A Place to Dream! Where kids of all ages are encouraged to dream!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Lisa Witham Foerster--Director of Women Sponsorship
Hope 4 Women International is proud to introduce Lisa Witham Foerster as our new director of women sponsorship! She comes to us with a great background in business, management and leadership skills.
Her role? Her biggest challenge will be to keep me organizedJ With her attention to detail and ability to problem solve we are looking forward to keeping our personal touch with those who are passionate about empowering women around the world.
Here is what the sponsorship program is doing in Uganda:
For $36 a month you can send a Ugandan woman through our business training course and put her on the path to owning her own business. Your donation is tax-deductible and you will receive information and a photograph of the woman who is benefiting from your monthly gift.
Sponsor a woman in the Smile Africa Program and here is what she receives:
Garden seeds and a hoe to jump-start her on feeding her family.
a strengths test to see in which business God has gifted her
a 40-session mission character class which leads her through the Biblical
principles of business
a code of ethics contract
classes in English, reading, writing and math
classes in money management, saving, banking
a graduation certificate once she has completed all the classes and has
completed her apprenticeship
seed money in their bank account to start her on her way to self-sufficiency mentoring and monitoring by our Ugandan partner Smile Africa
induction into the Women's Hall of Dignity when she has successfully completed one year in business
Lisa has just added twenty-one widows from India
In India many of the older widows are forced to live with their families—placing a financial and emotional burden on already stressed, poverty-stricken families. Your financial support will allow our ministry partners to supply her with rice, lentils, wheat, fruit, milk and medical treatment. This will take the financial burden off of her family and they will treat her with dignity instead of scorning and sometimes abusing her for being a drain on their limited resources.
Meet Shanti Kamal Prasad
Shanti Kamal Prasad is an 81 year old widow. She has four sons and two daughters. She lives with her youngest son and his family. Shanti enjoys listening to sermons, going on picnics, and visiting the sick and disabled.
For just over one dollar per day ($36 a month) You can give this precious widow daily sustenance along with her dignity.
Thank you for caring about widows.
To learn more about sponsoring a widow please contact Lisa@h4wi.org
Here are a couple of links for you
Have you got a story about women helping women? I'd love to see it. Contact me rachel@h4wi.org
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Rose's Surgery a Success!!
Pastor Ruth took Rose to Kampala as her surgery was more complicated than was first thought. She checked in to the hospital and spent a day or two getting ready and finally the doctors removed her 2.2-pound non-cancerous tumor!! She has already taken tea and will be given mashed potatoes for her first meal.
When she woke up from the surgery Pastor Ruth was by her side and said: “That thing is gone! They have removed it!”
A very emotional Rose replied: “People have been laughing at me but God has remembered a poor woman like me.”
Pastor Ruth said she was reflecting upon how this surgery came to pass. When I was there in November Rose arrived at Smile Africa and Ruth wanted to take her picture but the batteries in her camera were dead. I was on the bus ready to leave and Ruth asked if I could step off the bus for just a moment to take Rose’s picture which I did. I went home and forgot about Rose until my doctor told me I might have a small goiter. It was then I remembered Rose and asked Pastor Ruth more questions.
Scroll down to read the background on Rose.
Then I appealed to all of you and you responded generously. I sent the money to Pastor Ruth and the process began. Because the surgery was so involved and had to be done in Kampala we are still running about $1500 short. The tumor was actually pushing against Rose’s wind pipe and cutting off her air. They said if she didn’t have the surgery she would suffocate so I told Ruth we would step forward in faith and Rose should have this surgery to save her life.
Rose’s seven children are blessed and grateful to all of you for saving her life.
If you would like to contribute to this deficit please send a check to Hope 4 Kids International and put “Rose’s surgery” in the memo.
Hope 4 Kids/Hope 4 women
P.O. box 74010
Phx, AZ 85087
Or go directly online and donate: http://www.hope4kidsinternational.org/donation-cart
Check the Hope 4 Women box and email Lisa to let her know you want your h4wi donation to go toward Rose’s surgery Lisa@h4wi.org
Monday, January 18, 2010
An Update from Bonnie in Uganda
Bonnie, Leah, Pastor Ruth, Kathy
My friend Bonnie is in Uganda for three months and is teaching the women English! Here is her first report:
Notes from Uganda
After a journey that started 8:30 Monday morning, Jan. 11, we arrived at our destination on Wednesday, 2:00 p.m. January 13. Needless to say we were exhausted. "We" is Leah, a 26 year old nurse from Minnesota, Kathy, a 66 year old nurse from Arizona and me.
