Tag: Wonderland BookSavers

Solar Bag Water Purifiers Distributed

KCDO received a donation of 100 Solar Bag water purifiers through a partnership with Solarbag®, our KCDO-USA Board and Wonderland BookSavers. We are so grateful to be able to share these Solarbags® with our community families, for whom clean water is an essential ingredient for both health and dignity.

“Solarbag® is an award winning light weight water container that uses proprietary nanomesh which renders bacteria, viruses, pesticides, herbicides, petrochemicals, arsenic, lead, mercury and protozoa harmless — without using chemicals– through a process called photocatalysis that’s powered by the sun.”

We spent considerable energy retrieving our donations from Customs, and so we were all very happy and relieved when we finally got our delivery safely to the KCDO offices.

Our first step was to run a training program for our field officers so that they would understand how to best utilize and preserve these Solarbags®.

Our field officers went out to our community. They trained families in the use and care of the Solarbags®. The families are extremely grateful to be able to create their own safe drinking water.

“As at the end of the exercise all benefited household thanked KCDO and their partners for the good services rendered to them and community of Lwengo at large“

PPE Arrives from California

A very generous contribution of cloth and plastic face masks, as well as other Personal Protection Equipment, which will protect our KCDO staff and community members, arrived today from California. The package was prepared by Dr. Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH, Executive Director of the American Women’s Hospitals Service, a program of the American Medical Women’s Association, https://www.amwa-doc.org/, and by her friend, Khawaja.

It has taken several months to organize this donation as Dr. Eliza had to get permission from her organization to export these critical PPE items. Khawaja then FedExed the package to Wonderland BookSavers, who then sent the package by DHL to Kampala. From Kampala, Ms. Sarah sent the package by taxi to Kyamaganda, Here at KCDO, the items have been distributed. We continue to work for the safety of our community members during this difficult Covid-19 pandemic. Many thanks to Dr. Eliza Lo Chin, Khawaja and the American Women’s Hospitals Service!

Covid-19: Food and Water?

While the world is held hostage by this terrible virus, and children everywhere are told, “Just keep washing your hands!” the children of KCDO are wondering not only how to wash their hands without water, but also wondering how to get food, now that everyone is under quarantine.

The lack of running water is always a problem, but during this pandemic mothers and children are doing the best they can.

This young woman is using stockings as a mask.

One of the main difficulties that families are facing is the lack of food. Fortunately the Wonderland BookSavers Go Fund Me page funds sent to KCDO are enabling the community to purchase beans, rice and cooking oil.

This KCDO community leader is delivering sacks of food to the many villagers who are suffering starvation due to this pandemic.

Thank you so much to the many American donors who have enabled this supply of food.

Please keep remembering these children in your prayers. They are praying for you as well.

Piggery Pop-Up

The Covid-19 pandemic has reached Uganda, and KCDO offices are being closed; the piggery is being temporarily disbanded. Fortunately, notwithstanding the pandemic, the KCDO piggery is providing frontline micro-economic opportunities for local women in the Lwengo District of Uganda.

As Jack Neighbor notes in a recent article in National Geographic, “Women have long been underestimated and underutilized in many societies, including across Africa. Now, through hard work, global commitments, and localized training initiatives, women entrepreneurs are making their mark on the economies of southern Africa.”

Each piglet, with her bag of food, is ready to start a new piggery

To Neighbor’s point, both the piggery and KCDO are using this opportunity to provide 20 local women with booster grants and materials to start their own businesses.  KCDO has been teaching entrepreneurial skills for the past year.  The women graduates are now provided with the tools for success.

Willy writes, “Am happy to inform you that today, Saturday, we have been able to support 20 women with income generating projects to assist them in these trying moments.  10 women got pigs, animal feed and booster feeds to start their own piggery schemes at the household level.  Others have got retail shops items like merchandise goods, drums for brewery, seedlings, fertilizers since its planting season, among others.”

And he says,

“We are grateful to Wonderland BookSavers and the team who helped us start the piggery project that is supporting other small businesses for rural poor women in Kyamaganda community and Lwengo District.”

This is a great example of successful micro-entrepreneurship, which started with a fund-raising pool party in the USA and 8 months later concludes with financial independence for 20 women and their families in Uganda.

 “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” Romans 12:10

Community Helps Renovate House for Vulnerable Children

Yesterday we had mobilized the youth and community people after the
childrens party to come on Saturday and we help the household with eleven orphaned children. The children stay with old grandmother aged 69 years. The oldest girl is 12 years and the youngest is 8 years. The house they stay in is made up of mud and wattles. The house is in sorry state.

Today we got a good Samaritan who gave us bricks and they have been carried to the site and the foundation was dug. The rural people have participated and we hope by the end of January it will be ready for use. The only challenge is manufactured materials that are not available in the community but the will to make it so is available.

The kitchen is also worrying and the household was chancefully supported
with T-shirts and some shoes.

Tough Mudder Comes to Kyamaganda

Our reach from one continent to another continues to grow.  Today more T-shirt donations, in coordination with US-Africa Children’s Fellowship and Wonderland BookSavers reached the Kyamaganda Community Development Organization.

As Mark (usacf.net) explained, “Tough Mudder is a for profit organization that runs sports competitions. Basically they set up huge obstacles courses that run for miles. Some of their events run for 24 hours. Contestants run up and down hills, climb over rope walls, splash through mud and crawl on their bellies. They run events across the United States and in England. Up to 400,000 people compete every year. They print about 450,000 T-shirts a year to make sure they have enough. Because I know one of the staff members of Tough Mudder, USACF gets all the extras.

The Kyamaganda community children are already living under extremely competitive and difficult conditions. They are the true winners of the Tough Mudder competition and should wear their T-shirts with pride. They are the real winners!