Our Special Christmas Goal

 

Dit artikel is ook in het Nederlands beschikbaar.

 

In September we posted a report that also included several videos about the burning down of the house of Francis Ruyumbu (65) and his family. Their house completely burnt down and the family, consisting of Francis, his wife Hope, their 8 children and 4 grandchildren lost literally everything.

Given the exceptional nature of this extremely sad event (a house burning down as this is hardly ever seen in our working area), we as a foundation made an urgent call for donations. We wanted to make a gesture towards helping the affected family to get their life back on track.

A lot has happened since then. Where the family had at first felt completely hopeless, the great ways in which several forces were joined has led to the fantastic result that the walls of the house have now been rebuilt and the basic construction for the new roof is also in place. The family themselves have worked very hard towards this result, giving their all through labor. The local community has contributed by selflessly joining hands, first in breaking down the remainders of the house, then in rebuilding the walls and constructing the basis for the roof; empathic local business owners were willing to contribute by offering necessary materials with huge discounts, sometimes even for free. The financial contribution that we were able to make as a foundation, among other well-wishers, has ensured that the materials needed so far could be funded.

I want to emphasize that the contributions of the local community and business owners are nothing but amazing, especially given the sad fact that far the majority of Ugandan families is currently every day severely struggling for their own survival. Covid measures and long lockdowns, followed by Russia’s war and on top of that extreme drought earlier this year that destroyed many harvests, have resulted in a dramatic increase of poverty and hunger; a situation that my husband and I have personally witnessed during our stay in the country in July/August of this year.

The photo slider below shows the situation immediately after the disastrous fire versus the current situation:

 

A lot is still needed to successfully finish the rebuilding of the house! From donations also some roofing sheets could be bought, yet to completely reconstruct the roof many more roofing sheets are needed. Also doors and windows need to be added. Roofing sheets, doors and windows are expensive materials. Although local business owners, given the disastrous cause of this situation, continue to be willing to grant considerable discounts, they cannot afford to provide such costly materials for free. Also, once the reconstruction of the house is completed, the family is going to need new furniture. After all, the fire has destroyed all their furniture; nothing has been spared.

Therefore, during this Christmas season, a period of togetherness, compassion and love, we once more ask for donations that will contribute to the further reconstruction of the house of Francis Ruyumba and his family, and to replace their furniture. Ever since the fire, the family is sleeping on the concrete ground…Together, let’s give them the certainty that they can celebrate Christmas with the prospect of being able to fully resume their lives in 2023.

There are several options to make a donation:

• Using the PayPal donation button on our website, or transferring manually through PayPal using hwmco-nederland@outlook.com
• Transferring the amount to our Dutch bank account in the name of Stichting HWMCO-Nederland, using IBAN code NL56 INGB 0007 7485 36; if you donate from outside Europe, also the BIC code INGNL2A will be required.
• If you are donating from Uganda, you may use our Ugandan bank account in the name of Nicky’s Care for Africa Foundation,
  using no. 1045201062094 (Equity Bank Kabale).

 

Any donation or other gesture towards this special Christmas goal will be warmly welcomed!

 

HWMCO-Nederland & NiCA Foundation
‘We Fight Poverty by Bringing Development’

 

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