Holiday Time!

The children came home from their various schools for a 3 week holiday in May. They were joined by Founder and Executive Director Heidi, and Members Brianna and Maureen. The holiday schedule included skills training (farming, bead making, shoe mending, typing), reading program, volunteer time, sports program, family visits, birthday party, and tutoring,

Time to Move out (kind of)!

This holiday, 7 additional PFP young men and women graduated from the children’s homes to their own Ugandan style homes within our communities. Congratulations to Bosco, Tikol, Mark, Ajuna, Paul, Friday, Arthur and Rose!! These 8 joined Michael, Allan, Simon Peter and Agnes–the first group to go out last holiday. While in their own homes, they remain a full part of the PFP programs. They continue to attend boarding school but during school holidays they are cooking, cleaning, taking part in the work training program, budgeting shopping, and basically just “adulting”–all while keeping in very close contact with near daily visits to the PFP homes. The idea is that when they do finally graduate completely from the PFP program, they will be ready to manage life on their own.

Family Visits

The Peace for Paul Foundation recognizes the importance in maintaining family ties and helping each child to stay in touch with their culture and their tribe’s rituals. Despite the fact that the children in our program have families who are unable or unwilling to care for them long term, we still place great emphasis on maintaining those ties when it is feasible to do so. This holiday, PFP’s Founder and Executive Director took a group of older children from the Karamojong tribe to their homeland in Moroto (Northern Uganda). Our young adults had a chance to see relatives and even to stay the night with them in villages scattered throughout Napak. In addition to visiting relatives and getting in touch with their culture, they did some sight seeing and even climbed to the top of Mt Moroto.

Closer to home in Mbiko, children also had the opportunity to visit Masese slum and spend the day with relatives there. Other children, whose have relatives are willing and deemed safe to do so, had the opportunity to spend 3-5 days with them this holiday. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the chance to reconnect.

 

Remembering Rykker

On April 29th we celebrated what would have been Olivia and Moses’ (our leaders on the ground in Uganda) son’s second birthday. In his honor, we went to the hospital and identified 8 severely ill and malnourished children to help with medical bills and food. The families we helped were not able to cover the bills themselves, and so Rykker’s memory lives on by rescuing other babies in need. A very special day to remember a very special and very well loved little boy ❤️

Birthday Celebrations

Our May birthdays were:

• Geoffrey-6 years old!
• Samuel-15 years old!
• Natulei-11 years old!

This holiday, thanks to our birthday party sponsor, we held another large birthday party for all children whose special days fell between January 1st and May 30th. The children went swimming at Kingfisher Resort and had a large meal of chips and chicken, followed by music, dancing, performances and gifts. What a day!

Staff Leadership Training

Member Maureen Fox traveled to Uganda to continue her Staff Leadership Training program. The first portion had been taught in August of 2018 with part two being completed this month. All main staff attended and everyone learned a lot about working together and working more effectively as a team. We can’t wait to see them put into practice all of the things they learned about themselves and their work styles!

August Social Mission Delegation

We are seeking interested individuals for our next Social Mission Delegation in mid-August.  If you have ever been interested in visiting a developing country such as Uganda to give back to the community and children in need, this could be a great opportunity to make it happen.  The delegation involves a group of visitors led by a PFP Director working together on various community and PFP projects with an aim to make a positive and long lasting impact through all we do.  The PFP director and delegates fund-raise prior to their visit to help fund the projects they will undertake and to support the sustainability of PFP.  Jinja, Uganda is also a beautiful place on the Nile River with a lot to see and do.  If you think you may be interested in joining this delegation, please contact hope@peaceforpaulfoundation.org for more information.  We are able to lead a limited number of people, giving priority to those who commit first , so reach out to us now if you are interested!

Nile River Farms

On NRF, we continue to grow beans, cabbage, peppers, sukuma wiki, egg plant, carrots, beans, tomatoes, bananas, passion fruit, lemon grass, maize, pineapples and pumpkins.  Crops are being sold to the PFP homes and to local communities.

The chickens and pigs continue to thrive on our farm. There are currently 47 chickens and 7 pigs. The plan is to allow them to continue to grow, increase in size and number and within a year, start selling eggs and meat to the local community. The oldest PFP children continue to spend 1-2 days a week working on the farm, learning farming skills and earning an income for them to budget and spend as they need to.

A Big Thanks To Our Sports Equipment Donors

The children were overjoyed to receive new balls and other sports gear thanks to generous donors from the PFP Annual Auction.  We place emphasis on promoting physical activity for the boys and girls to keep them healthy, happy and confident.  Their smiles say it all.  Thanks a million!

