(Admin apologizes for the late post)
The SCAW Team spent
the day on our first distribution in Uganda celebrating and working in
partnership with the women of the Inner Wheel of Kampala. We set out this morning in the pouring rain
after a night of unsettling thunder and lightening. Along the bumpy route to our site, our
oversees partners sang away the rain and magically brought clearer skies and
very warm temperatures for the remainder of the day. A shout out to the men in our group who
kindly remembered to wish all of us a Happy Mother’s Day!
In the course of
handing out 585 bedkits to a large group of very excited school aged children,
we met and spoke to so many grateful mothers who accompanied their children to
the distribution site to watch the process and to help their children carry
their bedkits back home.
I had the humbling
experience of interviewing some of the mothers and a grandmother about the
contents of the bedkit, how it will help their child and to give them the
opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings to the donors.
I heard how before
today, their children share a sleep surface with other siblings and sometimes a
parent. They sleep on the floor either
on a mat or a mattress, noting that when it rains, they get soaked. When asked
what in the bedkit is most useful to the child, they said it was both the
mattress and the mosquito net. While
some families have a mosquito net, many do not and if they do, it must be
shared by the entire family. One mother spoke of her daughter waking during the
night because she is hungry as they do not always have money for food. A grandmother was very thankful for the bedkit because she is raising four of her grandchildren and now the ten-year-old
can sleep on her own for the first time.
Without exception, all the adults interviewed expressed sincere
gratitude and appreciation for the donors who made this gift of a bedkit possible
for their children which will help them have a more restful and comfortable
sleep at night.
It was a Mother’s Day
well spent and it served as a reminder of how fortunate we all are to have our
families back home supporting our efforts.
Thank you!
Karen Bridgman-Acker
Team Uganda 2019
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