Helping Orphans in Uganda

Formed in 2008, Project Hope World Wide (PHWW) was created to extend a helping hand to the orphans of Uganda and to make a true and lasting difference.

The Project Kwero committee includes (L to R): Rachel Duggan, Rita Scott, Amy Main, Derk Madden, Sherry Patterson, Christy Rowden and Kelley Compton.

With modern day news coverage bringing the world into our living rooms, most people are probably not surprised at the living conditions in third world countries like Uganda. What might surprise most people, however, is that there is a way to help. Formed in 2008, Project Hope World Wide (PHWW) was created to extend a helping hand to the orphans of Uganda and to make a true and lasting difference.

“I never thought I could ever make a difference on another continent,” says Amy Main, local realtor and volunteer for PHWW. “This is a pathway for someone who wants to do more than wish.”

Those who want to become involved in helping the orphans of Uganda will have an opportunity on Saturday, April 17. PHWW will be holding a live and silent auction at the Bailey Medical Center Ballroom, called “Kwero – Ugandan for Party.” “This will be an African-style evening, with an upscale, catered meal,” says Amy. “We will have some amazingly attractive auction items, and all proceeds will go to PHWW.”

Kwero is part of Project Hope Worldwide,  an Owasso-based organization, and their first order of business is to build an orphanage in Uganda. According to Derk Madden, president of Project Hope World Wide, the vision for an orphanage was conceived after a mission trip in 2008. In 2009, land was purchased, and Madden hopes to have ground broken by this summer and children in the orphanage by Christmas. “Our goal is to bring orphans of the many warring tribes of Uganda together in this orphanage,” Madden explains. “If these children grow up together, learn together and grow spiritually together, it could break down the prejudices and tribal barriers that have prevented Ugandans from working together and moving their culture forward.”

Language is one of the main barriers, because even though Uganda was a British colony and has English as its official language, each tribe holds to its own language. Even though the children at the orphanage will be allowed to keep their own languages, they will also be taught fluency in English, giving them a common bond with each other.

Madden and others at PHWW have seen firsthand how urgent conditions are in Uganda. “The United Nations has declared Uganda as the world’s worst place to grow up as a child,” Madden says. “By working there, we’re battling AIDS, malaria, 23 years of civil war, and now, we’re battling child sacrifices.”

Madden points out that it is one thing to see these stories on the news and feel horror, and another thing entirely to visit the country. “We hear about these things and live in our comfortable bubble and feel sympathy,” he says. “But when you go there and see what is happening, you actually become responsible.”

That is why attending events like Kwero’s live auction can make such a difference, according to Amy Main. “By becoming involved,” she says, “you go from indifference to making a difference, because you are empowered.”  For more information on how you can obtain tickets to the Kwero live auction event or on PHWW itself, visit their website or call (918) 720-4010.

For more information, contact

Project Hope World Wide

(918) 720-4010

www.projecthopeworldwide.org
www.Kwero.blogspot.com