Blog - Helen Hofman

Pilgrim's Agathos Relief and Aid Program completed the distribution of clothing, hundreds of yards of fabric, and musical keyboards donated to Pilgrim, and transported to Uganda courtesy of Thain Boatworks and Earthwise Ventures. Included were thousands of new clothing items from a Seattle, WA clothing distributor, dozens of musical keyboards given to Pilgrim, and numerous rolls of cotton flannel donated by World Concern in Edmonds WA.  

 Pilgrim Uganda's Director of Relief, William Denis Omara, organized and directed the multi-site distribution effort. Six staff from Pilgrim travelled with him to transport and give out the goods; they were assisted by volunteers at each distribution point or village. Targeted recipients for this distribution were the elderly, women with small children, pregnant women, the disabled, and most destitute of each area. The elderly in Ugandan society are often very needy if they have no living children to support them. Each beneficiary received two pieces of clothes; mothers received fabric for baby blankets and diapers, and elderly persons were given flannel fabric for bed sheets.

One distribution site was Namuwongo Revival Church, an inner city church pastored by Pastor Opio Wilson, located in Namuwongo, a large slum in Kampala. Clothing, mostly pants and shirts, and fabric yardages were handed out to the needy, amid much rejoicing (see photos).  These were timely "Christmas presents" to about 600 church members.

Teso Safe Motherhood, a sister nonprofit in Teso, NE Uganda, assists pregnant women and new mothers in the Teso region.  The many rolls of cotton flannel given to that organization will in turn be divided to give out to new mothers for their babies' needs.

Many rolls of fabric were given to the Beacon of Hope Medical Center for various uses such as sheets and nursing needs. The students at Beacon of Hope College received fabric yardage to make bed sheets. The majority of students at the College are completely sponsored by Pilgrim, so this fabric donation helped keep supply costs down. 

The final distribution sites were the vulnerable population of Amotom IDP (internally displaced person) Camp in the Amuria subdistrict, and the village of Kapelebyong, also in Amuria. Local government officials assisted William Omara's staff with the identification of the most needy, assembling people, and distribution.  Notice the large but orderly crowds gathering to line up for clothing and fabric in the photos.

The final kinds of items distributed were piano keyboards. As Pilgrim works with local churches, finding eager takers for these keyboards was not difficult.

Pilgrim's distributions activities of food and other things to the most needy occur when significant amounts donations are given, and often in cooperation with other organizations.  A special thanks to Thain Boats and Earthwise for their generous gift of shipping these goods for Pilgrim.

Related Links: Beacon Of Hope Secondary School, Beacon Medical Centre

Nancy Olsten, a language arts teacher from West Auburn High School, and strong advocate for Pilgrim, initiated a letter exchange program between her classes at the high school and BoH. Her initial idea was to expose her students to situations in Africa, sensitizing them to their counterparts in other countries and life situations. The students had been studying Global Issues, led by Tom Parsons, the Social studies teacher at the school, reading A Long Way Gone and discussed colonialism and other issues raised by the book. They had also studied the history of the Lord's Resistance Army and learned the background of many of the students to whom they would write.

For the initial mailing to Beacon of Hope, Nancy's seniors made a video introducing themselves and their school; this had footage of each of Nancy's students, and some of their classes and a tour of the school. The first packet of letters was sent over in October, carried by Calvin Echodu. Several of the language arts teachers at BoH engaged their classes in the exchange, and that first packet of letters was answered by about 30 Ugandan students. Two entire rounds of letters have taken place, with students responding personally to one or more students.

Nancy took some of the art work from the Ugandan letters to post on bulletin boards in the halls in Auburn; this provoked questions and interest among other teachers. Now there is interest in a fund raising effort at the school, and possibly involvement with the Auburn Rotary.

Calvin visited Nancy's class in May to speak to them about his experiences growing up in the conflict in NE Uganda. The Auburn class had a second packet of letters ready for him, as well as a special drum they had constructed a drum as a gift for the BoH students. Fashioned out of a section of large diameter PVC pipe, it was covered with a stretched leather, then signed by all the class.

Nancy hopes to continue this project next year with her classes, and is hoping that teacher s at BoH will also continue the project.

