Margret is a 45-year-old married woman supporting two grandchildren. She is a business woman who sells charcoal in Kajjansji. She has been involved in this business for the last four years, enabling her to meet some of her family’s immediate needs and pay her grandchildren’s school fees. School is not free in Uganda, where she and her family live as refugees. Margret aspires to buy a lorry in the next five years to transport sacks of charcoal for retailing and to run the lorry as… Read More
Help Betty Take Care of an Extended Family
Betty, 41, works hard to support herself and her family. Betty is married with three children, all of whom go to school (which is not free in Uganda). Betty has worked in a retail charcoal business in Kajjansji for four years now. Her husband has been jobless for ten years, and she also supports two siblings and her mother-in-law. Betty is aspiring to rent a store big enough to warehouse 200 sacks of charcoal to sell to restaurants and schools. Her hope is to save… Read More
Change the Lives of Three Generations
Mary, a 63-year-old widow, sells charcoal to support herself and two of her brother’s grandchildren, and has done so for four years. She lives in poverty as there is no welfare system to help senior citizens in her community. To provide food and pay rent, Mary has to maintain a business to sustain herself and her dependents. Mary has a difficult time paying medical bills whenever she or her dependents fall ill. Her other major challenge is the high cost of transporting charcoal to her… Read More
Loan Akot Money to Open a Sports Bar
Akot is a 49-year-old mother who became a widow ten years ago when she lost her husband, the sole provider for the family. Being a widow with three children opened her eyes to work hard. She started selling local brew called “Marwa” made from white millet in a friend’s bar. Akot later opened her own bar and expanded the business to selling other beverages to meet the varying demand of her customers. Through this business, she has been able to fund her children’s education (it… Read More
Help Agnes Earn Money for Her Kids’ School Fees
Agnes, 31, is a married mother of five children who runs a little bar so that she can provide for her family and pay her children’s school fees. School in Uganda, where Agnes and her family live as refugees, is not free. Agnes has to work very hard because her husband has been unemployed for many years, making her the family’s sole breadwinner. She currently works from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. six days a week to make ends meet. Agnes has requested a loan… Read More
Empower Rose to Expand her Drink Sales
Rose, 47, makes a living producing a traditional drink in Uganda made of millet and bananas. She will invest her loan into stocks of ingredients needed to make the drink. She will then sell the drink in her local community. Rose is divorced and she has seven children. Three of the eldest girls have completed school education and are now married. Rose works long days, until 11 p.m. every evening. She will be able to improve her standard of living with the help of the… Read More
Loan Josephine Funds for a Sewing Machine
Josephine, 38, works as a seamstress. She is a skilled worker and she would like to expand her business. She has more orders for school uniforms than she can meet. She will invest the loan funds into fabrics, materials, and a new sewing machine. This investment will help her diversify her work and serve a wider client base. Josephine is a divorced mother of two (ages 17 and 14), and the children will soon be independent, although they are still in school. School in Uganda… Read More
Loan Zainabu Funds to Expand Her Food Store
Zainabu, 47, makes a living selling vegetables and other groceries in her little shop. She is a hardworking businesswoman set on growing her business. She will use her loan to expand her shop’s inventory and attract more customers. Zainabu is a single mother taking care of her two children (ages 16 and 5). They are both in school, with the younger one in primary school. Schools in Uganda are not free. She also supports her elderly parents. Zainabu typically works long days from 9 a.m…. Read More
Empower Joan to Sell More Clay Wood Stoves
Joan, 33, runs a business making and selling clay wood stoves, which are common cooking devices in her community. She sees a lot of potential in the business and is taking steps to expand her activities. She will use her loan to buy spades, a wheelbarrow, hoes, and raw clay production materials. With more modern tools and materials, she will be able to make more stoves in less time, increasing her profits. Joan is married and a mother of two (ages 12 and 5). She… Read More
Help Margaret Diversify Her Food Sales Business
Margaret, 46, makes a living selling various food products. She will invest the loan money into her business to diversify her activities. She will buy cooking oil, onions, rice, salt, and other necessary ingredients. Margaret is a married mother of five. Three of her five children still go to school and will need some support for the years to come. She also often cares for her grandchild (pictured). Her loan will enable her to gradually grow her business and start saving money for the future. Margaret’s long-term… Read More
Loan Anna Funds to Buy Charcoal in Bulk
