November 2022
Welcome to the PFP Family
This month, we welcomed a new sponsor into our PFP Juniors family. We are so grateful to our team of amazing supporters for stepping up to make sure all children enrolled in our programs are covered.
Mukisa Johnathan, saying hello to his new sponsor Deb
Sponsorships Needed
In January, all Primary 7 students will be entering Senior level. Across both the ‘Main’ and the ‘Juniors’ programs, this equals a lot of new sponsorship opportunities. We have sponsorships available, ranging from $30/month up to $115/month. Please reach out if you are interested in getting involved with PFP as a sponsor!
Sponsorship covers:
- Boarding school
- Medical including mental health/dental
- Food
- Clothing
- Housing during breaks/holidays
- An amazing Ugandan support system (All PFP employees are Ugandan)
Sponsorship, along with our fundraisers, also contributes to:
- Field trips
- Cultural exposure
- Sports/exercise programs
- Skills training programs
- Transportation
- Social work services to support any available healthy family ties
A few of the children in need of sponsorships this month
Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this opportunity: hope@peaceforpaulfoundation.org
Letters From Friends Across The World
Both sponsors and children continue to send love to one another from across the world. It warms our hearts to see the genuine connections that are being made Thank you to everyone who takes the time to get to know your sponsored child.
Staff Corner
PFP relies on our amazing staff in Uganda to keep the organization running. Without our Ugandan team, we would not be able to do what we do for the many children in our care. We hope you enjoy the “Staff Corner” section we’ve added to the blog. Each month we’ll highlight one staff person with the hopes you’ll get a chance to understand the important work they do.
Innocent Basakulu- Hope Home Caretaker and Social Worker
My name is Innocent Basakulu and today I serve as a social worker with the Peace for Paul foundation. I am a graduate of Uganda Military Engineering College, Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)-Jinja and Do-it-Virtual University where I acquired the following credentials:
- National Diploma in Building and Civil Engineering
- Diploma in Practical Theology
- Diploma in Social Development
- Bachelor of Science Degree with Project Planning and Management
As a social worker with the Peace for Paul foundation, I have engaged myself in the following fields as named below:
- Carrying out background searches on geographical locations of interest and reporting to the Operations manager.
- Attending government meetings and reporting to the General Manager.
- Designing monthly calendars for the children.
- Scheduling events on a monthly basis and ensuring that these are implemented on the ground in each of the PFP homes.
- Carrying out mapping of child protection structures in the community like LCs, Police, and Community Development Officer, Probation Officer, “abataka” among others in preparations for child reintegration and resettlement.
- Registering children for Birth certificates.
- Preparing the quarterly and six monthly reports and submitting it at the ministry of Gender, labor and child welfare in Kampala.
- Secretary at the management committee of the organization.
- Guiding the children through completing their homework and holiday packages whenever they are given.
- Seeing to it that children are engaged in games such as soccer and indoor games when they home as well as riding bicycles when the time is.
I am so happy working with children in line with my calling and never regret at one point where I am today. I love and appreciate my superiors in Uganda and abroad for they make my work very easy and interesting as they provide me with the necessary materials I require executing my duties with maximum ease. I love my job so much!
“Long live Peace for Paul for you have transformed lives and impacted many!”
School Days
All PFP school age children are deep into their third and final term of the year. The Primary 7 candidates are studying hard for their National Exams, which will determine the secondary schools that they qualify to attend. The National Exam results for the Senior 6 candidates will determine whether they will qualify for University or trade school moving forward. We wish them all the best of luck!
Secondary level candidates, pausing for a break from their studies
Geoffrey, Yasin, Promise, Patience and Ketty
We really love the school out “littles” attend. It’s super close to our home (walking distance) and the teacher’s love on our kiddos well. Typically our children attend this school until they are 8-10 years old.
At Home
While most of the PFP children are back in boarding school for the term, our youngest and most vulnerable children remain at home with our team of caregivers, mental health therapist, social workers and nurse. During school holidays, this group is showered with love from all the children home from holiday, and during the school year, they get extra special attention from our staff. What a lucky bunch!
Charlie with Jackie and Abura at Love Home
International Day of the Girl Child
October 11th marked the 10th anniversary of the International Day of the Girl Child. A day set aside to celebrate the power of girls and highlight the barriers they face. A FEW of the challenges faced by girls in Uganda.
- Nearly a quarter of Ugandan girls between the ages of 12 and 18 drop out of school when they begin menstruation.
- The risk of child marriage jumped dramatically with the COVID-19 pandemic. A combination of economic shocks, school closures and interruptions in reproductive health services makes this a reality.
- 25 per cent of girls in Uganda become pregnant by the age of 19. (Compared to 15 per cent in the Unites States).
- Domestic violence is widespread in Uganda. Nearly 60% of women experience physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, and 46% of women have experienced marital rape. Almost a quarter of women reported that their first sexual intercourse was forced against their will.
- Women make up nearly half of the labor force in Uganda, but the ratio of female income to male income is 0.70.
We put a high priority on educating our girls and ensuring they have access to excellent health care. Thank you to each and every one of the sponsors who helps make this a possibility.