Related Links: Beacon Of Hope Secondary School

 

Child Soldier Drama Team from Pilgrim on Vimeo.

 

This powerful video, produced and donated to Pilgrim by Tricia Manning-Smith and her husband Paul, won 2 top awards from the prestigious National Telly Awards.  These Awards honor outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest video and film productions and online film and videos.

 

Related Links: Beacon Of Hope Secondary School

Pilgrim has many Aid & Relief Program events to report. William Omara, the Director of Aid & Relief has been arranging the distribution of emergency food relief in several districts in NE Teso, verifying situations where food is needed and distributing emergency food supplies. The food distributed is from the container of emergency food packets from Feed My Starving Children that was donated to Pilgrim. Another container of that same kind of food, enough to provide 270,864 meals, has arrived in Zimbabwe for distribution by Paula Leen's ministry in Murwira. Her feeding program covers four local schools where 1200 students get one healthy meal per day. She also cares for 36 orphans at her own orphanage and provides emergency food and medical transportation as well as a myriad of other social services to her surrounding community.

Pilgrim has another container is on the way, also donated by Feed my Starving Children, to Zimbabwe. Thanks to all who donated towards the transportation costs for these two containers of food.

Another area of Aid & Relief for which William Omara is responsible is the distribution of a containerof medical equipment and supplies. This container was donated in late 2009 to Pilgrim by Charity Services International / World Children's Fund, and is enough to supply many clinics. William is travelling through the Teso region visiting the clinics, assessing how the donated materials can help each individual clinic, and supplying what he can.

Related Links: Emergency Food Relief

This June Pilgrim will once again offer an important training opportunity to human service workers serving the Soroti, Uganda area. A team of experienced trauma therapists from the Trauma Studies Center (TSC), a division of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy in New York City, will be training pastors, teachers, health care workers, first responders and others how to recognize and respond effectively to those suffering from psychological trauma. Pilgrim has several counselors trained in this specialized counseling  who work with the numerous Ugandans severely impacted by the combined effects of war, displacement and differing kinds of loss, and is eager to train more through this team's visit.

This is the third time the TSC has visited Soroti. The team will be visiting schools and government offices, as well as health centers and hospitals, to become better informed about the mental health needs of the Teso people. The week in Soroti will culminate in a 3-day conference sponsored by Pilgrim, titled "Restoration and Renewal." In addition to basic trauma therapy, sessions will focus on the fundamental principles of trauma counseling, and conclude with approaches to nurturing the community of care givers. The conference is for all locally involved with trauma therapy.

Prior to coming to Soroti, two members of the TSC team will be in Kampala, where they will offer training in specialized treatment techniques to members of the Uganda Counseling Association. Two members of the Pilgrim counseling staff will take part in this training.

Many of the students at Beacon of Hope College are healing from the wounds of abuse, war and abandonment, and are now thriving due to the extensive long-term therapy available through the counselors at Beacon Medical Center. Pilgrim's goals are to infuse the Gospel into modern accepted trauma therapy, to heal the wounds of trauma with a powerful Christian foundation, and provide more available therapy to the community at large.

We are proud to premiere a new video created for us by Gregory King - "Pilgrim In Uganda 2009" - that captures the people, work and successes that Pilgrim experienced in Uganda in 2009. Enjoy and spread the word!

Click here to browse and enjoy other Pilgrim videos on Vimeo.

Related Links: Move On Malaria, Beacon Of Hope Secondary School, Trauma Treatment Program, Resettlement & Agricultural Assistance, Beacon Medical Centre

Pilgrim is one of three non-profits that was selected to be featured by HopeMongers.org - a wonderful new micro-giving site that is connecting people one-to-one across the globe with the mission to solve endemic poverty and injustice. Learn more about HopeMongers in their inspiring video.

Related Links: Move On Malaria, Emergency Food Relief

The first intervention of Move On Malaria (MOM) in Katakwi was a complete success. The trend of Malaria continues to go down dramatically in the region, and the hospital has been almost empty for the first time in years!

Watch the video to learn more about this intervention.

Related Links: Move On Malaria