Grace's Story

A native Ugandan woman brought to our attention a family in need of Mercy Uganda’s assistance in getting two of their children back into school. Here, the privilege of an education doesn’t exist. Every 8-week term costs money, between 50,000 to 250,000 ($25 to $125) shillings depending on the quality of the school. Many of the schools are Christian schools. Of course, with tuition comes the cost of uniforms, shoes, the meal plan, books, and supplies.

When visiting with the family to enroll them in the child sponsorship program Mercy Uganda manages, we learned that there are four children – Godfrey (12) has malaria, Robert (9), Benjamin (5), and Patricia (3). Keep in mind that age and birthdays have little meaning in this society so they could be all wrong. The two oldest children had been in school but the money was soon gone and they could not continue.

The children live with their father and grandmother, their mother died from liver cancer just after Patricia was born. Each day the two adults and four children work in a rock quarry to earn money for food. I understand that working in a rock quarry is the lowest paying job available and that such work would earn about 1,000 shillings a day ($0.50) – a household cook would earn about 3,000 shillings a day ($1.50). We saw the quarry empty because it was Saturday. I asked why, when people are in such need for money, they did not also work on Saturday. The answer was vague but I believe it had to do with the owner not being there to open the site.

After visiting with the family, we asked if they had any immediate needs. Aside from the fact that the family has no mattresses, no blankets, and no mosquito nets, the family said they most needed to get the old woman (Grace) out of the rock quarry. In consultation with her, they agreed that she could sell charcoal and vegetables as a street vendor, which would be far less taxing on her worn body. $100 would purchase the license required, secure a space to rent, and get the first bit of inventory to get started. Ongoing inventory would be purchased using the revenue from the first batch.

Would you like to help Grace? Donate $100 to get Grace out of the rock quarry and into a job more suitable for an old woman. (Thank you SM for your pledge to get Grace into a new job.)