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Friends and funds raising dinner
The dinner was held on the 31st of July 2010 at
grand imperial hotel Kampala and it was a success. The dinner
was attended by 74 people 20 children, 13 staff members and 41
invited guests. Among those present were Mona Kassarp a Swedish
national who works with prisoners in her country was the guest
speaker and guest of honor on the dinner, wells of hope volunteers,
board members on the wells of hope executive, friends of wells
of hope ministries, volunteers of wells of hope and security personnel
from Uganda police.
Among the people who spoke during the dinner were
the chair person AGM committee, two caretakers who gave testimonies
one of whom was a grandmother and the other a mother, two ex-prisoners
Hajji Birikadde and Charles Bagenda also gave testimonies Charles
was the MC at the ceremony. Some of the children of prisoners
from wells of hope academy also gave testimonies of how the ministry
of wells of hope has helped them better their lives.
The main activity at the dinner was creating awareness
and auctioning of an art piece. Some of the people present offered
to donate some money to cater for the children at school and some
promised material support. The children made presentations of
songs about the plight of children of prisoners.
We also used the opportunity to distribute information
material about wells of hope ministries to all who attended the
dinner. Some people requested to be members of wells of hope.
At least four children were able to get people to sponsor them
. See photos
WELLS OF HOPE MINISTRIES NUTRITIVE FOOD SUPLEMENTS PROVISION TO
PRISONERS LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS
During this quarter we delivered food items to boost
the diet of prisoners who are HIV+ of which 150kgs were taken
to Luzira upper, 50kgs for the babies’ and 100kgs for the
women in Luzira women and 100kgs to Jinja prisons. The inmates
targeted to benefit from these food supplements were mainly those
on ARV treatment as a balanced diet is necessary if one is to
survive and avoid premature death. ARV treatment is offered to
those whose level of immunity has reduced and does not guarantee
life without good feeding so for a chance to live these food supplements
are necessary.
The inmates were so glad to receive this donation
and are so thankful for the support. The Soya delivered to Luzira
women prison and Jinja prison was also to cater for the babies
that are within the prison as some of the inmates deliver while
in prison or are imprisoned along with their mothers. This food
supplement support has really made a difference in the women’s
lives. See More Photos
WELLS OF HOPE MINISTRIES PRISON VISITATION
BY CHILDREN OF PRISONERS
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A pre-visit to the prisons was made on the
21st of July 2010 to have the prison officers notified and also
the inmates prepared before the actual visit. The children’s
visits took place on 23rd of July 2010 in Luzira and on 26th of
July 2010 in Jinja. The children were so happy to meet the parents
and the parents too were overwhelmed with joy to meet the children.
At the women’s prison in Luzira the women prepared chapattis
for their children . One parent offered a suitcase to her daughter,
another got shoes for her son, another 2 mathematical sets for
her twins. The most interesting sight was the reunion between
one of the inmates from the condemn section who met her son after
a long time the child Denis is from Gulu in northern Uganda which
is very far from Luzira prison where the mother is and we were
glad we fostered this reunion. At Murchison bay Prison we had
Phiona visiting her father who used the opportunity to check how
much the child had learnt she also learnt a lot from her father
who taught her much about fitting in society and being a good
person. The parents used this opportunity to provide for their
children by offering them crafts to be sold for their benefit.
The inmates spend their time in prison making crafts which the
children were given to sell and earn something to support them
at home.
When we find a child of prisoner many times
they lack an identity because they do not know who they whether
they will ever meet their parents and society has abused them,
so through the love and care we give these children they are made
to realise that they have value .By taking them to the prison
to meet their parent who they thought was either dead or would
never meet them, they aquire an identity and belonging.The gospel
of the Lord Jesus christ we present to these children is a viatl
and key factor for their transformation,when we tell them that
Christ knows them by name,they get to know that they have a friend
. see More photos
Tracing of prisoners families
We were able to carry out visits to trace for families of prisoners
that were out of contact and in need of education support but
had not yet learnt of the existence of the school. Four volunteers
participated that included; Rachel, Francis, Emma and Carol who
were chosen to trace families supported in the different regions
of Uganda. This activity was embarked on during the 2nd week of
May 2010. We were specific about the regions to reach because
of the limits we have in funding for the exercise these included;
Kampala, Mbale, Soroti, Mukono, Jinja, Iganga and Kaliro.
Though many inmates applied for education support
we were unable to reach those in far areas like northern and western
districts of the country. Also the fact that our project scope
is mainly limited to areas in the central and eastern parts of
the country also limited us. With more funding we would like to
assist all the prisoners who apply for education support though
currently we cannot.
Francis Ssuubi visited Soroti and Mbale regions
where he reached families in need of support and the family of
Otalai John which is already supported, in this visit the family
got to know the progress of the children at the school and what
is to be expected from both parties that is what to expect from
us and us from them. Also from this visit we managed to offer
support to the following children: Opusi Julius, Atwalu Simon,
Atebo Kevin, Mutonyi Dorothy, Mutonyi Suzan and Medi Jacob. He
also managed to reach of July 2010 Aitah Rhodah who was unable
to come attend school because she lacks transport to the school.
Other families were unable to be reached due to failure to locate
them and limits in facilitation.
Male Carol visited areas in Kampala. She visited
the family of Opapa Davis that is the mother and her two children
Judith in primary seven and Ivan in primary six. The family rents
a room in Mbuya where they all stay. We made a decision to support
Judith as per the available funds and the fact that she is in
primary seven which we do not have yet at wells of hope academy.
Ivan was invited to come and attend wells of hope academy but
failed as the mother insisted that the child should not change
school when approaching primary seven.
