INTRODUCTION

Can you partner with the guardians and other carers of the orphans of Kabubbu to help give them a future?

Winnie and her mother live in Kabubbu. When Winnie’s father died of AIDS in 1995 her mother was left with no income and six children to support.  In 2001 Winnie’s mother was offered work managing a three-acre farm in Kabubbu some 85 km from where they then lived. She had to leave her other children with a friend and moved to Kabubbu with Winnie who is now being educated in Kabubbu Community Primary School. Her mother sends half of her monthly wage of £12 back home to feed her other children and pay for the school fees of four of them.

Betty’s mother was living and working in Kampala with her four children when her grandmother, who lives in Kabubbu, asked her to come and care for her in her old age. Although the move would take away her source of income she felt obliged to do so as her grandmother had raised her.  Having moved, she had no money to pay for Betty or any of her other children to go to school. Her grandmother gave them a single room twelve feet by twelve feet to live in without any furniture or mattresses.  Later, when her grandmother was dying, other relatives forced Betty and her mother out of their room fearing Betty’s mother would claim the house and they would lose their inheritance.  Betty attends the Kabubbu Community Primary School and we have been able to arrange for Betty and her mother to be re-housed. We are also developing work initiatives so that Betty’s mother can earn an income to enable her to pay school fees for her other children to attend a school.

I WOULD LIKE TO HELP PROVIDE FOR CARERS - click here - to select items from our Alternative Gift Catalogue.

REBUILDING DERELICT HOMES

Housing in Kabubbu varies greatly. Each reflects the level of destitution of its owner or occupier.

Around 70% own their home with a small plot of land around it that is used to grow vegetables, vital for food. 30% rent their home paying from 80p to £3 (€4.50/ US $6.00) per week depending on the size and facilities offered. Often this comes without any land on which to grow vegetables. For some families even the 80p a week is unaffordable.

Just because you own your home does not mean you can afford to maintain it.  Many of the older houses have walls made of intertwined bamboo covered in mud and with a thatched roof.  When the thatch rots away it is often replaced by polythene sheets.  This type of structure does not cope well over a period of years with the typical heavy rains. Often the houses are demolished by the rains.  Quicken Trust has built two blocks of community houses for those in particular destitution or ill health in need of housing. It has plans to build further community housing.

Other brick houses are being built through the generous giving of sponsors of orphans living with their guardians. £1,250 (€1,925/ US $2,500) builds a new brick and concreted rendered two-roomed house with a concrete floor and corrugated roof.  This type of construction will last many decades.

This is an ideal project for a Church group, company employees or a club to be involved with.

I WOULD LIKE TO HELP REBUILD DERELICT HOMES - click here - and see page 5 in our Alternative Gift Catalogue.

CARING FOR THE CARERS – PROVIDING TOILETS

Good sanitation is a major problem in a rural environment.

There is no running water and so there are no flush toilets.  What there is, for most of the older houses, is a compound surrounded by bushes that fulfils a purpose in regard to toilet facilities.

Good toilets are essential to good health which is essential to a positive future.

The standard toilet in Kabubbu is a ‘Pit Latrine’.  This is a 36 foot deep hole dug in the ground on top of which sits a concrete slab with a hole in it.  Over this is a small walled building to provide privacy.  Modern pit latrines also have a vent built into them to carry away odours.

It is estimated that the average pit latrine will last for in excess of thirty years!

There are many old and not so old houses that require this additional sanitary feature and we are committed to providing this resource to further care for the carers health needs and of their families.

I WOULD LIKE TO HELP PROVIDE TOILETS - click here - and see page 5 in our Alternative Gift Catalogue.

CARING FOR THE CARERS – BEDS AND MATTRESSES

BEDS AND MATTRESSES

The majority of the people in Kabubbu sleep on the mud floor on a bundle of rags, dried cut grass or directly on the floor.  It is pitiful to see sleeping areas in their houses.

Many may consider this acceptable within a rural African environment but we don’t!  And if for no other reason a bed and mattress provides the means, along with a mosquito net, to reduce malaria which is the biggest killer in Africa.  A mosquito net provides little or no defence against mosquitoes getting inside the net as they come underneath it.

To be fully effective the net needs to be tucked under a mattress.  A bed helps provide this facility and also a certain degree of dignity within the home.

Beds and mattress covers are made by people within Kabubbu to a very high standard.  This not only provides a skill to the maker but it provides paid employment helping the person achieve both dignity and a chance to become self-sufficient.

Both essentials to show the carers we care.

I WOULD LIKE TO HELP PROVIDE BEDS AND MATTRESSES - click here - and see page 5 in our Alternative Gift Catalogue.

CARING FOR THE CARERS – BIKES AND LIGHTS
AND THINGS

Many orphans live in extended families with grandparents or guardians who are already struggling financially.

Many orphans are helped with their education. But to get the best from education they need good homes and additional support. Some live a distance away, walking for an hour or more (sometimes up to 4 hours) to get to school. A bicycle makes an hours walk a 15 minute journey.

They need extra clothes, beds, blankets, shoes, cooking utensils, tables, chairs and so on to support their education with a stable home environment - they need so much that we take for granted.

Possibly a hurricane lamp to replace a single wick oil lamp made from a used food tin to help with their homework as it gets dark at 7.00pm.

I WOULD LIKE TO HELP PROVIDE BIKES AND LIGHTS - click here - and see page 6
in our Alternative Gift Catalogue.