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.
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