Blog – Page 2 – eChange Endeavors

Christmas Dinners & Bundles 2022

Our Christmas dinner initiative has been greatly enjoyed both our giving and receiving families, we have decided to do it again this year! We have set our goal of 50 Christmas dinners to reach poor families, children, elderly and disabled individuals. Might you give $25 today to help one family or two seniors have a blessed and joyful Christmas?

We connect with families through our partners Children’s Community Care, YOUFRA Youth Centre Lira, YOUFRA Disabilities group Soroti, the Xaverians, St Joseph College, and John Paul II Justice & Peace Youth Leaders.

Economic problems abound in Uganda on the tails of the pandemic, lockdowns, back to back bad harvests, inflation, now Ebola breakouts, and more business closures causing a ripple effect of despair and discouragement acrosss the country. In this season of hope, you can spread God’s love and mercy with a small gift of $25 for one family.

We want 50 families and more to experience the unexpected joy of Christmas this year. Families with special needs children, as well as teachers, students, widows, orphans, and individuals with disabilities.

A good Christmas in Uganda is to attend Church followed by a dinner feast together that includes meat. Children look forward to this day all year long. Without our support this year shall be just another meal of beans and portio (corn meal).

Your gift of $25 will buy 1 chicken (or equivalent beef/goat), plus rice or potatoes, veggies, additional sides, sodas to share, and Christmas cake for a family of four to six. Bundles include rice, meat, sugar, oil and soap.

Will you help us bless 50 families with a Christmas Dinner gift?

We have already received contributions for 30 Christmas Dinners, we just need another 20 to meet our goal!

Donate here!

May God bless you and your family this Christmas season for unto us the Christ child is born ever new in our hearts!

Join us for summer fun! Dancing, Drinks & Donations

Happy Feast of the Ugandan Martyrs!

Shrine of the Ugandan Martyr’s – Feast Day Mass

Greetings Friends,

On this the Feast of the Uganda Martyrs, June 3rd, I wish you a blessed day and year! Thank you for all the ways you support the Catholic Missionaries and families in Uganda. Your prayers are invaluable to me and for them. Your financial support is catalytic. You have kept people from falling into abject poverty. You have helped them realize more fully who God made them to be. You have kept hope alive! You have shared God’s love and mercy. You have helped families set a new pathway in life.

In 2022 alone, Ossana, Leah, Mary, Mark and many other students are back in high school. Gerald was able to buy a laptop and has initiated his online studies in Biology/PreMed with a university in Washington State. Joseph, Esther, Sharon and many young children have been assisted with much needed, even critical healthcare and treatments. Families have kept going because of food aid. Twenty youth learned to make beautiful sandals to wear or sell for additional income. Hearts have been uplifted through the spiritual programs offered through our partners.

You have blessed so many lives. May God also richly bless you! Laura

Back to School For Sponsorship Students

Ocer Campion Jesuit College (OCJC) and Eastside High School (Franciscan) have been paving the way for success for the children of poverty-stricken families. These schools depend on generous donations to support both student tuition and school improvements. For OCJC, over a third of its students rely on scholarships provided by sponsors. For Eastside High School, that number reaches over half of the student body.

Leah is one student at Ocer Campion JC who has been given the opportunity for success thanks to the kindness and generosity of scholarship sponsors. The second of three children, her mother was widowed after her father passed away due to Hepatitis C in 2010. The family has struggled with poverty since, and Leah’s mother, a farmer, has found it difficult to provide for her children’s basic needs, even more so for an education. Since economic crashes following COVID restrictions, the family has faced further poverty and health problems, threatening to keep them out of school. Leah and her siblings have been blessed to continue their education entirely through scholarships, an opportunity that gives them hope for a better future.

Another student at Ocer Campion JC who has received aid via the gracious giving of sponsors is John Mary, eldest of three children. John Mary’s parents have been active in youth leadership programs, youth activities at their parishes, and Church choir. The family lives in the capitol city of Uganda, Kampala, and has faced many challenges in paying for rent and food. With prices steadily on the rise, and no stable income for either of John Mary’s parents since businesses closed due to COVID, sponsorship has been a saving gift enabling John Mary to pursue his education.