We were met in Entebbe at the airport by Pastor Peter, the leader of Kingdom Preparation Ministries. He is a friend whom I first met in 2004 - a beautiful, strong compassionate Christian.
We have rented a 3 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms. That sounds luxurious, and by Ugandan standards, it is, BUT one of the showers doesn't work, the floors are unpainted cement, one of the sinks is hanging off the wall, etc. Although the lease says fully furnished, there is one bath towel per person, no table knives in the kitchen and the kitchen is almost like camping out. There is running water which we must purify and a 2 burner butane "stove". There is a refrigerator which is half freezer which takes the greater part of the "juice' so that the refrigerator part is barely cool - a problem. Also the kitchen is poorly supplied - BUT the mattresses are comfortable. We spent Wednesday afternoon and part of Thursday unpacking and shopping for food stuffs and supplies.
Shopping: Half of the stores contain used articles - the stores with new things are all very poor quality but they do carry some packaged food stuffs. There is an interior central market with little stalls and fresh produce. They have quite a variety of fresh food, but most Ugandans cannot afford it.
Thursday afternoon we went to Smile Africa to meet with Pastor Ruth to discuss what she had in mind for us to do. Then to my surprise, I was scheduled to meet my first class at 2:00 p.m. the next day, Friday.
In the evening, our Ugandan friends, Andrew, his wife Frida and their new baby Rache, along with Andrew's brother, Timothy came over. We served them chapati (a flat bread similar to tortillas which I purchased from a street vendor) and jackfruit which they taught us how to prepare, to serve with water and tea. The Ugandans are great tea drinkers.
Friday morning Leah and Kathy left for Smile Africa at 9:00. I cooked beans I had put to soak the night before. We must purify all the water we use for cooking and rinsing dishes by boiling or with purification tablets. It is a hassle. We clean all the vegetables with a veggie wash. It is obviously time-consuming. I went to Smile Africa at 11:00 - in time to "pick" rice (picking the pebbles and dirt out of the rice) and help to dish up the food (it was given by Feed My Starving Children) for the 400 hundred children fed daily at Smile Africa.
After lunch, I met with Janet, an assistant to Pastor Ruth, to discuss the coming students, class and agenda for this initial meeting. The women, (18) finally all arrived around 3:00 - typical African time. We prayed, we shared our personal stories and as the Ugandans come from an oral history tradition, their "sharing a little bit about themselves" can take 20 to 30 minutes. Thus the stories lasted so ong, we couldn't get to the rest of the agenda but this was okay because it gave each woman some encouragement and gave me an opportunity to see them as individuals and not a class. Some of their stories were heartbreaking. The mothers of 2 of the woemn tried to kill them as children, all of them are either widows or have been abandoned by their husbands. Half of them had very little schooling, some none at all. Some of them, before coming to Smile Africa, felt so desparate they wanted to kill themselves and their children. One woman lived under a tree and one rescued her sons from being poisoned by her husband's family. Pastor Ruth has helped all of these women to now beome self-supporting via micro-loans to set up small businessed. Widows in Uganda are subject to the whims of their dead husband's families. Their land, home and children can all be taken from them. What these women struggle with daily to accomplish care of self and children shows their strength and courage. (Wendy, Janet is teaching the "Mission Principles" material to these same women following my classes.) After this initial meeting we determined to split the women into non-English speakers to concentrate on learning English, and for those who do speak English, we will work on enhancing reading, writing and math skills.
I am very excited about this challenge and I ask for the prayers of all of you who read this that God will lead and guide me in these efforts.
Today, Leah was managing the clinic by herself, while Kathy went out to a village with Pastor Ruth to take some pictures of a child in desparate need of surgery.
Love to all - Bonnie
Friday, January 15, 2010
Udate on Rose
Rose at home with her neighbors
Please continue to pray for Rose. She has three children who need their mom.
Rose with her three children
