Case Study, Uganda: 20 orphan girls’ lives transformed by education, nutrition, clean water

Photo: These girls are thankful for a safe place to live, and the opportunity to attend school and receive quality nutrition and medical care.

We are very happy to share a powerful story of redemption for 20 orphan girls rescued by our native team in Uganda. Our team found the girls in different villages and towns near our high school over the past few years. Some of the girls were living with their legal guardians, unable to attend school due to a lack of enrollment fees; some girls were mistreated by their guardians; and some of the girls were rescued from off the streets. Now all of these orphan girls are living at our high school in one of the classrooms we converted to be a dormitory. In the future we plan to build an expansion of our existing orphan home to be a permanent residence for these girls.

All of the girls are enrolled in the high school where they are studying English, Mathematics, Geography, Commerce, History, Fine Art, Entrepreneurship, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Computer. They also have the option to attend a Bible Study class, which all enjoy. The girls are very excited to now live in a loving environment where they can acquire a good education. They are also thankful to receive warm, healthy meals and a balanced diet of organic vegetables from our farmland such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, kale, eggplant, onions, corn, beans, and arrowroot. We also raise chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows, so we are able to provide the girls with important vitamins and nutrients, and protein and fiber, to give them energy and strength. The orphan girls also have access to clean water from our water well that we drilled on our main campus.

We also have a medical clinic on campus that greatly benefits the girls. They are treated free of charge whenever they are sick, and some of the girls had HIV/AIDS when they came to live on campus — now they are receiving ARVs and other medical treatment to boost their immune systems. We are also able to test the girls for early pregnancies due to their unfortunate living circumstances with bad men before they came to live at the high school. If a pregnancy is detected, we can take care of the girls and their babies and tend to other details of those situations that the girls would not have access to before they came to live with us.

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One of these orphan girls is Brenda, who is now a senior at our high school. Our Uganda director reports the following about her story:

She became an orphan at age 9, losing both of her parents to HIV/AIDS. When she was 11 years old, her legal guardians almost sold her to a man to be married because they were tired of taking care of her. Brenda was very frightened when we found her and brought her to our high school campus to live and attend school. She now receives counseling from volunteers at our local church that meets on our campus. They have strengthened her by teaching her about the love of God and the benefits of community. She has now attended our high school for 4 years, and she will take the National Exam this year. She is very happy, hard-working, has a sound mind and is very intelligent. Now her future is bright and hopeful, thanks to her safe living environment at our high school, and an opportunity for her to pursue an education, equipping her with important life skills.

Our native team does have security concerns at our high school campus — the girls are vulnerable to outsiders who could lure them away from campus and harm them. Our security team cannot keep an eye on every corner of the campus at night and sometimes we do find trespassers on our property. In fact we have experienced a recent theft from our piggery. We are now faced with the challenge of fencing the entire campus so that we can protect the orphan girls and our other students from those who wish to take advantage of them.

Thanks to your support and contributions from our generous donors, we will be able to build this much-needed fence to further ensure that the orphan girls have a safe and promising future. We look forward to reporting back about their progress in school and life after their graduation.

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