A really great organization in Uganda and our trip to Atiak
Dear friends and family,
There are many times when people want to help a cause but simply don’t know how to, or don’t know if there money will get to the people they want to help most. Having worked with many aid organizations, I know that money often goes to pay salaries instead of helping the victims.
So one of my goals for this trip to Uganda was to figure out what organizations are doing good work, and therefore give people who are interested in helping a good outlet for their aid. I have personally witnessed amazing work of this organization and spoken to the founders, otherwise I would not refer people. Having spent over a month now in the North, I’ve seen an incredible number of NGOs, but a disappointing lack of development in the region. Considering how hard it is to know from the West which of these hundreds of groups actually exist on the ground and do the most work for your money, I thought I’d describe one that I will support myself and think others may be interested in doing the same.
Tree of Wisdom Uganda (www.treeofwisdom.org) is a distant adoption program. What that means is that for a yearly donation (175$), you support one child through three terms of school, basic healthcare, clothing support, and food. There are many organizations that do this type of work (for example, World Vision), but this one is different because they have no paid staff in the West and only one part time coordinator at each of the sites they work at. This means almost 100% of the money goes right to the child. And we have seen the results here.
Yesterday, we travelled to Atiak. Atiak is in the Northern region of Uganda near the Sudanese border. Although it is still in the Acholi sub-region and only 40 km north of Gulu, the condition of the road connecting the trading center to town makes it almost impossible to travel to. We woke up at 5:30 and headed to St. Monica’s wear we’d take a bus with the health team who travels every weekend from Gulu to run a clinic in the trading center. We finally reached Atiak at 9:15 … what a journey it was. In short, we spent the day playing with the kids the Tree of Wisdom supports as well as the kids from the neighboring village who come every weekend for the feeding program. At one point, the children presented a traditional Acholi dance and song. Very interesting...but I was not a very good dancer :P It was incredible to see how appreciative and friendly both the kids and their guardians were, and it made me really appreciate the value of the organization’s work. In addition, the money supports income generating programs for the guardians through skills training in tailoring and traditional bead-making. The food program also has such an impact, both to feed the kids, and to promote community by bringing them all together on the weekends.
The program is logistically organized by the sisters at St. Monica’s but it remains non-denominational. It does not choose the children it supports by religion, but rather bases the decision on who is most needy. The institutional support through the sisters means that the aid does not need to go through the government, and therefore the money goes directly to support the children. Again, if you’d like to support Tree of Wisdom, check out their website (www.treeofwisdom.org) or just send me an email.
Otherwise, we are in Gulu today hoping to travel to Lira, Soroti, Kampala, and Kenya in the next few weeks! We’ll keep updating.
- Sima
There are many times when people want to help a cause but simply don’t know how to, or don’t know if there money will get to the people they want to help most. Having worked with many aid organizations, I know that money often goes to pay salaries instead of helping the victims.
So one of my goals for this trip to Uganda was to figure out what organizations are doing good work, and therefore give people who are interested in helping a good outlet for their aid. I have personally witnessed amazing work of this organization and spoken to the founders, otherwise I would not refer people. Having spent over a month now in the North, I’ve seen an incredible number of NGOs, but a disappointing lack of development in the region. Considering how hard it is to know from the West which of these hundreds of groups actually exist on the ground and do the most work for your money, I thought I’d describe one that I will support myself and think others may be interested in doing the same.
Tree of Wisdom Uganda (www.treeofwisdom.org) is a distant adoption program. What that means is that for a yearly donation (175$), you support one child through three terms of school, basic healthcare, clothing support, and food. There are many organizations that do this type of work (for example, World Vision), but this one is different because they have no paid staff in the West and only one part time coordinator at each of the sites they work at. This means almost 100% of the money goes right to the child. And we have seen the results here.
Yesterday, we travelled to Atiak. Atiak is in the Northern region of Uganda near the Sudanese border. Although it is still in the Acholi sub-region and only 40 km north of Gulu, the condition of the road connecting the trading center to town makes it almost impossible to travel to. We woke up at 5:30 and headed to St. Monica’s wear we’d take a bus with the health team who travels every weekend from Gulu to run a clinic in the trading center. We finally reached Atiak at 9:15 … what a journey it was. In short, we spent the day playing with the kids the Tree of Wisdom supports as well as the kids from the neighboring village who come every weekend for the feeding program. At one point, the children presented a traditional Acholi dance and song. Very interesting...but I was not a very good dancer :P It was incredible to see how appreciative and friendly both the kids and their guardians were, and it made me really appreciate the value of the organization’s work. In addition, the money supports income generating programs for the guardians through skills training in tailoring and traditional bead-making. The food program also has such an impact, both to feed the kids, and to promote community by bringing them all together on the weekends.
The program is logistically organized by the sisters at St. Monica’s but it remains non-denominational. It does not choose the children it supports by religion, but rather bases the decision on who is most needy. The institutional support through the sisters means that the aid does not need to go through the government, and therefore the money goes directly to support the children. Again, if you’d like to support Tree of Wisdom, check out their website (www.treeofwisdom.org) or just send me an email.
Otherwise, we are in Gulu today hoping to travel to Lira, Soroti, Kampala, and Kenya in the next few weeks! We’ll keep updating.
- Sima
Nice to see that you are finding answers to the question of to whom does the money really goes.Keep up the good work and hope sal is feeling much better.
ReplyDeletetake care