Wondering how you might help poverty-stricken children in Uganda stay in school and achieve success in life? You can support the poor rural families in Gulu and Tororo, Uganda by offering prayers, joining our monthly giving program or making a one-time donation. Just click the red donate button on the right side bar.

Scholarship sponsors play a vital role in providing students at Ocer Campion JC and Eastside High School with the opportunity for an education and future success. Please consider sponsoring a student today and giving them the chance for a better life!

Christmas Dinners

Would you consider donating $25 to cover the cost of Christmas dinner for one family in Uganda?

Gerald Ogenrwot, Grandmother, Brother & Family

We had such a positive response to our Christmas dinner initiative last year by both the giving and receiving families, we have decided to do it again this year!

Life continues to be hard in Uganda. Schools were shut down again in June and still not yet been allowed to open again. This has left many at home with not enough to do. Teenage pregnancies have soared in the country. The weather went from too much rain in 2020 to too little rain in 2021 further destroying crops. The President and administration continue to shutdown markets and business activities, despite minimal cases and few deaths from COVID. Economic problems abound causing a ripple effect of despair and discouragement. In this season of hope, you can spread God’s love and mercy with a small gift of $25 for one family.

We want 50 families to experience the unexpected joy of Christmas this year. Families with special needs children, as well as teachers, students, widows, orphans, and individuals with disabilities.

To have a good Christmas in Uganda is to attend Church followed by a dinner feast together that includes meat. Children look forward to this day all year long. Without our support this year shall be just another meal of beans and portio (corn meal).

Just $25 will buy 1 chicken (or equivalent beef/goat), plus rice, additional sides, sodas to share, and Christmas cake for a family of five to eight.

Will you help us bless 50 families with a Christmas Dinner gift?

We have already received contributions for 10 Christmas Dinners!

May God bless you and your family this Christmas season for unto us the Christ child is born ever new in our hearts!

“O give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his love endures for ever.”
Psalm 107:1

Mobility, What a Gift!

Have you ever lost your mobility, even for a short while? I have twice in my life and it sure has made me appreciate gaining it back, pain free! Gloria lost her ability to run, jump, ride a bicycle and squat easily when she was 11 years old due to a moped accident. Gloria was living with her Grandmother and three brothers at the time of the accident. Her father had died when she was 7 years old, after which she was pulled from school to help her mother at home. So she never had the opportunity to learn how to read and write. And a few later she lost her mother when the mud hut they called home collapsed on her. Following the accident there were no resources available to take Gloria to a hospital. She was left to simply “heal” on a mat at home. Her right hip became infected and what the accident didn’t destroy the infection ate away. Ever since that time her left hip has supported her ability to move around.

The lack of a good right hip and an over dependence her left hip caused it to deteriorate. In 2011, after years of pain, she had her first left hip replacement surgery. She became pain free for five years and it was glorious! In 2016, the pain came back requiring her to have a second surgery because the components and cement were not strong enough given her active labor intensive life. Once again life was good.

In 2017, she moved to Gulu, Uganda and began working in the new Jesuit Residency cooking meals and cleaning. Unfortunately, last year, 2019, the pain came back with a vengeance and has not subsided. At first, they were not able to do the needed follow-on surgery in Uganda. We have been seeking opportunities outside of the country without success. This year however, the hospital has acquired the necessary surgery equipment and will soon be receiving a visiting doctor that has the speciality expertise for her third surgery. Consequently, we are seeking $3000 to facilitate this additional hip surgery to get Gloria pain free again. Could you contribute this Lent to help Gloria regain her mobility pain free? Donate here! Thank you!!

Interview with Gloria before her second surgery.

For A Few, A Hopeful New Year Begins

As a new year begins, bringing new opportunities, it also brings responsibilities as parents seek to find quality educational opportunities for their children. The students are full of hope for what the future may bring, should they get the chance to attend high school. While primary education is covered for all in Uganda, secondary school is not. Once the P7 national exam scores are released the scramble for placements is on.

