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Letters and NewsSOHI NewsJanuary 2012 - Executive Director and SOHI Volunteer Erin in Uganda
July 2011 - Executive Director in Uganda
October 2010 - Executive Director in Uganda
February 2009 - Executive Director in Uganda
2005 Email from Uganda5 September 2008 Dear Juliet, Praise God, greetings from Uganda. APPRECIATION: The children and guardians who are helped through SOHI wish to appreciate you and the administrators plus the sponsors for the entire financial, moral and spiritual help offered to them to help them achieve a brighter and meaningful future. As we speak, we have children in S.6 and S.4, which is a great achievement because they are finishing some very important levels in Ugandan education. As they receive certificates for those levels, they can continue to higher institutions of learning and colleges which can help them to be self sustaining and important citizens in the country and in God's Kingdom. We praise God for that. Thank you SOHI. THE HEALTH OF OUR CHILDREN Our children's health has been good, we thank God for that so much. ACHIEVEMENTS:
ACADEMICS Most of the students improved on their studies but still there are those who are weak, and need encouragement. Their major problem has always been reading and English due to lack of a good foundation, but now that we have got them a grammar teacher to help them, we believe their performance is going to change for the better but as you know, it doesn't happen over night, it is a gradual process, but with hard work, we believe they will improve and hence better results. We have not yet lost hope in them. CHALLENGE Fire Outbreaks in Boarding Schools: There has been a problem of fire outbreaks in schools causing most boarding sections to be closed in various schools. Our children at Lake Victoria Primary school were stopped from using the boarding section since it was closed by the government. We have found this a very serious challenge since they were in their last term of this year. PROPOSED SOLUTION We thought this over and an idea of renting for them an apartment near the school came up. We thought it would be good to let these children continue in the same school because of the reasons below:
In this proposed apartment, there would be a spare room or place to put their computers enabling them to study computer in their free time. Thank you so much. We love you. Adam. 1 May 2007 SOHI – Seeds Of Hope International is the organization that we are trying to help out with the orphaned and needy children. The founder is Juliet Ofwono, she lives in Colorado Springs and has a large vision for what God wants her to do here. The term has ended for the students so they are all now back with their guardians. For some of them they go back to bad situations, for others it is not so bad. We had many of the children ask us if they could stay here with us. It was hard to tell them no, but we really cannot house and feed 24 children for a month. We were able to have all the secondary students, that is 5 girls and 3 boys come to the house and stay with us for 2 nights and 3 days. It was so much fun! At first we were a bit leery to have them come here because we don't know them all that well yet. We have some nice things and didn't want to give just anyone access to it. It ended up, as many of our experiences do, humbling. The girls were up every morning cleaning the house and compound, without us ever saying anything. Although this is a normal thing for girls their age in this culture, we are not used to it. They would do dishes, sweep, mop and anything else they could do before we were even up for the day. Needless to say we found out how our fears were completely nullified by their actions. We had bible study on the Friday they were here. It was powerful!! They worshiped and shared openly. Adam and Ricky took them home and Adam will be making arrangements for them while we are in the states. It is such a blessing when the Lord works things out on the behalf of the needy and helpless. The Children have blessed us much more than we could hope to impact them. It is our prayer that through showing these children the love of the Father that they will choose to follow Jesus with their whole heart all the days of their lives. Heidi 21 April 2007 We have all of the reports from both of the schools. I will start with the secondary students. To put it plainly they are not doing well. Most are failing their English and that means that all other subjects are poor as well. Some are doing better than others for example Rhitah is 16th out of 71. That is very good if compared with Milly who is last in her class. Cynthia seems to be doing well in her classes or I should say she is trying. Ndiwayesu is 3rd out of 49 in his class so needless to say he is doing outstanding!! Those are only examples and you will get copies of all of the reports soon. The primary students are the exact same to report as the secondary students. The majority of the students are extremely weak in English and it is having a devastating effect on the outcome of all other grades. We do have promising students who are really shining and it is my joy to tell you that the two students who are in P1 are soaring with their performance, and that tells me that it really is because of a poor foundation that the other students are having difficulty in their studies. There are students who are doing well and of course Gertrude did very well, however her mother came and took the reports before I was able to get there so we will have to get the copies from her. The health of all the children is outstanding, excluding Gertrude who is actually doing very well considering her battle with AIDS. It is only a matter of time before they catch up and really begin to perform better. Every teacher, though, suggested that we get the students extra help in the next term for English so that they can catch up and compete with the other students. I have talked with a teacher at Lake Vic school and she has agreed to help if we can work something out. She would be teaching the P4 students and she lives at the school. Teachers do require payment if they are to take on tutoring students, however she would be teaching 7 of our students at the same time so that would hopefully cut down on the cost. My recommendation and that of my family here is that we try it for this semester, the kids really don't have a chance if they can't understand English. Monica Anyango is performing well. We love serving the Lord with you in all of this... Heidi,Ricky, Becca 18 April 2007 We just received a call from Uganda from Ricky. Matthew is doing very very well, in fact, he is very intelligent and is on the distinguished list. He is majoring in Science. We are moving him from Bethel Covenant College and placing him in Merryland High School, Entebbe because this school has a science program and also offers boarding. Matthew has a tremendous heart for God and for his studies. The children are very happy and grateful for all that their sponsors are doing for them. They are enjoying the fellowship and bible studies. Becca, Heidi and Ricky the SOHI Administrators comment that the children have so much faith and passion for God considering all that they have been through. They had the secondary students over their house for the weekend and had a wonderful time of fellowship. The girls woke up early in the morning and were found cleaning the house, scrubbing the floors, and making breakfast. To the girls, this was a small token of their appreciation. Please continue to pray for the children and for Becca, Heidi, Ricky and baby Israel. |
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