Sri Lanka: The team gathers

A bedkit distribution team from Sleeping Children Around the World is going to Sri Lanka again this summer. They gathered for a team photo at SCAW headquarters, 28 Pinehurst Crescent, in Toronto at the beginning of June. Pictured (Left to right): Richard Hryniw (Team Leader), Chris Hills, Ron King, Mary Ann King, Gail Hills, and Joan Hryniw (Team Leader).

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Uganda: The End

Hurrah! Magnifico! Excellent! Wow!

The SCAW Ugandan team has finished distributing 6,000 bedkits and making 6,000 children and their families very, very, happy.

From Uganda 2011

We have delivered the bedkits in the Western part of Uganda, from a centre in Kampala called Gombe to the final centre to the west in Kisoro.

It has been a great adventure. It began in a very poor district in Uganda’s capital, and ended in the beautiful mountains in the West. The Ugandan children were absolutely lovely, beautiful dark eyes and the beautifully trusting faces.

From Uganda 2011

Our final day was as every other day: a little bit of chaos, a little bit of frustration, a lot of love - we to them, and they to us.

We met them early in the morning and they greeted us with songs which continued as we mingled with them. We joined them in the singing, we blew bubbles which some of them chased across the school yard with the grace and speed of well, an impala, and we entertained them with Arthur the Puppet. Some liked Arthur and some did not.

From Uganda 2011

Since this was our last distribution, some of us passed out Canadian flags to the children who had looked on at the proceedings all day long, hoping against hope that they might receive the bedkit.

As we headed to our last hotel, we passed many of the 500 lucky children who had their bedkits in tow, and they waved good-bye excitedly. These were the same children who had so recently shyly whispered, “Thank you,” as they received their gifts. Some we passed were many kilometres from the distribution site and they would be walking even once darkness fell.

Including the 6,000 bedkits delivered
in Uganda this year, our total is
now 1,162,130 bedkits since
Sleeping Children began in 1970.

Your gifts of these bedkits have given these children of Uganda a measure of love and hope for a brighter future. Our hope is that next year we will bring more bedkits to Uganda where the need is great.

Uganda 2011

Mary-Jo Lang and Lorna Hedger
for the Uganda 2011 SCAW Team

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To see all the photos so far, click the album photo at left.

Uganda: Shoes

Shoes.

How many do you have in your closet?—10, 20 30 pairs? A pair for each occasion---dressy, casual, for sport, for work, summer shoes, winter boots, ones to match this or that outfit? Which to wear?

The needy children of Uganda do not have to decide. Many have no shoes or ones held together with twine or tape. At the distribution site, we often see shoes much too large for them---maybe belonging to a parent.

Second hand shoes can be purchased for very little, but still too costly for their family.

Education is free in Uganda, but many children cannot attend because they cannot afford the items that are compulsory to attend. These include a uniform, school books, a math set, and SHOES. Often the parents can only afford to send one child. These families have 6 to 8 children.

The cheers from parents and children alike when they realize they are receiving the requisite for school attendance, makes it very reassuring that the bedkits we are distributing are filling a great need and are very appreciated.

Thank you to all our donors. We have seen first hand that their contributions are making a big difference to the children of Uganda.

Uganda 2011

Marilyn Olivares
for the Uganda 2011 SCAW Team

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To see all the photos so far, click the album photo at left.

Uganda: From Planet X

Had dinner last night with one of the new members of The Ladies of the Inner Wheel. We had finished distributing bedkits in the late afternoon, managing to match 1000 children with 1000 bedkits, in two separate distributions.

From Uganda 2011

I must admit that while working with these children, whether on the photo end or the bedkit end, I often wonder about their lives and what might become of them. In our morning travels to the different sites, I see lots of children carrying cans of water on their heads, and I see them in their school uniforms at 6 a.m. walking or running on the gravel roads on their way to school. I suspect the children receiving your bedkits are doing that too. And it seems so tough.

From Uganda 2011

So I asked my dinner friend if she had ever carried water on her head, and things like that, as a child.

And she looked at me as if to say, “Which planet, exactly, are you from?”

Yes, of course she had carried water as a child.

She would rise at 5 a.m., get the water for her mom, and carry it home in jerry cans made of clay. The filled jerry cans could weigh 20 kilos! She would leave for school at 7 and start class at 8. The walk to school was 5 km. The walk home was 5 km. No school bus … She grew up in western Uganda where we are presently distributing bedkits and it is mountainous. Her school was one hill over! The school day ended at 5 pm.

From Uganda 2011

For her secondary school education, her parents sent her to boarding school 200 km away from home. She would get home from school three times each year for two weeks each. Basically, she left home at approximately 14 years old.

And she has done well. After university she taught briefly, and eventually became an expeditor of cargo coming from anywhere in the world to Uganda.

She loves it and is very happy doing it.

And with a little luck, some of these children receiving your bedkits will do as well. And be as happy.

Uganda 2011

Mary-Jo Lang
for the Uganda 2011 SCAW Team

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To see all the photos so far, click the album photo at left.