Help Arms of Love become self-sufficient!
Donation protected
Hello, my name is Sabakachi Waiswa Steve, and I am 22 years old. I am from Kyamagwa, a small village in eastern Uganda.
ABOUT ME
I lost both my parents and became an orphan at a young age. However, I was also blessed at a young age - I was raised by people unrelated to me, whose kind hearts and unconditional love showed and taught me what it means to care for others with kindness and unconditional love. They not only took care of me but supported me in every aspect of life. I was able to study up to high school until there was no money left for further education. I started working to earn money and also discovered that I loved to paint.
Their love and support inspired me to start helping homeless children and orphans that I saw on the street. Homeless children are so helpless, sleeping on the streets without any food or shelter, and are humiliated and discriminated against despite being in circumstances that were not of their doing and they had no control over. At first, I started by sharing food and clothes with them. When I left my guardians to start my own life as a young adult and rent a place to live, I kept supporting as many orphans and homeless children as I could. One day, I came across a 3-year-old struggling so much that my heart broke and I decided to take him in so that he at least had a home and regular food. I started taking in more and more children to share the room I was renting so that they could all have a home, food, and community. I decided that I would always take in orphans and children who needed a home and community because I could. And so I decided that I would find a way.
ARMS OF LOVE
In 2018, I started Arms of Love Children Care Ministry and registered it with the Ugandan government to get additional support. However, the government support I received was and is very little. I lost my job early on in the pandemic and have tried my best to earn money. My guardians also died of covid during the pandemic, which broke my heart and also made me even more determined to carry on their legacy. So I took on work wherever I could find it. I even worked as a machinist for some time, even though the fumes endangered my health and caused great pain in my hands. And as word spread about me, more and more children found their way to me.
With my friend Nangobi, I am now blessed and happy to provide a home, food, and community for 35 children. At the same time the jobs I work here in Uganda only pay me $10 to $25 USD per day. So no matter how hard I work, I am unable to earn enough money so that all the children can go to school, or even so that all the children have proper decker (bunk) beds and blankets instead of just mattresses without sheets on the cold cement floor. Oftentimes, we can only afford to eat one meal a day.
PLEASE HELP
Please, I need your help. Right now, Nangobi and I are trying our best to provide for these children so that they can all do more than survive. These children all deserve to have warm beds, especially in the cold rainy season; to have enough to eat every day; to go to school to learn and educate themselves so that they can turn their dreams into reality; and to move from just surviving to fully living and thriving.
To make sure that all 35 children can survive and move towards thriving in the long term, I need $15,000 to acquire at least 2 to 3 acres of land here in Uganda so that we can start to become self-sufficient. It is an impossible sum for me to make, earn, or find on my own. So I ask for your help so that Nangobi and I can continue to support this community of children, this family that we are blessed to know and care for.
HOW WILL ACQUIRING LAND HELP US?
If Arms of Love owns land, we'll be able to build an actual home that can house all 35 children and additional children still living rough on the streets of Jinja. Right now, we pay $250/month in rent for a small 5-room building. With our own land and home, we'll save on rent and have more room.
Having land will also allow us to grow our own food (like corn, beans, vegetables, cassava, potatoes, ground nuts, etc) and give us greater food security so that the children can always have 2 to 3 meals daily. As a farmer who comes from farmers, I have the knowledge and skills to grow local crops. We will also be able to keep animals such as cows, goats, turkeys, and chicken. All of this will greatly improve the children's nutrition and give Arms of Love a source of income through selling manure, eggs, and some of the excess.
We'll also be able to build a learning center on our land for the children of Arms of Love and the community in Jinja. As a first step, we will be able to teach the children technical skills (like tailoring, plumbing, mechanics, and computer skills) at home, encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation so that the children will be able to survive in job scarce Uganda after they leave the orphanage. The space would also allow the children to pursue more hobbies - like football, dancing, singing, and arts and crafts - that help them build their talents and nurture and balance all aspects of their health.
We'll be able to open a school on our land for the children in primary levels with local teachers. This will allow the children to study at home and avoid the strenuousness of walking 3 miles each way every day, often in inclement weather without proper seasonal clothing. In the long run, as the orphanage grows and more children will need to be in school, this would also allow us to save some money since hiring a few teachers will be cheaper than what we currently pay for school - $1500/term or $4500/year for the 27 children in primary levels - especially since those costs are going up as the children age. After finishing primary school at home, the children would then be able to go onto secondary school elsewhere.
To achieve all of this, we need to raise a significant amount of money. We hope to buy and build as funds come in. The total costs, as estimated by local engineers and taking into account the help that I'll get from the community in building, are as follows.
Buying land (2 to 3 acres) = $15,000
Building a home for 35+ children = $65,000
Establishing a farm to grow food = $5,000
Establishing a farm to keep animals = $10,000
Establishing a learning center = $23,500
TOTAL = $118,500
Anything you are able to give to help us achieve our long-term goal of self-sufficiency is very much appreciated. Anything donated, even $5, truly supports us in ways I can't fully express with words.
Thank you.
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For updates about Arms of Love and the children, please follow my LinkedIn page here:
To help us survive and thrive in the short-term by donating towards our monthly needs (for food, rent, utilities, medication, bedsheets/blankets, beds, tuition and school supplies, clothing, underwear, sanitary pads, etc.):
Thank you so much for your help and support! It means so much to us.
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About the organizer (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dayofashoro/): When Waiswa first reached out to me on LinkedIn in March of 2023, I was quick to tell him that I was unable to help because of my own difficulties. The speed with which I said no bothered me, so I came back to look at exactly what he was asking for. And I was shocked at how little it took to make a difference - just 59 cents could feed a child for a day (beans and rice/maize, but no vegetables or other protein). As the daughter of Nigerian immigrants to the US, I know how hard their struggle was both here and back home. I donated what I was able, but knew that I was still willing and able to help… and so this GoFundMe page was born. Whatever money is donated here, I transfer to Waiswa via Sendwave (with a mobile transfer of funds from a debit card that he gets within minutes) so that he, Nangobi, and the children can get what they need to thrive. Thank you for donating and sharing! ❤️
Co-organizers (2)
Dayo Fashoro
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
Waiswa steve
Co-organizer