For the fortunate few this is an exciting time. For those whose scores are low or the parents finances limited it is a sorrowful time. At Ocer Campion Jesuit College one third of the students are on scholarship (200+) because without it they would sitting at home learning nothing. Eastside High School lead by the Franciscan Sisters has an even a higher rate closer to 75% of students who attend on scholarship. Without the generous support of donors like you in the US these youth would not have the opportunity to study at all let alone at a Catholic high school.

Will join join our circle of giving with a one-time contribution for the year or as a monthly giver? It only takes $50 a month or $600 for the year to give a student a chance at a high school education in Uganda. Give today!

Franciscan Sister Relaunching Eastside High School

Sr. Margaret Mary Awor is working diligently to relaunch Eastside High School for students from poor rural families in Tororo district of Uganda. Due to the long conflict in the country and now the repeated drought years these students and their families have suffered greatly. Sr. Margaret is a Little Sister of St. Francis and the National Director of the Young Franciscans (YouFra) of Uganda. She and the team are helping youth gain back their sense of human dignity and fulfill their potential. Eastside is a private Catholic high school with boarding offering a Franciscan charisma and spirituality to the youth attending.

Despite this being the first full year the school is open in a good while the student body is 286 strong of which two-thirds are on scholarship. To be financially viable long term they are seeking to attract 600 students. To attract paying students the school is in need of many new things such as a new water tank, more textbooks, improved science equipment, better windows, solar power, and most especially computers for both teachers and students. Thus we are seeking to raise $10,000 to bring new life back to the school. This is equivalent to only $35 per student to bring new life to the campus and educational experience of the students.

You can make a one-time gift for school improvements or sponsor a student for just $50 monthly. Join our circle of giving today and help make the high school experience for these needy students even better! Your contribution will help shift the trajectory of their lives, families, and country forever.

Resurrection

Ocer means to rise in the local Acholi language in Uganda. This Easter season, which last from now until Pentecost, we rejoice in the light of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Won’t you help families in need this Easter season to be truly resurrected from the darkness and struggles that envelope their lives due to health care issues and poverty? A little goes a long way as a leaven in their lives!

Small Grants, Big Impact!

Through our small grant program we bridge gaps in resources to enable local communities to grow and serve one another. Through our program widows, orphans, disabled adults and children and the poor have access to education, health services, work opportunities, spiritual formation and Love! We ensure projects are completed and former investments are not lost. Your contribution of $50 or $100 goes a long way in Africa and Asia. Make a donation today to encourage and inspire the next generation of youth to serve their communities.

Be Merciful, Give Today!

Will you help Lazarus in our midst?

Bishop Barron notes from the gospel the Luke 16:19-31, “the rich man ‘dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day,’ while lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, ‘who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.’ God is not pleased with this kind of economic inequality, and he burns with a passion to set things right.

This theme came roaring up out of the Bible and into the Christian tradition, and it echoes up and down the centuries. St Thomas Aquinas says that we must distinguish between ownership and use of private property. We have a right to ownership through our hard work, through our inheritance. Fair enough. But with regard to the use of those things–how we use them, why we use them, then, says Thomas, we must always be concerned first for the common good and not our own. This especially includes Lazarus at our gate: those who are suffering and most in need.”

In Uganda, unemployment is over 40% with 80% of the population trying to eek out a living from farming or micro businesses. Many families struggle to cover basic needs–food, health care, housing and school fees. And the effects of changing weather, coupled with a lack of access to insurance options, leaves families even more exposed and vulnerable. This Lent support our small grant programs that provides infusions of capital to income generating projects to ensure health care workers are paid for their free services rendered to the community; to provide leadership, scouting and shoe making training programs for youth; to support a rabbit farm for mothers and families with special needs children, and income generating opportunities for disabled men and woman.

We support amazing Catholic religious and lay leaders working to transform their communities through health care, work opportunitities, education, spiritual formation, and love. Will you help the Lazarus in our midst, the marginalized families, youth and disabled in Uganda? Join our Endeavors Giving Circle this Lent!