Uganda NOW Outreach

After I returned from my trip in 2008, Dr. Walter and I told as many people about these two communities as possible. My family understood my passion and wanted to help as much as they could. We spoke to family, friends, churches, schools, and community organizations in order to gain support for our mission. We established Uganda NOW Outreach as a non-profit organization and immediately began making plans to return to Uganda with a team of Americans ready to serve. Having already made a significant impact in these two communities, we continue to do all that we can in order to help these people. We understand how important education is and how it is the key in alleviating much of their poverty and sickness due to preventable diseases. We are establishing schools, educating them about personal hygiene and HIV/AIDS, and will soon initiate programs to teach them vocational skills such as farming, fishing, and other small business entrepreneurship. Recently drilled wells of clean water will improve the health of many people by providing a reliable supply of safe and clean water with no contaminants. We currently have one completed well which supplies over 1,000 people with clean water. A second well is currently being drilled at a site in Makindu near Kansas College. We are also raising funds to create a medical clinic so that these people have year-round basic medical care. Current statistics show that approximately 14 people die per month on Busagazi Island alone from simple and preventable illnesses. Before we came, very few people in the area had ever been seen by a doctor and had to travel nearly 10 kilometers just to be seen by one. Now many see an American doctor at least once a year. One out of every seven children in southern Uganda is either classified as orphaned or vulnerable which places them at risk for sexual and physical abuse, exploitation, violence, and extreme poverty. Establishing an orphanage to educate, nurture, and protect these children is one of our highest priorities once the proper funding is secured. Literally thousands of people have been impacted by Uganda NOW Outreach and thousands more will be aided in the future by the work that we have been privileged to do. With additional funding we hope to expand our assistance to the people of southern Uganda by reaching other communities as well.