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One of the best ways to show our involvement in the community on a regular basis is through our weekly outreach programs around Kampala. Through the efforts of our Ugandan leaders and volunteers, we are able to see changes in lives on a day-to-day basis by contributing their time and efforts to programs that focus on empowering individuals they come in contact with all over the city.
Katanga Slums
Mulago Hospital
Hosted every June, young women ranging from ages 18-24 years old, join guest speakers and spend a weekend coming together, sharing stories of heartache and triumph, and discussing topics such as Dreaming for the Future, God’s Plan for our Life, Discovering True Beauty, etc.
Located just below Mulago hospital, the Katanga Slums is one of the poorest places to live and is only a step above living on the streets. These slums have become an intricate community of people we come alongside daily with various ministries, outreaches, and programs. Many of the orphans and abandoned children in the Kids Home have come from these slums.
Slum Women Outreach
Our vision here is to build relationships with women and their families who are living in this slum, learning their story, gaining their trust, and showing them love and respect. Documentation and records are kept on each woman’s situation as a reference to learn what problems they face and what it takes to better their situation. While learning her background and family situation, there are many ways to make an impact in this slum community. As funds allow, we try to provide mosquito nets, distribute clothes, meet medical needs and have occasional cookouts, gathering together to share a meal. We also dream together to come up with ways they can have sustainable incomes, and a stable living situation. We help them develop a small business (like selling charcoal, or pancakes) or provide a service so they can work towards getting out of their destitute situations. The Thread of Life Sewing Ministry is another way we empower some of these women.
Soccer Outreach
The soccer outreach is a program that began in June 2007 by two student volunteers. The project hosts fun days, soccer tournaments, and training camps for all the slum kids who would otherwise have no hope of getting out of their situations. This allows us to learn and invest in their stories, find the true orphans, and target kids who need to be in school. Volunteers are able to help with practices that are held every week on Monday and Wednesday. The initial start-up of the program yielded so much positive participation that some of the Ugandan men in our community have stepped into coaching positions, facilitating all the practices and putting together additional games and tournaments.
Street Kid Outreach
Accompanying our Ugandan leaders, our volunteers have the option to go to various slums around Kampala and hang out with the orphaned and abandoned street kids. This twice a week interaction builds mutually meaningful relationships with these teens. Through the consistency of our visits we are able to begin investing in their lives, listening to their stories and discovering what brought them to the streets. Our goal is to bring smiles, hugs, or a soccer game to those who have nothing, and no hope. We want to offer opportunities for a future and plant in them a desire to end the destructive cycles of begging, fighting, and drug use, one kid at a time.
Twice a week we go to Mulago hospital visiting patients and building relationships with them, their families, and the faculty. Reaching out to the truly dying and sick, offering hope and encouragement through the loving relationships we build with each other and with Jesus Christ. Activities include reading stories, coloring, handing out books, and hearing the stories of the patients and helping their situation as funds allow. We follow up on the patients each week and we hope to see them return home healthy!
“I absolutely loved being at the hospital with the kids who have cancer. To be able to be a part of their smiles and see the change in the time we came to the time we left was absolutely beautiful.”
- Elizabeth Goett, Oklahoma
Click the links below to learn more about our programs.
Kids' Home
The Farm
Village Outreaches
Micro Businesses
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