Anna, 47, makes a living selling charcoal in her community. With the microloan, she will be able to buy larger quantities of charcoal at once and get a better price. This will increase her profits. Anna is married and a mother of eight children. Three of the youngest are still in school. She also supports a sibling and two grandchildren. She typically works very long days to support her family: 12-hour days from Monday to Saturday selling charcoal. This loan will enable Anna to improve… Read More
Help Beatrice Expand Her Linens Crafting Business
Beatrice, 43, makes a living making and selling tablecloths and other household linens in her community. Before setting up her business, she stayed at home, taking care of her children, not earning her own income. Beatrice will invest the loan funds into buying materials and fabric needed for her crafts. She is divorced and the sole provider for her three children. The loan will be a much-needed boost for her business and will enable her to take better care of her family. Her goal for… Read More
Empower Esther to Buy Charcoal in Bulk
Esther, 45, is in the business of selling charcoal. She will invest the loan funds into buying five sacks of charcoal to resell in her community. By buying bulk, she can save money and time and increase her profits. Esther is divorced and has four grown-up children who have already finished school. Her youngest is 16. She now takes care of her grandchild. Select your donation option:Deki (our microloan partner)Learn More About Donation Options The loan will help her to save for her long-term business… Read More
GlobalGiving Visits Our Project in Uganda
“Now I am a human,” said Beatrice, when I asked her about her life now compared to before she received her first loan of Sh150,000 (about $55) from Hope Ofriha in 2008. Beatrice is a refugee from South Sudan who escaped during the country’s civil war in 1997 – first to Kenya, then eventually settling in Kampala, Uganda. At first she sold vegetables in the local market, making very little money. She couldn’t afford to pay rent or to cover the school fees for her… Read More
Impoverished South Sudanese Children in Uganda
Impoverished South Sudanese children in Uganda often become slaves to their new “families.” Some, especially the girls, are sexually or physically abused, and all of them are expected to work hard. Polly’s story is unique. In fact, it is common for South Sudanese refugees to live as squatters in slums in the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda, often homeless. More than 1,000 children, most of them girls, have become “impoverished children” or “independent orphan children.” Their parents, too poor to feed, and educate their children, send them to live with… Read More
Lee Ben Ibo Has Found a Sponsor!
Lee Ben, the child of South Sudanese refugees, lives in Uganda with his grandmother. When his father disappeared in 2008, his mother began working three jobs to support her two children—as a night watchman at an industrial area, boda-boda (bicycle taxi driver), and gardener. She is currently attending a training program away from home to become a tailor. When she is done, she plans to open a tailor shop, so she can better support her children… Read More
Help Educate & Feed a Malnourished Child
Brian Lobene is the fifth in a family of five children. His refugee parents are too poor to pay for nutritious food for their five children, let alone school fees. Brian’s hungry stomach is bloated, the telltale sign of malnutrition in children. His parents move from place to place around Kampala begging for employment, but it is nearly impossible for uneducated refugees to find a good one. Please sponsor him, so he can go to boarding school, have regular nutritious meals, and escape a lifetime of poverty… Read More
Christine Anyero Has Found a Sponsor!
Christine’s parents are South Sudanese refugees who fled to Uganda in 1997 to escape the civil war. The family settled in Nakawa Acholi, a slum in the outskirts of Kampala. Although, Christine, and her six siblings have been living with their parents, it was their aunt who was the family breadwinner until her death in May 2011. As largely uneducated refugees, both of her parents have had a hard time finding descent work. Right now, her elderly and frail father… Read More
Provide Hope to a Hungry & Homeless Child
When Annet’s father died in a LRA attacked in 2002, her mother supported her 10 children selling local breweries and bananas from land a kind Ugandan let them use. This good Samaritan died last year, however, and the family could no longer harvest and sell bananas. On March 30, they were evicted from the home they had been living in since 1997 because they had not paid rent in several months. Annet and her siblings are no longer attending school because… Read More
Polly Amitto Has Found a Sponsor!
After both of her parents died, Polly and her two younger brothers and three younger sisters went to live in the Kakira slum outside of Kampala, Uganda. No family or friends stepped forward to care for the children. The children started a hair salon to generate income for school fees, house rent, and food. They didn’t have enough resources and training, however, to compete with other salons, so their business went under and they ended up homeless and hungry… Read More
Saterina Lakang Has Found a Sponsor!