She visited the family of Kalema Abasi who has three sons Arafat,
Moses and Yasin. The eldest brother Arafat is somehow in school,
Moses (Musa) dropped out of school due to lack of school fees;
he had attempted to study as mechanic apprentice but failed to
raise the required fees and dropped out. He is now working in
a bakery to earn some money for he hopes to go back to school.
The youngest brother Yasin is now in secondary school and was
taken to Mbarara where they found a cheap school for him. We decided
to support Yasin with the education support programme for those
in secondary school.
She also visited the family of Nankya Aidah and Wamala Tom whose
children were brought to the school to benefit from the education
support programme. During this exercise of tracing we realized
that these were ex-prisoners who had been released during the
last year and early this year.
Simwende Emma visited Jinja Iganga and Kaliro he
visted the family of mugenyi Collins and leah in Jinja, in kaliro
he visited the family of mbaiza faibe mother to Franco benge and
as a result Franco was brought to school he is said to have been
previously in school but is still very weak academically. He visited
the family of kwagala Doreen who came to school, he visited gadumire
in the family of nzala joan who is in secondary school in senior
two, her sister were brought to school rather but returned to
bring necessities and did not return. He also visited the family
of Bagaga Wilber who failed to bring the children because of lack
of transport.
These areas are within central, eastern and northeastern
regions of the country.
WELLS OF HOPE MINISTRIES EDUCATION SUPPORT
TO CHILDREN OF PRISONERS
The education support offered to the children has
enabled us see lives transformed. We are glad to report that due
to the school and school fees contribution provided by wells of
hope, some children who had dropped out of school like Akampulira
Robert have had their dreams of attending school revived once
again.
The schools second term
The school opened for the second term on the 24th
of May 2010 . Before that we had just been tracing and visiting
families of prisoners whose children had not been brought to school
yet. As a result more children were brought by their guardians.
Many of the families visited were able to bring
their children to benefit from the education support although
some few failed due to lack of transport fare, but other do not
want to release the children because back at home these children
are used to do home chores, gardening and all forms of child labour.
Some of the families had children in secondary school and to some
of these we provided support in terms of school fees to these
children in their respective secondary schools.
We purchased school requirements like scholastic materials to
cater for the increased number of children.
Also the fact that many of the children come to school with a
lot of needs called for acquiring materials to cater for them.
Being at the school has enabled some of the children to attain
some school requirements that they had not dreamt of having in
the past for example school uniforms, shoes, school meals etc.
see more photos
School fees for children in secondary school
In our education support programme we supported 100 children at
wells of hope academy and 10 outside of wells of hope academy.
The children supported above primary and outside of wells of hope
academy received their school fees during the month of June
MDD and crafts training for the children
We have trained a children’s choir in music skills and songs.
The children have also been trained to make crafts like necklaces
and earings.
Visit to Mpigi prison on 29th may 2010
We had our first visit to Mpigi prison in partnership with victory
fellowship international-Uganda. It was a greatly rewarding experience
being a new experience. The group was led by Francis Ssuubi from
wells of hope.
It was an effort to reach out to prisons other than
those that we were involved with formally. The conditions of the
inmates in this prison are quite different from those in Luzira
as the needs of this group were appallingly great and needed attention.
We discovered that this prison had very few women prisoners compared
to the men. The prisoners here lack toilets instead they use buckets.
There is need to solicit for support from the public
for these inmates in terms of donations of any kind that could
be helpful to this population.
Collins visit to Mildmay centre
This was part of an initiative to offer psychosocial support to
inmates’ children. Collins is one of the children supported
who is living with HIV/Aids. His father is one of the inmates
supported in Jinja main prison. Collins visit was prompted by
the fact that he was brought to school this term by his grandmother
who placed him under our care. Because of the fact that Collins
is HIV+ and on ARV treatment we wanted to have him closely monitored
in terms of his treatment and the fact that he was receiving medication
from Jinja meant that he was to be collected from school every
end of month to return to Jinja for his doctors visit. We wanted
him to be referred to a more convenient place for us during the
school term and that place was mildmay care centre. At mildmay
one of the requirements to have a child registered was a transfer
letter from the place he was receiving medication which we didn’t
have. We were advised to retain the child’s treatment area
since that is his home area .At Mildmay we were advised to discuss
with his doctor in jinja the possibility of offering the child
enough medication to last him two months. We concluded that it
was best for Collins to continue getting his medication from Jinja
.
HIV/AIDS training skills in prison
We carried out good Samaritan programme in the Prisons,in
which we trained to equip counselors in prison. In doing this
we partnered with the Bible society of Uganda
that provided us with resource material for the training. We carried
out the programme in two sections of Luzira prison that is women
prison and upper prison for men. The training was generally a
success with some few limitations such as time allocated in prison.
We had three facilitators and one resource person for upper prison
where we focused on training the leaders within prison who would
carry out counseling for other inmates. We had five facilitators
and one resource person for women prison where we met the inmates
who are HIV positive and the inmates’ leaders . See
Photos
WELLS OF HOPE MINISTRIES
PROMOTION OF AWARENESS ABOUT THE PLIGHT
OF PRISONERS AND THEIR FAMILIES
Massive printing and distribution of information
material about the ministry
In the months of June and July 2010 , we printed and distributed
introductory letters and organizations profiles, which has helped
to increase publicity and also raise friends to support our work.
We hope that with the information about our work, the public will
be moved to come to the support of prisoners and their families
especially the children who are vulnerable. In this we have reached
many firms and organizations with information about our work and
the requirements for us to adequately help this section of people.
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