gain a long-term and deep connection with a needy child in Uganda. This one-to-one connection can be felt on both sides of the relationship—by the little girl or boy who can begin their new life filled with hope and the opportunity to go to school, and by the sponsor who has donated this opportunity, and engaged in the special bond that changing a life brings.

Donors will initially receive a profile and photo of the child they are sponsoring to help them get acquainted. They will also receive letters from their sponsored child throughout the year and, if they so choose, electronic updates and photos of their sponsored child, as well as other i.HUG activities in Uganda.

Click here to sponsor a child in Kabalagala, Uganda.

A Day in the Life

We hear so often that many children in Africa live in extremely poor, harsh conditions. But this information can often lose its meaning without a deeper understanding of the context—and what it means to not have enough money to go to school, or the doctor, or any of the many things that allow children to live a safe and productive childhood. To help foster a better understanding, we offer an account of a typical day in the life of a child in Kabalagala, Uganda.

The sun rises and Alice takes her mat and blanket off the dusty, cold, cement floor. She rolls it up, and begins the job of sweeping the small house in which she lives with her grandmother and five cousins. Taking the yellow plastic water container, she leaves the house to begin her first chore of the day: because there is no running water, she must fetch water from the communal taps. Alice knows the importance of this task. The water she collects will be used for cleaning, washing clothes, cooking, and after it has been boiled, they will also drink it.

The walk to the tap is easy—a five-minute walk down a sharp hill—but the walk back is much more difficult. It’s been raining heavily, and the hill is slippery, making the uphill climb on an empty stomach particularly tricky to do without spilling the precious water. However, Alice has found her own ways to enjoy the morning. Her stride falls in step with the many other children performing similar chores, as they skip and dance and tell jokes. This is their time, away from the eyes of adults, to have some fun before getting back to the harsh reality of life.

Alice, like many other children in Uganda, is an orphan. Her parents died of AIDS when she was just five years old. She went to live with her Jaja (which means grandmother in her native language, Luganda), who was already taking care of her five cousins. Her brothers and sisters, who she rarely sees, went to live with different relatives on the opposite side of Kampala. She misses her brothers and sisters and wonders when her Jaja will have enough money for them to take the bus to go and visit them again.

Even though she was young when they died, Alice really misses her parents. But she loves her Jaja, who despite her old age and aching legs, does everything she can to support the many children now crowding her home. Unfortunately, Jaja can only make a few shillings selling the tomatoes she grows on a small patch of land outside the makeshift house where they live. There’s little money left for anything else, not even medicine when the children get sick.

But perhaps what’s most difficult for Alice is that she will not have the chance to go to school. She thinks of the unending days in front of her, fetching water and dragging it up the steep hill. When she begged her Jaja for the money to pay for school fees and a uniform, the old lady’s eyes grew wide and wet, and she said, “Who has ever heard of a Jaja who sold enough tomatoes to send her five grandchildren to school?” Alice knows how much this hurts her grandmother, so she doesn’t ask to go to school anymore.

As Alice trudges back home carefully holding the container of water, she thinks about the long day ahead of her and the seemingly endless back-breaking chores. On the way, she hears the laughter of the children from the local primary school, who are outside having their physical education lesson. She turns her head away, and thinks about her trip to the water tap again later in the day, when she can play with her friends who suffer with her.

There are hundreds of children like Alice who need your help. To sponsor a child, and help them lead a better life, click <here> for more information.

Sponsor Now

Click here to sponsor a child and Help Uganda Grow.