Just last week dozens of girls in Uganda were justifiably proud to receive their honored guests. Ed, CEO of Total Attorneys Inc. and his wife Ashley arrived in Kampala on the 17th. They spent the afternoon and evening with Blake, Robinah, and the POH girls at our vocational school located in Bwaise, a large slum on the north side of Kampala.

Ed and Ashley were welcomed with singing, dancing, big smiles and open arms. I was told, though the girls in Bwaise weren’t familiar with Total Attorneys, they esteemed Ed and Ashley like family knowing they had hearts for girls in Uganda.

On the morning of the 18th, Ed and Ashley chartered a small plane to Gulu. In order to meet them there, Robinah took five of the Bwaise girls by bus the night before. This is what Robinah emailed me along with the pictures:

“In life we all have dreams we want to achieve, girls in Bwaise, their dreams were to travel in a bus and see a plane. Today their dreams came true when they went to Gulu Airstrip to send off Ed and Ashley as they were taking a plane. And in the same afternoon, they’ve traveled in a bus from Gulu to Bwaise. What were their dreams yesterday, are their realities today. It takes just a few minutes to change a life. Thank you Purse of Hope for making our dreams come true.” -Robinah

For the sake of perspective, the bus ride between cities is approximately six hours. The girls enthusiastically sat on a hot bus for twelve hours to realize their personal dreams of travel and to participate in Ed and Ashley’s farewell celebration.

To the girls in Bwaise, Gulu was a far away land still being ravaged by violence and atrocity. They were able to see for themselves how the North has experienced peace and is rebuilding after the twenty plus years of civil unrest. They also witnessed how their sisters at the Total Impact house are rebuilding their lives thanks to people like Ed, Ashley, and all of you supporting our mission.

During their stay in Gulu, Ed and Ashley toured several schools, the large market, local businesses and neighboring projects. We have comprehensive footage of both days activities which Blake will be sending back with a group next week.

You can be sure there will be plenty to follow!

Bwaise Brothels

Christmas Greetings From Uganda

Our New Girls!

We now officially have eleven girls residing in the Total Impact House! (One of the girls is absent from the picture. She was not feeling well.) The last month has been an arduous one for Blake and Pauline as they traversed a seemingly endless mountain of legal and social impediments. Persistence prevailed, however, and six more girls are free from a life of prostitution.

One of the biggest problems we face is the potential beneficiary’s loss of income. The money they’re making via prostitution is often the primary source of income for an entire family. If the girls don’t already have children, they have younger siblings, unemployed parents, or even extended family members to support. Sadly, seizing the opportunity to flee from a life of sexual exploitation is considerably more complex than it should be.

For example, one of the girls in the POH outreach program, regrettably, declined Pauline’s invitation to stay at the house. She is fifteen and cares for her twelve year old sister and ailing grandmother. If she entered the program, she explained, her grandmother would then force her younger sister to start selling herself. Sacrificing her own body in order to save her sister from selling hers, she chose to turn down the offer of safety, healing, and an education. Thankfully, she continues to meet with Pauline for counseling and participates in the outreach program’s activities.

While her story represents the majority, there are girls able to break free. We are grateful for our six new sisters—grateful their circumstances were not insurmountable and they can make the most of this new opportunity.

Welcome home girls!

A Firm Foundation

Several months ago, I was contacted by the President of a company responsible for installing the foundation work for some of the largest buildings, bridges, and utility structures in North America. The name of this company is Case Foundation and their philanthropic objective is identical to their professional one—to lay the groundwork upon which something amazing is to be built.

President Bob Schock inquired of our needs. I told him about the girls in Kampala and how they've been meeting and studying in a makeshift classroom next to the brothel where they work. Our hope has been to procure a building of our own in order to offer more courses and to accommodate the ever increasing class sizes. On behalf of Case, he agreed to help. Thus the new school/drop-in center was initiated.

Much has been accomplished in the last few weeks. Swift actions have resulted from both necessity and enthusiasm. In early October, we hired a broker to locate several buildings for us. When I was there later that month, he showed Robinah, our project director, and me what he had found. One was entirely too far away and double our budget. Another was exclusively zoned for residential use and still another seemed to have vanished completely as we drove for almost an hour looking for it. We elected to find a new broker.

The next morning I was scheduled to leave for Gulu. Robinah phoned the girls to tell them the disappointing news. Before reaching the brothel to teach class, she'd already received her first animated phone call. "We found one! We found one! Come meet us!" The second call came shortly after. "Robinah, we see a space for rent, come tell us if it's ok?"

The girls took it upon themselves to divide into groups and find their school. They'd spent the entire day looking at a number of locations in the area and then later voted on the best one. That evening, I answered Robinah's call and listened as the girls bubbled with excitement and proudly took ownership of their real estate venture and the future success of the school. The broker fiasco ended up being the best thing that could have happened. This vocational school was no doubt theirs. They are the ones that found it and have been faithfully attending nearly every day since.

A large construction company—one that operates massive equipment and drills through the earth's toughest strata, volunteered to help tackle another extremely arduous project—restoring the vulnerable lives and fragile psyches of girls on the other side of the globe. Once again, Case has set the foundation and our students now have something upon which they too can build.

Thank you Case.

Performance

Juliet