uganda {gilver}

Child sponsorship has been a part of my life for years. When I was younger my parents sponsored a girl from Bangladesh through World Vision. Then after I graduated from high school I sponsored two kids through Compassion (a boy from the Dominican Republic and a girl from Indonesia). And a few months ago we started to sponsor a boy from Uganda through Victory Community Care Services -Gilver.

While in Uganda we heard Gilver’s story and I wanted to share it with you: He was caught stealing at a young age so his dad decided to beat him. Not only that, but he got everyone in their village to join in on the beating. One of the other boys that lives at Humura, his name is Araphat, is from the same village and said he was there when this happened to Gilver, and that they had beat him pretty bad. After this Gilver ran away to live on the streets.

Araphat and Gilver are about the same age and I know that Araphat left for the streets around the age of 7 so I would have to guess that this happened to Gilver some time before that. I know some 7-year olds here and I can’t imagine any of them surviving on the street at that age, and yet this is so common in Uganda.

One thing that Gilver said to us is that he wants to learn to read and write -I am so glad that is happening for him now.

Apparently he actually likes washing clothes?!? I can’t say that for too many teenage boys!

Rae & Gilver:

He had this awesome pair of sunglasses with both the lenses popped out (lost them somehow), he thought they were so cool. 🙂 Wish I would have gotten a photo of it.

Always smiling . . . (oh, and the guy on the right of photo is Araphat -he’s got an incredible story I’ve got to share yet)

with love,
Chantel

P.S. They are hoping to open up the other home at Humura soon so that means more boys will need sponsors -if you are interested in sponsoring a boy let me know and I can get you some information!