Team AHU (A Hand Up)
PFP is working hard to prepare our older students for the “real world” outside of PFP. When a student enters Senior 5 (usually at about 18 years of age), they are moved into the “A Hand Up” program. They still receive all of the benefits that all PFP children do, however now they are required to give back to their PFP family or community. Each AHU student volunteers 20 hours per week on school holidays and has the opportunity to showcase their specific skill set to better the lives of the PFP children or at risk community members.
All of the AHU students continue to step up, month after month. Everyone does what they can, where they can. Monthly meetings occur, with Tikol at the lead where students present ideas on how they can best utilize their skills. Students have been working with PFP as a sort of internship.
The AHU members continue to contribute where they can, and we love when they utilize their specific skill set to do something meaningful within PFP or in the community.
Charlie continues to take photos and work with the young children on homework and provide social and emotional guidance. Peter has been volunteering his time with the elderly in his community and Levy has been working with local artisans to help them further their own craft. We are so proud of our AHU students for stepping up to help others with their skills.
Levy, helping a local artisan with painting stoves
Charlie, tutoring the youngest PFP students
Peter spending time with an elderly neighbor
Facebook Birthday Fundraisers
We love when our supporters dedicate their birthdays to PFP! Such a fun and easy way to get involved and to allow others to get involved as well!! Facebook fundraisers take ZERO administrative fees! We hope you will consider including PFP for your next birthday!
Birthday Celebrations
We always do our best to make sure every child in our main program gets a chance to feel special on their birthday. Each child receives a gift and has a small celebration during their birthday week followed by a BIG birthday celebration all together at the swimming pool during school holidays. Many sponsors get involved by sending gifts to their child as well. All children deserve to feel special on their day and we always do our best to make it so!
Happy, happy birthday to our October birthday children! Thanks so much to all of the sponsors for stepping up to be sure that everyone could really enjoy their day!
Happy Birthday to Our November Birthday Girls and Boys- we wish you all THE BEST as we celebrate YOU this month!
If you are the sponsor of a birthday child this month, you are welcome to send us an email and we can work together to make their day even more special!
PFP Junior Birthday Celebrants
PFP Main Program Birthday Celebrants
Microfinance and Savings Group
Through a generous grant from one of our supporters, PFP has been able to engage a group of local women in managing and growing their individual businesses. The women selected to participate in this program have had difficult lives and at the time of selection are stuck in a position where they are forced to focus on survival alone. Their children are usually not enrolled in school, but rather work alongside their mothers to provide for basic necessities. To be eligible for this program, each woman must be willing to work hard to grow their business so they may pull themselves out of poverty they are found in. In addition to small business support, the children of each of these women will be enrolled in the PFP Juniors program. This enables the women to grow their business while still ensuring their children are able to attend school regularly and have a chance to hope for a positive future.
Monthly lessons in savings and business management continued this month with our hired expert in Microfinance and Business Management (an entrepreneur and lecturer from Makarere University in Kampala). The women have started to make regular deposits to their savings accounts and to date, the entire group has continued to make weekly deposits as planned. They are proud of their progress and we proud of them!
Microfinance lesson with the ladies
The PFP Junior Program
The Juniors Program works with families in our community so parents may be able to send their children to school. These children live full time with their families but for them, poverty has prevented the children from attending school regularly. This program is a partnership between parents and PFP to supplement on what they are able to contribute so parents may take pride in being able to send their children to school through their own hard work. The ages of children in this program range from four years to eighteen years of age and we currently have 93 students who are benefiting from this partnership.
Moses, the PFP Juniors coordinator with his students
Family Sponsorship Opportunities
We are always looking for general sponsors to help our family thrive. 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
Director (on the Board) Needed
We are looking to add a new Director or two to our board and what better place to look than from within our team of awesome supporters. We are always looking for ways to improve and would love to find someone with a background in Microfinance, child development or child psychology. If you would like to support the work of PFP in a more meaningful way, we’d love to chat. Please reach out via the email below and we can go from there to determine if it might be a good fit. At the very least…. we’ll have a great conversation and a chance to connect.
Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this opportunity: hope@peaceforpaulfoundation.org
Amazon Smile
A super easy way for you to support The Peace for Paul Foundation while you do your regular shopping! Add The Peace for Paul Foundation as your regular charity today. This is absolutely free for you and Amazon will share a small percentage of your purchase with us. Over time this could really make a difference.
See below for instructions:
Step 1. Visit our unique Amazon Charity url at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/
Step 2. Sign in to your Amazon account like you normally would. Be sure to always start shopping Amazon by typing in smile.amazon.com into your browser.Once you’ve registered PFP as your charity of choice, it will always default to that.
** Important…. Be sure to always start your shopping on Amazon by typing in smile.amazon.com into your browser.
Bulungi Beads
Did you know that we have a shop on our website? The Bulungi Beads 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. The handcrafted paper beads are purchased from the women and PFP artisans to support their growing business 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. Click HERE to view our shop!
GuideStar Platinum Level Participant
The Peace for Paul Foundation has earned the Platinum GuideStar Nonprofit Profile participation level (the highest possible)! 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 Platinum 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
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