Hello friends,

My name is Susan Stringham. I am a nurse, social worker and have training in Public Health and Humanitarian action from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in NYC. For the past many years, I have worked on small humanitarian educational projects in Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda because I believe education is a key ticket out of poverty. Corruption is rife in these countries and often large-scale international aid lands in the hands of the wrong people, and sometimes the people most in need never see it.

To counter this, I have worked with small teams of people in the U.S. and Africa whom I trust and who have helped us deliver funds directly to individuals and families of the poorest of the poor. Our work is to shore up these families and put them in a position to obtain education and become self-sufficient. We have supplied seed money to help them start little businesses such as growing large gardens for food to eat and sell, raising animals for food and to sell at market, selling clothing and items at local markets, and other types of businesses to help them earn income to feed their families. Some of the seed money has gone to help young people attend trade schools, enabling them to learn the skills to increase their earning ability. It is life-changing for them and their families.

My husband Dan and I have been called to lead a mission for our church in Cape Town, South Africa for 3 years beginning June 28, 2023. I will no longer be able to work during these years to help fund these projects. My next step would be to organize a live fundraiser to help shore up these families while I am away, but I simply have run out of time. My wish is to raise $5500 to fund these humanitarian projects for these families until I return and can organize a bona fide non-profit organization.

We have been working with a family of 3 boys, ages 20, 15, and 8, and their elderly grandmother who live in Northwestern Uganda. They were orphaned 4 years ago when both parents were killed on their way to their grandfather’s funeral.

When I learned of their situation last January, none of them were in school, they had no income, and the oldest boy was digging roots from people’s gardens to try to feed his family. They were suffering from malnutrition. In addition, they lived in a poorly built, small brick house, with a dirt floor and no beds. They had to walk miles to get water from the stream and sometimes, it was contaminated by cattle feces. They were sleeping on old mosquito nets without sheets or blankets under a leaky tin roof. Rain would get in the house during the night and pour down on them while they were trying to sleep. It was misery for them. This family happens to be members of my church and has a church leader who has lovingly watched over them and tried to provide a little financial help here with the little he has.

With the help of this leader and the oldest son’s hard work, we have been able to understand their needs and provide the funds to get them back into school, rent a one-acre garden plot to grow their food, replace the roof with new tin sheets, purchase and install a 2500-liter rainwater catchment tank to provide clean water, provide some new clothes and shoes, ( including the required school uniforms), food, school supplies, and a small number of animals including chickens, pigs and goats to bring them income and food.

Our wish list going forward for this family is to appropriate $4000 to be used for 1) mattresses and bedding to sleep for these boys and their grandmother, 2) construction of a 30-year latrine (instead of the shallow pit latrine which is a hole between 2 boards and very unsanitary), 3) buying and installing a solar light for the inside of their house since they have no electricity, 4) purchasing cement and labor to repair the inside brick walls of the house to keep the cold out during the rainy season and replace the door and windows in the house which will provide more safety and better ventilation, and a covered outdoor traditional kitchen, 5) purchasing of a gas cylinder for cooking which will reduce the cost of coal currently being used for cooking, 6) purchasing a small amount of clothing and shoes each year for each family member until the oldest boy can find work after he graduates from high school and can begin earning sufficient income, and 7) provide funds to continue to rent the garden plot and increase it to 2 acres next year.

We are also helping a very impoverished family in rural Kenya which consists of a mother and 5 children. The father abandoned them in the past year after he married a second wife and told his wife their children were no longer his children. She runs a small roadside eatery which she struggles to keep running because she must choose between the money needed to stock the restaurant with food or purchasing food and medicine and paying for school fees, clothing and supplies for her children.

We have supplied funds to help her pay school fees for the younger siblings and finance the oldest son’s education in Nairobi for the first five months of a pre-nursing program. He is a very self-motivated and hard-working young man who asked for help in renting a 2-acre garden plot to grow and sell food for his family and the equipment to start a grain mill for added income to help him pay for his monthly expenses while in school. We provided the seed money, and he has been successful in planting and harvesting the garden and started the mill business, employing his younger sister and a cousin in running the mill and help with the harvest of the garden.

Despite this success, his mother has been ill and still struggles to have enough money for food and school fees for the younger siblings. He has asked for us to help fund a chicken business for his mother so that the funds he is earning can remain dedicated to help pay for his monthly expenses and save money to pay for nursing school (and not for other family expenses which have burdened him.) We want him to be successful in the future and be able to increase his earning capacity which will ultimately help his family.

Our wish is to be able to provide $1000 in seed money to purchase the chickens, a shelter for them, and the required vaccines or medicines needed to keep the chickens healthy.

One other project this year has been to aid one of my young nursing students who I taught when I was in Kenya last winter. Her father was sick with cancer and passed away 6 months before her graduation. She could no longer pay her tuition and monthly expenses and asked me for help to continue. With the help of generous donors, we supplied the funds to help her continue and she will graduate in the next few days. Her family is impoverished due to the death of her father, and she has not yet been able to find work.

She has asked us to supply seed money for a small business that will help provide income for herself, her mother and younger siblings while she looks for work as a nurse. These jobs are difficult to secure in Kenya and it will take her some time. So, our wish is to donate $500 for her to buy stock to sell items at the local market.

A member of my small team of friends working on these projects has agreed to help me continue this work while I am serving in S. Africa. We would all be most grateful if you would consider donating to this Go Fund Me project so that we can continue the work we started with these families and see it through! This work is so rewarding. Thank you in advance for your kindness and generosity!