Smiling with Hope Uganda - Help us build a well and educate!
Donation protected
We are visiting the orphanage Smiling with Hope in Uganda this April to help dig a well, add a fence for security, and educate the children. This orphanage was founded by our friend, Daniel who was abandoned by his father as a child. In 2013, he was gifted the land the orphanage now sits on, by his mother. Together, him and his mother have built an orphanage with help from his Canadian friends including us! The orphanage serves 200 children daily and most days they don't have enough to feed the children because of lack of funds.
Your Donation Goes a Long Way:
$1 CAD = 3 meals a day
$75 CAD = 200+ meals a day
$230 CAD = 1 triple-decker bunk bed (sleeps 3 children)
$5,900 CAD = A well with purification system providing clean water for the community
$1,240 CAD = A security gate to complete the chain link fence for safety
$75 CAD = 1 mattress (we need 150)
$35 CAD = 1 blanket (we need 150)
$15 CAD = 1 mosquito net (we need 150)
$1000 CAD = educational materials
$1000 CAD = Conference prep materials including AV equipment rental, hall rental, staffing, security, and meals for 500 orphans
Donors over $1,000 CAD Receive Their Name and Photo Mounted in the School Building as a Honorary Donor:
- Have your business or family name and photo permanently mounted on a wooden plaque at the orphanage (in the school room building), noting any message you would like to leave for the children and staff.
- Receive a video (either live or as an MP4 during our trip there in April 2025) and physical hand drawn letters from the children with a special thanks. You will receive these in the mail in May, once the mission team comes back to Canada
The Mission:
This April 19th, Neil Enns, Kiran Bains-Enns, Abe Enns and Pete Peters are heading to Uganda to visit an orphanage we have all been supporting for over 10 years. This is the first time we are going together!
Neil visited the orphanage in 2016 and his life was never the same after meeting the orphans and seeing the amount of work Daniel (the founder) was dedicating to it.
We are passionate about education and shaping communities through educating youth. We do this right here in our home country, Canada and we are excited to do this at a broader level, globally. This will be a big focus of our trip. Jointly, we have donated over $30k CAD of our own money over the last 3 years which has helped with building a fence for security, building a school, buying bunk beds, and monthly food and water supply for the kids.
What the money is going towards:
- Dig a well (~$5k)
- Continue to build, fortify the structures that are there
- Fortify and add to the fence to keep predators out
- Share our stories and faith at a conference with over 500 youth
- Buy materials and books to use to teach the women and children (we will be doing a train-the-trainer- style education with the current teachers in the orphanage, teach the young men that having more than 1 woman is not a "cool" thing... they are incredibly influenced by "Western" people and we've been told if we share our stories and values, they will be heavily influenced!)
- Pay for security costs while we are there to help keep us safe too!
We have already bought our own flights from our own personal money. None of the money we raise will be used towards our own expenses (flights, tours, hotels).
We aim to raise $10k CAD by April 18th! Any bit helps!
The story of how we met the founder of the orphanage:
In 2013, Daniel, the founder of Smiling with Hope found Neil and his friend, Aaron, through Facebook! They became facebook friends and Daniel shared his story with Neil and Aaron (pictured in the header photo on this page). Daniel's mother had recently gifted Daniel some land to use to build an orphanage. He himself was torn from his mother at a young age when his father decided to take him with him and start a new family with another woman. His mother was unable to provide for Daniel yet she did own a piece of land that had been passed down in her family. For many years Daniel was never told of where his mother's whereabouts were until his late teen years when his father brought him back to his mother - only to find her malnourished in somewhat of a dilapidated structured hut on this piece of land that she owned. The reunion was unimaginable and to this day, Daniel aims to do what he can to help orphaned children living in abject poverty as well as women who have been abandoned by their husbands.
To this day, him and his mother have slowly turned the land into an orphanage but they need so much help still.
They house just over 200 children in this land (about an acre) and the structures have been slowly built with cheap material over the years.
We have slowly been able to help build a community here in Canada that has been sending funds to help build and create a system on this property but there is still so much work to do!
Charity Status
Neil and I have been working with a lawyer over the last 8 months to register it as an official Charity in Canada. It is a registered charity in Uganda but you can imagine the paper work to do that here is a bit more daunting. As such, we cannot yet give out charitable receipts.
FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY! We leave on April 19th!
Co-organizers (1)
Kiran Bains
Organizer
Mount Brydges, ON
Pete Peters
Co-organizer