Please meet Joyce and other Children in Need!

Joyce (left) gave my heart the hardest blow recently. You would imagine I am used to such, but No! I still get emotional oscillations, every couple of days and sometimes every day! Tough!! Living in my world often means becoming so happy in the morning because a hopeless girl you met years ago walked into your office with so much hope; but all this gets altered in the evening when you meet a boy who needs more than you can provide! To the later category, you are 'the only answer' and honestly, living to their expectation is most times hard and painful. 

Joyce was among those that came that day, recently. It was a special day because we had visitors who had come with several gift items including tooth brushes, toothpaste, shoes and clothes. There was some scramble as everyone of the over 300 kids wanted to walk away with something! Lines were so short but thick with hands hanging out as flowers each waiting to hold something. The distribution went on and whoever got sat in a nearby chair waiting for hopefully

another call! It is a good feeling seeing the group that is seated because they often can afford a smile. Between those on the line and those seated, my eyes caught Joyce! She was standing barefooted on the concrete flow with hands folded around her chest. This is uncommon given what was going on! I walked close.

She did not say any word yet told me so much!! She had already received a dress and putting it on but on top of her only filthy dress she walked in with. The new dress was not fitting her but was not bothered. She had no shoes. As I pondered, one girl slightly older came in and was generous to tell me her story. 

Bear with me as this is getting longer than I wanted!

Joyce lives with her grandmother and lost her dad. Her mother abandoned her with her grandma and her whereabouts are unknown. Joyce cannot use shoes because she does not have one of her toes and has a big wound in its place. It is horrible how all this happened. One day as she sat around the fire place watching her grandma prepare a meal, the saucepan with boiling food fell off the fire and burnt her foot. Her fifth toes of the right foot was affected most. It became septic because she did not get any treatment. Grandma's herbs did not help either. One day as she made effort to clean it, the fifth toe broke off from the metatarsal bone. The wound is still not healed and her foot still has sores. Today, she has 9 toes because of controllable circumstances beyond her control. 

Joyce with her new dresses

We gave Joyce two new dresses but no shoes. She looked well on the outside but none of us can tell what was inside her heart! She never smiled! We will continue to pray for her and share between her and other children all that God will hopefully provide.

Anyway, there are many children like Joyce; children who have lost one or more toe; children whose metatarsals are broken! One such lost toes and broken metatarsals  for many children is 'hope'. We are doing our best to restore these through African Children Today and RODI!  Certainly you are welcome to join us. There different ways to do that. Visit our websites and learn how to do it. Visit African Children Today website. Visit RODI website.

You can also join our effort to build a school in the Rakai Community. This will go a long way in giving hope to so many children and their households. We are raising  $4,350 for the timber and $7,500 for the steel sheets, ridges and nails to be able to roof the first school block. Visit our website to see how to donate.

And lastly, pay us a visit if you are in Uganda or planning to visit the country. Send us an email if you have any questions. 

It was only a Dream!! Soon a Reality - You still can be part of the story!!

Dear friends and ministry partners,

Warm greetings from Uganda. I bring you love and appreciation from the entire RODI family. Without you we wouldn't be the ministry we; loving and giving hope to people in a community where HIV/AIDS has left many people so vulnerable.

2014: We got to meet Johnson's childhood sponsor

Johnson and I grew up in the same (Rakai) community, under similar conditions and it is a miracle for both of us to be alive to-date! We know many that did not make it! Nine years ago we decided to go back to the same community, not alone but with our friends; to build a team to support these people through sharing our story! We continue to do exactly that and we are so thankful you have been with us in one way or the other on this journey.

Today was my 36 birthday and what a testimony! It has been another memorable exciting day for me while starting hopefully another year of life! One of my friends sent me a message. It read "Happy Birthday - the day you were born angels whispered in your ear and you smiled because you knew you were created for something very special. Something that no one could give to this world but you..." I quickly sent him a reply "I wish those angels whispered in my ears all that when I was about 3 years! That would have been an encouragement during those tough childhood days..." 