After Saterina was orphaned, she moved to Kampala, Uganda, to live with her grandmother. When her grandmother died a few years later, she moved in with a Sudanese family headed by a single mother, mama Martha Ayaa. Mama Martha is barely able to support Saterina and her own seven children selling local breweries. Her hand-to-mouth enterprise doesn’t cover her household’s basic needs, and her own seven children do not go to school… Read More
Distant Relatives: St. Patrick’s Day & South Sudan
Today, all eyes and thoughts are on Europe’s third largest Island best known for potatoes, Shamrocks, and the reason for the season: St. Patrick’s Day. It has, however, not always been all bliss for the country that produced the Saint of the day, St. Patrick, as mass starvation, disease, and emigration during the Potato famine coupled with decades of violence between Catholics and Protestants brought much civil unrest. Though St. Patrick’s Day is not that popular in Africa—save for Catholics attending Lent Mass, who take… Read More
Mathew Hobbe Has Found a Sponsor!
Mathew needs your love and support to gain access to basic things, such as shoes, a bed with sheets and blankets, and an education. He lives with his mother and grandmother in the slum of Kajansjji, an outskirt of Kampala, Uganda, and will never attend school without finding a sponsor. Mathew’s father has been unable to find work locally and moved out of the area to work, when he can find it, on construction sites. Mathew’s grandmother and mother… Read More
Khasfa Achan Has Found a Sponsor!
Khasfa Achan is a partial orphan whose father died when she was a toddler. When her young mother married a second husband, she sent Khasfa to live with her grandparents. Her grandparents cannot afford to pay the school fees for all of their own children still living at home let alone their grandchild. Her grandfather is barely able to put food on the table working on and off as a carpenter. Khasfa is a very good student, loves science, and has so much potential… Read More
Keep Impoverished Refugees in School
Our Uganda Education Project sends South Sudanese refugee children living in slums on the outskirt of Kampala city to school. Not only does the project pay their school fees and buy them school uniforms and books, it ensures the children are fed, clothed, and have access to medical care. The project is similar to our direct child sponsorship program, except it pools donations, allowing donors to give once or now and then without making a commitment. In 2010… Read More
Invest in Microloans for Women Refugees
Many South Sudanese women living as squatters in slums in the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda, are single mothers supporting three or more children—their own off-spring, the children of relatives, war orphans, or children separated from their families. Because jobs for unskilled and uneducated refugees are scarce, their best hope for supporting their families is creating and operating their own tiny enterprise. Without assets and referrals, however, these women cannot… Read More
Margaret Nalunga Achan Has Found a Sponsor!
Sudan’s long civil war left Margaret an orphan and a refugee. After both of her parents died, she and her three sisters went to live with her 77-year-old grandmother in a slum outside of Kampala, Uganda. Their grandmother, however, was too old and too poor to care for them. A family friend, Mama Rosa, has temporarily let Margaret and her three sisters move in with her and her own three children. Mama Rosa is a single mother who lost contact with her husband during the war… Read More
Jolly Achol Has Found a Sponsor!
Jolly Achol is a South Sudanese refugee living in a slum near Kampala, Uganda. She has found a sponsor to help her go to school and reach her potential. Her sponsor’s monthly support will pay her school fees; provide her with food, clothes, and medical care; and prevent her from having to work petty jobs during school hours to help support her family. Access to malaria treatment is especially important for Jolly because malaria is endemic where she lives. She has come down with the… Read More
10 New Microloans Given to Women Refugees
Thanks to kind support of our Uganda Microloans Project, Hope Ofiriha is pleased to announce that it has granted loan to ten (10) new additional women to start their income generating business. With their ability to generate income and save profits these women can better protect themselves and their children in areas of poverty, education, and heath. In the six months to come these women will invest in the education of their children by paying school fees through profits earn from their businesses. During the… Read More
Urgent Appeal: 300 Children on Waiting List
Hope Ofiriha has granted a year scholarship to both Jolly Achol and Justine Okello to study at Rubaga Primary School in Uganda. There are 300 South Sudanese children living in slums on outskirt of Kampala on our waiting list. These children want to be at school but can’t afford the fees. Please visit our Keep Impoverished Refugees in School project page to learn more and make a donation.
