One of the major investments you can make for a project is to visit it. When you visit, you can see how the project is progressing, where the need is greatest and what they encounter on a daily basis. You also get to know the children well with their own characters and background. At the same time, you can encourage and help people running the project with the daily challenges.
With this in mind, a small team traveled to Uganda to visit the projects there. Both Foodstep and Iris Ministries Uganda were visited and the journey went even further north to Gulu, a place where we ran a campaign several years ago and kept in touch with the team there and after all this time we now have a visited.
food step:
Foodstep has its location in Entebbe in the middle of the village where children are taken care of and live who come from what shall we say, quite a painful background. Some of the children come from a children's prison, what they call a rehabilitation center in Uganda. These children are brought to this center after they have fled and live on the streets, or when they have stolen something (sometimes only a banana to survive), or have used abuse or violence. However, the way they want to teach these children "the good" is not the way that works. Fear, violence and punishment do not bring out the best in children. Finally, Foodstep has already “liberated” many children from the center by consulting with the director. In addition, the center is already so much better than in the beginning. Thanks to the Foodstep team, beds have been installed, it is reasonably clean and the children are allowed to go outside during the day instead of just behind bars.
In addition, Foodstep is often called by the police if children have been abused (both physically and mentally), they are no longer safe in the current situation or the parents have rejected the children. We'll spare the awful details here.
Foodstep's big challenge is school fees. You pay a contribution per child for each semester so that they can go to school. If payment is not made, the children are taken out of school. In addition, due to Covid-19 and the sponsors lost as a result, the daily costs for clothing, food and hygiene are a major challenge.
During the time the team was there, repairs were made to the fence (this was a government requirement in order to remain an NGO), specific parts for the students such as sewing machine, bicycle and toolbox were given and all children had nice gifts to play with. In addition, all children have received a new plate, cup and cutlery so that they can at least eat from one plate. Maybe a drop in the ocean, but gives a boost in the right direction again.
