Gill and Carlos Olaaka - Uganda |
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Febuary 2008 Prayer Letter
Hello everyone
We hope you are doing fine and that 2008 is treating you well so far! We have had a busy, fun-filled few months, of course celebrating Christmas and New Year since the last newsletter. We had lots of activity at church over the festive season, with a wedding as well as carol services which Gill and the rest of the choir was part of. New Year was spent with some good Ugandan friends – seeing as we got home at 4am, you can gauge for yourself what a great time that was!!
Gill also visited India in November, for an Oasis global conference. Nearly 100 people from over 16 nations attended the conference, and it was an excellent time of sharing ideas, resources and enjoying Christian fellowship. Gill then participated in 1 week’s training on leadership development, which was very useful.
A lot has been going on in Bambejja, which has all been very exciting. All the girls received their end-of-year report cards and many did very well, with none having to repeat a class – a real testimony to the extra-curricular literacy classes which staff members run to help our girls, who have previously missed terms or even years of school, be at the same level as others. Although in Bambejja the focus of the work is on the children, their education and general well-being, we also do a lot of work with their carers – guardians, parents, or other relatives – to build their capacity to take care of their children. On example of this is carrying out training sessions for the carers in various subjects, such as health, hygiene, parenting, HIV and AIDS and practical skills. We recently taught some of the carers ‘urban gardening’, (photo below right) a really useful skill which enables them to grow small vegetable patches even when their land is minimal.
Another way we empower the carers is by helping them set up small businesses. This lady, pictured above left, has a severe disability and is very immobile. Bambejja helped her to set up a pay phone business, which she can operate from outside her sister’s home, where she stays. She is now able to contribute something to the home and can buy her daughter some of the requirements she needs in life.
As part of this work, we also run general community days, and on 29th January we held an awareness day on human trafficking. Oasis is a lead partner of the global coalition called Stop theTraffik whose mandate is to raise awareness of the issue and garner support for organisations that seek to help people who have been trafficked. Statistics show that over 2m people(mostly children and women) every year are tricked into believing there is a job available for them in another city or country, and are consequently forced into labour or prostitution. We invited local leaders, Government officials, teachers and carers to the Bambejja Community House of Hope where the girls presented a drama about a girl who was brought from a Ugandan village supposedly to go to school, but who ended up as a mistreated housegirl. It was an excellent time of discussing how children’s rights are exploited in this way, and how community members can stand up against such abuse.
We really enjoyed a special day with the Bambejja in January, when we took all the girls for a retreat day at a nearby recreation park. This is the absolute highlight of every year, where for 1 day they get to play and relax like other children do. There was much excitement seeing the swimming pool, though we had to restrain some girls who wanted to just jump right in, clothes and all! It was a wonderful time of fun and also a time for the staff to speak into the girls’ lives through a time of sharing hopes and dreams for the forthcoming year.
Work continues to move on well within the other projects Oasis is running, and we celebrated graduations of trainees who had completed their training in Net2Work, Bambejja Skills Training Project, and Beersheba (a project similar to Bambejja which works with vulnerable girls and their families in Mbale, Eastern Uganda). Consequently we have also been going through a recruitment phase to enrol new students into our programmes, so all-in-all it has been a busy but positive few months.
Carlos and I are well, and are thankful that we have been pretty healthy over the past few months. We value your prayers immensely so thank you as ever for praying for us.
Prayer points:
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Pray for Kenya, where the violent tribal clashes have left an estimated 1000 people dead. We in Uganda have been affected a little, with fuel shortages and trade and transport difficulties.
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Pray for all the new recruits in Bambejja, Net2Work and Beersheba that they would benefit from their training courses in job skills vocational training, IT, literacy and Lifeskills, and their lives would be positively transformed.
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Pray for a Crosslinks team of 11 who have just arrived in Uganda, who will be based here for 3 ½ months. Please pray that they would benefit from their time here, have good health and be safe.
God bless
Gill and Carlos