It is funny but I thought deeply about my response after clicking 'send'! I guess you also do it. Truth is that I never heard the angels! May be because I was just a day old!! Well, I took time to think about his message and as I did, memories of our (me and Johnson) childhood (always so near!) resurfaced (as usual)! Then I remembered the helpless children who come to us every day with different stories; willing to take our encouragements even when they are not sure of tomorrow. Some of them never come back physically but are present always because of the scars they leave on our hearts.

Welding: Mathias and his trainees

Feeding: Lunch time at school- Real Foood

In short (I hope so), God has done wonderful things in this community through our ministry. It makes me happy to know 205 children are sponsored and get full support to enable them get quality education. They attend school every day, have meals at school and have all the requirements to study well! I also know many of you that have been able to bring hope through supporting special projects like the Amazing Grace Bakery, the feeding program, and our newly established Welding and Carpentry workshop plus making contributions toward our operation costs. Thank you and May God bless you. 

Struggling to learn at a poor school

While we are doing so much and must surely be proud, there is still overwhelming need. Everyday children walk through our doors looking for support to at least get quality education. We understand from some sponsors that child sponsorship is a wonderful experience but because it is a longtime commitment, some people are hesitant to give

Sponsored children at school

it a try in this world of economic challenges. I am not sure if I wound not be hesitant myself! In fact we have had some child sponsors cancel after a few months because it was unavoidable! It is painful what children go through when this happens! Big up to those who have been able to stick in for years! The cost of education is also soaring and we are scared that soon our sponsorship dollars may not be adequate.

Patiently waiting for the start

We had been praying about this situation for years; praying for something  which can continue to give a child hope even when their sponsor cancels (at least until another sponsor can be found);  a solution that would provide an opportunity to all those people who would like to be part of this ministry team even though they were not sponsoring a child. The dream plan was to construct a school. We knew it would give us an opportunity to love and give hope to many other people, especially children!

Part of the school land

We envisaged many children coming here for a quality education but calling this same place home. This would be a place where the homeless and those living in abusive dangerous environments can call  their home. These were just imaginations and never knew when it would become a reality and how it would all start!

Towards the end of 2014, someone in the community talked to us about an opportunity to buy his land. He was losing it to a bank over a smaller amount of money. He preferred that RODI owned this land.  Not sure how he knew we had a dream for a school but he said it was a good land for a school! We knew well it was hard to get the money which was required in a short time. Thankfully, soon RODI owned 11 acres of land. This was the first but HUGE step!

At the start of this year another ministry partner (a church) decided to take the SECOND step! They started a drive to build the first block on the land! The six room block will have 3 study rooms for children between 6 and 8 years, 2 sleeping rooms (1 for boys and another for girls) and 1 dining/prayer/library room for all ages! The target is to have this completed by the end of this year. Construction is already underway and can already find hopeful children on the site when you visit.  Brandon, Godfrey, and Mathew were brave enough to accept me to take a picture recently! All they are doing is smiling and playing at the foundation of the block under construction!

Here is the Big Call!!

As you can imagine, there is a lot of construction going on. Yes, we need more than study rooms and sleeping rooms! We need a toilet, a kitchen, houses for teachers, study rooms for other age groups, and other home/school items. I get scared thinking about this as an individual but I trust we can do it together as a team of friends. Oh, we very much need advice on how you think we can do it! Some of you are very experienced at this! For now below is the list of the most needed items.

Description	Unit cost and measure
Cement	$        11.00	per bag
Steel bars	$          9.00	each bar
Sand	$        11.00	each tonne
Roofing Iron Sheets	$        15.00	per sheet
Roofing Timber	$          3.00	per piece
Aggregates	$        22.00	per tonne
Metallic doors	$      156.00	Per door
Hardcore stones	$        11.00	per tonne
Metallic windows	$      110.00	each window
Clay bricks	$          5.00	100 bricks

Brandon can't wait to see the school start!

Kindly pray with us and also share with other people and organizations! Any donations can be general or for any of the specific items above. We encourage, donations by checks made payable to  African Children Today and sent to P.O. Box 390123, Edina, MN 55439. Let me know when you or the person or organization you are sharing with or may be  interested may like to donate in a different way. 


All donations are tax deductible and you will receive a receipt for tax purposes in January. 

Let me know if you (or any person or organization you think may be interested) have any questions. Have a wonderful week! Thank you for taking time to read all this!