About Bury African Outreach
The scourge of HIV/AIDS continues to devastate family life in many parts of Africa. An estimated 1 million Ugandans are living with HIV/AIDS which is nearly 7% of the population.
The UNAIDS website states that, “It is now acknowledged in Uganda that while HIV prevalence decreased in the 1990s and has been stable since about 2000, the burden of the AIDS epidemic has grown”.
More orphans need our help. Without sponsorship these children would be destitute and homeless. So we have increased our sponsorship and fundraising activities to raise sufficient funds to now support 75 children.
THE SCHOOLCHILDREN
The regular Standing Order donations that we receive help to pay for the children’s school fees, uniforms, books and equipment.
The children know that if they have an education, they have a ticket to a future.
A 16-year-old orphan said recently, “I used to be illiterate and I was sad about my sorrowful past, but now I am literate I can make my own way in the world.”
The children are not in an institution or orphanage, but are looked after by carers or guardians in small family units in the carers’, own homes.
The Benedictine Sisters oversee the welfare of the children and ensure that the funds we send are used appropriately. The picture shows Betsy with one of the carers outside the carer's home with the 6 children she looks after.
THE BENEDICTINE SISTERS OF TORORO
The Benedictine Sisters of Tororo, founded in 1960, are a contemplative order who helped provide stability through 20 years of civil war and further conflicts on the borders and in the North, welcoming many displaced people, and providing great support to the local community with both spiritual and practical help, such as training in animal husbandry and crop management.
With the added burden of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there were so many children in need that they asked us for help. In 2002 they became an NGO (non-government organization) called BECOT (Benedictine Children Orphans Tororo) whose sole aim is to support orphaned and vulnerable children in this area of East Africa.
This has enabled smooth transfer of funds from Bury African Outreach to the Benedictine Sisters. An extensive survey of the project in 2007 by a British team confirmed the huge impact made in this area by supporting these children.
The regular support has helped many to flourish so that they can be educated and develop as caring individuals who can then support others. This has freed up the Sisters so that they can continue their excellent work. One of them told us, "It is a wonderful thing you and your friends are doing in these children’s lives. It changes their destiny. What they will be able to achieve is due to your generous love - and the gifting of school fees.”
[ Page last updated 11/08 by Bury African Outreach (South) in Hindhead, Surrey ]