By Jill van Leeuwen | Project Leader
Building Plans for a New Nafasi!
Last April a TV crew from the Dutch Evangelical Broadcasting Company visited Uganda and made a documentary featuring Nafasi and the great work it does. There was an appeal made for the funding of a new building, as Nafasi’s rented accommodation is outdated with high running costs and poor water, electricity and telephone supplies. It is not in a very safe district and all this means it is not ideally suited to caring for babies and young children.
We are delighted to announce that there has been a tremendously generous response to the appeal and we now have enough funds to start building a new Nafasi! It will be built on our own land in Namugongo, near Kampala where our other charity, Stichting Kinderhulp Africa has a project for orphaned children aged 6 to18, a primary school and secondary school, a vocational school and a health centre. In an average school year we have 650 children and more than 100 full-time Ugandan staff. The campus has its own water supply, good electricity and telephone connections and a guarded perimeter wall. All this means that we will be able to care for Nafasi’s vulnerable young children in a new purpose built home in a safe and suitable environment that will meet the new statutory requirements of the Ugandan government ministry. The money saved from rent will enable us to admit and care for more children, providing them with a better chance in life as the need is still so very great. Nafasi means chance, and this will be an amazing new chance for so many abandoned and destitute children!
Our architect Ivan, himself a Ugandan orphan and former pupil of our school!, has already submitted our chosen plans for planning permission. Shortlisted designs were revised and amended, budgets recalculated, and here's the final result! We plan to start before the end of the year and to complete before the end of 2016. We will keep you up to date with progress in future reports.
The New building!
Meet Lianne:
Volunteer workers at Nafasi do essential work and mean so much for the children. Lianne worked at Nafasi for 6 weeks through the Doingood Volunteer Scheme. The kids loved her and Lianne was touched by the plight of the children and the challenges faced by young mothers. Many teenagers become pregnant by the age of sixteen and are often rejected and abused by their family and banned from going to school. Two weeks after giving birth in a clinic, they are literally turned out onto the streets to fend for themselves and their new babies. Fortunately Nafasi can help some of them. Working in close co-operation with local child protection and probation agencies we then look for ways to reunite these young mothers and their children within a family setting.
Lianne with some of the Nafasi Children.
Lianne helped set up our Teenage Mother Initiative. This is a training programme for teenage mothers which gives them skills to earn their own income and encourages good parenting. Lianne's compassion for these teenagers continues now she is back in Holland. She gives presentations about the work of Nafasi and the teenage mother programme, raising awareness and fundraising for this innovative initiative. We are very grateful for Lianne’s work as an ambassador for Nafasi.
Teenage mothers meeting 2015
Paul’s New Chance!
With our manager and social worker Jackie, we recently visited Paul to see how he was getting along. Both his parents died and tragically he ended up lost and on the streets. His family were nowhere to be found. Luckily Paul was admitted to Nafasi. He was very malnourished and poorly dressed. Nafasi not only cared for him but started searching for his family and after ten months we were finally able to find his grandmother! She was delighted to see her grandson again and he was overjoyed to see his grandmother! This is why we work so hard to keep Nafasi open and operational.
Paul back at home
The Global Giving Chance
Joining Global Giving this year has provided us with new opportunities to promote Nafasi and to explore new avenues to spread awareness about the plight of Uganda’s helpless children and the work Nafasi is doing to help them have a New Chance in life. We are looking forward to using their network again next year.
Through the Global Giving’s ‘Little by Little Matching Campaign” we have the last chance this year of receiving Bonus funding! This Campaign starts on 26th October at 2 pm until 2nd November at 2 pm. All donations between £5-£50will be matched by 50%, so £5 becomes £7.50, £10= £15, £20=£30 and £50 becomes £75! We will send more details shortly!
Please visit our project page when the campaign starts and donate online https://www.globalgiving.co.uk/projects/nutrition-healthcare-shelter-abandoned-babies-uganda/
Together with your help we are making a difference in Uganda!
Thank you so much for your support this year. We hope that you will continue to be part of our work in the future. If you would like to become an ambassador, helping raise awareness of Nafasi and its work with family, friends, work colleagues, schools and churches etc. or if we can help in any way, please contact us at ‘Info@nafasiwelfarehome.org’. or look on our Facebook Page, and on our website.
On behalf of everyone at Nafasi may I wish you a very Happy, Prosperous and Peaceful New Year 2016!
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Nelson Mandela.
Links:
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