How Do You Choose?
A question I often get asked is: “How do you decide who to help, and what projects to take on?”
Hilda, our team member, delivering food and clothing to Joyce and her four grandchildren.
There is no doubt about it, each day in Uganda our team members are faced with children who have very challenging circumstances. Sickness, disability, malnourished, no shelter, barely clothed.
Many of these stories you've seen in our weekly emails, and you've helped make an incredible difference!
It can be easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless. In the remote villages where we work in Uganda, CLP is usually the only organization providing help to the most needy.
We try as much as possible to stay focused on our mission: to break the cycle of poverty for children.
Three actions we keep top of mind are to: Advocate, Mobilize, and Connect.
We advocate by giving voice to the most vulnerable, we mobilize by working within communities, and we connect resources to those in need.
Our team does an amazing job making sure that the funding, your donations, go to the the areas and people where it will have the greatest impact. They interview the recipients and do extensive follow-up.
We try to focus on our sustainable programs such as providing education, vocational skill training, and micro-loans. Empowering people with an education and skills is what will have the most lasting impact on lifting people out of a generational cycle of poverty.
You think you have seen the worst of poverty and then are introduced to people like Joyce and her four grandchildren who were abandoned by their parents.
Joyce has been struggling to provide for these four children. They had little food and were barely clothed. Through you, our generous donors, we have been able to provide some immediate food relief and clothing for the children.
Our next step is to raise funds to build them a small house.
They are all sleeping in the “house” you see here. There is no roof, only rags to try and keep the rain off of them. There is no door, and the walls are crumbling. These children huddle on the dirt floor at night to keep warm. One of the granddaughters is now ill.
Our money goes far in Uganda and for about $750 we can build this family a new single-room home where they can sleep safely. We've already raised $320!
Joyce and her grandchildren are incredibly grateful for the help they've received already. If you'd like to help get them closer to having a safe home, any amount helps and it's easy to donate either through our crowdfunding site DonorSee, or right on our website.
Each morning our team messages me to ask if we can start the building yet as the rains are coming down at night on these children.
Thanks to all of you, we are able to stay the course and provide help to children where it is most needed and can do the most good.
With Gratitude,
Mary
P.S.- We would love to partner with businesses who want to have a social impact by supporting the work of our foundation as a sponsor. If you are a business owner or know of one who would like to learn more about CLP, let's chat - mary@ourclp.org!
