When they see him, they will smile.

Blimey, this year seems to be flying by at quite a frightening speed! Thought i'd better put another blog entry together before March hits me and throws me off course altogether!

Have spent most of February in Hoima. I enjoy Hoima - its much quieter, work wise, than Kasambya is and it gives me much more opportunity to be with the kids and take a bit of time just to enjoy what KISS does! Our pastoral work in Hoima is headed by Julius Asaba, who is just fantastic. I'm coming to realise, more and more, that he really is one of the most inspiring and selfless people I know. He has an awesome ability to infect those around him with a real zeal for life - he enjoys life, and helps other people to do the same. What a gift! Every single day, when the kids finish school, he is there waiting for them - and he spends the next three hours talking to them, teaching them guitar, singing, dancing, acting, playing, learning, and praying.... KISS is blessed to have him working with us and I feel blessed to count him among my friends. No amount of financial assistance could ever replace what he gives to those kids.

The work that Julius does breaks down barriers. It creates an atmosphere of trust and a feeling of being valued. And its this that opens up pathways into the children's lives. Its from this place of trust and acceptance that they begin to share their struggles and seek help. This week a 12 year old girl approached Julius and I and explained that she had recently lost both of her parents. She is now staying alone with her two younger sisters aged 5 and 9. A relative has been sent there to stay and look after them - this relative is in her first year of secondary school. The kids are able to go to a non-fee paying government primary school and received a bit of support for that from a distant aunty who sent them books and pens. Other than that, they have absolutely no income and so have no way of buying food for themselves. They are entirely at the mercy of their neighbours who occassionaly bring them dinner... but they can go a whole week without receiving anything at all. They cannot afford to eat at school, and when they come home to find no food there, they make a cup of tea and go to bed. Its easy to gloss over stories like this - we hear so much of it on TV that its easy to become de-sensitised... But those kids' eyes tonight tell a painfully real story - loosing a parent here is no less life shattering than it is anywhere else in the world.

I bought their dinner tonight - all 60p of it. I don't know what we are going to be able to do to support the family... there will be a long process now of trying to trace relatives and encourage them to take care of the kids. But one thing is sure - tomorrow, when those kids come back from school, Julius will be waiting for them; And, when they see him, they will smile.

Please keep the kids and the work of KISS in your prayers.

The Blog is Back...

After the 6th form team did such an amazing job with the blog over Christmas i've been a bit slack at picking it back up again... but lets give it a go!

The last couple of months have absolutely flown by. Christmas with the JHN 6th formers was fantastic and, if you've read their blogs, you'll have some idea of what they got up to and what a great bunch they were! You can also see the first of some video interviews with them in Uganda on YouTube www.youtube.com/therealmatronryan They're back home now and gearing up for KISS Week next week - i'm sure that their experience here will give them the extra boost they need when those energy level inevitably drop... Good luck guys!

The kids have now come to the end of their two month Christmas break and they're all back to school this week. The holidays give our team here the opportunity to spend some quality time with the kids and to get things done which are not do-able in term time. This holiday has provided one particularly poignant example.

KISS does not usually support families outside of the three main centres from which we operate. However, after a road accident in 2007, KISS came to know and support a very special family who stay about three hours outside of Kasambya. The time we have been able to spend with these children, though we have been supporting them with school fees, has been limited. This holiday that changed when the three of them came to spend Christmas with us. And what a change it was!

The children's mother died in 2001 when she was giving birth to a daughter who, 6 years later, also died. Then, in 2008, the children lost their grandmother (the one person who had been able to take on some of their mother's responsibility and care for them). At this point their father left the home to stay with another wife. The three children, aged 13, 10 and 8, spend most of their time at home alone - cooking, washing, cleaning and finding food for themselves. In all the difficult situations i've come across in Uganda, i've never found one which touched me quite as profoundly as this one. In most instances, it's possible to console yourself with the fact that there is SOMEONE who is there for the kid. But in this case,I was finding it hard to believe that that someone WAS there. Every time we went to visit them, the children were dirty, their hands and feet were covered in parasites - and their eyes lacked that little spark of hope that you glimpse in most kids when you flash them a cheesy grin. Little did I know that these kids were harbouring the three widest grins in the whole of Uganda. KISS has done nothing spectacular for these kids - but for a few short weeks, they've been given the opportunity just to be kids again - they've played non stop football, they've made friends and they've been surrounded by people who want the best for them - and they have, quite literally, been transformed by it. They're back off to school now and KISS will continue to work to support them and to support their father in offering the care that they deserve - and, with a bit of luck, there is light at the end of the tunnel for these three most incredible children.

As our kids head back to school, its impossible not to mention then many thousands across Uganda who won't be. Three kids came to me yesterday needing help that I was unable to give them. One, a girl of 10 years, was brought to Kasambya by her father 2 years ago. He left her in the taxi park and never came back. She's never started school and the lady who has taken her into her home is desperate for her to at least attend primary school. The second, a boy of 13 years, has been told by his family that he cannot go back to school this year because they are fed up of wasting their money on him. The boy says that his mother frequently tells him that she wishes he was dead. The third, a 14 year old girl, has been told that she cannot go back to school this year because her younger sister needs to start school and the family can't afford to pay for both of them. The list goes on and on and the need will always be inexhaustible. The comofort in this case, of course, is that the children at least have somewhere to go where their problems are heard. KISS might not be able to solve everything... but thanks to all the support we receive from back home we're able at least to go some way to helping shoulder the burden.

Please continue to support and pray for the work of KISS.