The PFP Junior Program

The PFP Junior Program allows us to help a larger number of needy Ugandan children obtain an education. The children who benefit from this program live in our neighborhood, however, their parents or guardians are unable to afford the full amount of school fees, uniforms and school supplies which are often more than a family can earn in a month. Because these children have families to look after them, they will not be living in our homes. Rather, they will live with their families and be sponsored through PFP for educational support. This program is designed to be a partnership with parents who care for their child but need support to ensure their child can obtain an education and have a positive future. The parents contribute a small portion when they are able to keep them involved and empowered to educate their children instead of depending solely on handouts. This program allows an education to be attainable for so many children and their families. In addition, we are saving and planning for the much higher costs of secondary school for the students.

We are always looking for sponsors for children in this program.  Almost every child in Uganda dreams of an education, but only some see that become a reality.  You can make that dream come true for a child by sponsoring for only $35 USD per month.  This will cover school supplies, uniforms and some or all of the school fees depending on the family’s ability to contribute.  This sponsorship also supports many community handouts of school supplies to local students who often lack even the basics of pencils and paper to study.  Please contact hope@peaceforpaulfoundation.org if you would like to learn more about children currently seeking sponsorship to start school.  We currently have 12 children in need of sponsorship!

“All kids need is a little help, a little hope and someone who believes in them.”

Family Sponsorship Opportunities

We are always looking for general sponsors to help cover the extra costs associated with keeping The Peace for Paul Foundation operating smoothly and the children happy and healthy. Essentially, as a general family sponsor, you are the sponsor of ALL of the children. We have opportunities for Medical Family Sponsor, Dental Family Sponsor as well as Mental Health Family Sponsor. A Family Sponsor commitment can be – $25/$50/$100 per month.

Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this opportunity. hope@peaceforpaulfoundation.org

Bulungi Beads

The Bulungi Beads Etsy shop features beautiful Ugandan jewelry handmade by women working hard in the slums of Masese and by the young men and women learning the skill in the PFP program.

Beads are purchased from the women and PFP artisans to support their growing businesses and their families. All profits are sent back to the women and to the PFP program to help pay for food, clothing, school tuition and supplies. We thank you so much for your contribution to this cause. Click here to view our shop!

In May, we made a large purchase from the Bulungi Beads women and will be bringing the products back to the States to sell at our BB events and on the Etsy shop. Stay tuned for updates on our Etsy shop!

Bulungi Beads Education Scholarship

Bulungi Beads has been profitable enough over the last year that we were able to launch the scholarship portion of this program in May! One child of each of the Bulungi Beads ladies will benefit. Faraji, Bush and Rachel will be starting boarding school this month! Not as a handout, not as a sponsorship, but as a direct result of their own parents’ hard work and beautiful products. We are so proud of this program and hope it will continue to grow so these mothers may educate the rest of their children too!

Bulungi Beads is on Instagram and Facebook!

PFP’s Bulungi Beads is now on Instagram and on Facebook! Please follow us! You’ll get to see all kinds of wonderful things!

Upcoming Bulungi Beads Events

Come and see us in person at the next ROAR event in Vancouver, WA  on July 19th, at 7:30 PM. We would love to see you there!  Check them out at https://www.roarvoices.com.

New Members Needed

We are continually looking to expand our Peace for Paul team and need people with skills and time to share with this great cause!

Here is a short description of what a PFP Member is:

Peace for Paul is managed by its Board of Directors. There is also a Member pool, which is where people like you–who show an interest, can get their feet wet and see if becoming a Director is something you would like to pursue. We look for people who have a love for the PFP mission and its children and for people who have knowledge and skills to offer which would help PFP grow. As a member, you are invited to (though not required to) attend our monthly Director meetings (via Skype). You are asked to help with our two annual fundraisers (by selling tickets for the raffle, or helping to collect items for the auction). You are also offered the chance to join our various committees if you have an interest in any of them and have a skill that could contribute to its growth. Our current committees are: Sustainability, Education, Social Mission and Fundraising. It is also ideal, if as a Member, you take on a specific project. The idea being that you really can dig in and get involved. You could come up with your own project–something you think PFP could benefit from. We would leave that with you!

Please contact us at: hope@peaceforpaulfoundation.org if you would like to join our team!

GuideStar Gold Level Participant

The Peace for Paul Foundation recently earned the Gold GuideStar Nonprofit Profile participation level! This leading symbol of nonprofit transparency and accountability is presented by GuideStar, the world’s largest source of nonprofit information.

In order to be awarded the Gold Seal of Transparency, The Peace for Paul Foundation included contact information, financial information, our goals, strategies, capabilities, indicators, and progress, helping us more effectively share our story with the world.

Check out our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile and tell us what you think:The Peace for Paul Foundation GuideStar Profile

FOLLOW US
SHARE THIS