Thanks to Taylor Maher, Tad Piscatelli, and Kevin McBride! They are high school students from Peters Township in Pennsylvania. For one of their classes, they were asked to pick a charity organization and to take action in helping the organization in their cause.

They found Nyaka and were touched by what this is about and wanted to help immediately. Taylor and his friends made and sold t-shirts and raised $150 for Nyaka.

The efforts of these three young men literally have saved the life of one child. $150 puts one orphan into school for a year at Nyaka or Kutamba School. What a huge difference and contribution these students have made.

This is the kind of thing that makes me so excited and proud to be part of this project. Thanks again to Taylor, Tad, and Kevin.

Look for part 2 and part 3 coming up within the next week on the blog. Part 2 will share the story of a 7 year old who wanted to make a difference at Nyaka. Part 3 will share the efforts of McDonald Middle School here in East Lansing.

Chris Singer, Project Assistant
Nyaka AIDS Orphans School

With Mothers Day coming up, I want to take some time here and reflect on the significance of this day. Mothers Day represents a time to honor women from all around the world. Many women live quite extraordinary lives, yet many unfortunately continue to face incredible adversity everyday. Women continue, for the most part, to live in second-class status around much of the world. Although I have done a lot of work and activism surrounding women’s rights, while on my visit to Uganda in March, I was especially struck by some things I saw. I think of the grandmother I saw with a young child tied to her back doing road repairs, while driving through the village later seeing men drinking beer outside at midday. What a dramatic statement about the respect of women in society. Along with this visible example, there are probably countless other ones taking place behind closed doors within the home.

As I’ve written in previous posts, I continue to be amazed at the courage and of the Nyaka & Kutamba Grannies. Words almost can’t express their amazing efforts to raise orphans of HIV/AIDS despite the ravages of old age, grief, and poverty. Many of these great women may never know that there exists a day meant to honor them and the struggle to care for their families.

As we begin to get closer to Mother’s Day, I ask all of you to think about the grandmothers at Nyaka. Think about how they have raised their own children believing they would one day be taken care of at their old age. Imagine how it would be to see your own children die leaving behind grandchildren with no parents. Think about the fear these women must have felt knowing their grandchildren’s livelihood depended on them. Their efforts are the key to our success on the ground in Uganda. That success however is linked to your kindness and support. Your support provides life, hope, and love to our grandmothers and orphans. This Mother’s Day, please consider making a life changing tax-deductible donation to the Nyaka AIDS Orphans School. It will save a life.

Thank you once again for your support of Nyaka.

Population Growth in Uganda Undermining Efforts to Fight HIV

Rapid population growth in Uganda is undermining efforts to
fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, Uganda AIDS Commission Director
General Kihumuro Apuuli said Wednesday at a press briefing in
the capital of Kampala, New Vision/Allafrica.com reports. Apuuli
spoke with journalists ahead of the four-day HIV/AIDS global
implementers meeting scheduled to start June 3 in Kampala. There
are an estimated 30 million people living in Uganda, New
Vision/Allafrica.com reports. Apuuli said about 1.1 million of
them are HIV-positive, but 90% are not aware that they are
living with the disease. He also noted that more than 30,000 new
HIV cases occur there annually. In addition, HIV-related deaths
had increased 30% to 100,000 last year from 72,000 a few years
ago, when a national survey was conducted.According to Apuuli,
mother-to-child HIV transmission accounts for 22% of new HIV
cases in Uganda, and 25% of infants born to HIV-positive women
contract the virus. Women in Uganda have an average of seven
children, according to New Vision/Allafrica.com. Apuuli said
that people often engage in risky behavior under the assumption
that new medications to treat HIV/AIDS will soon be available.
“If we do not prevent new infections, we will be chasing a
mirage,” he said.The country’s AIDS commission has created a
five-year plan that focuses on HIV prevention, according to
Apuuli. He added, “There are 120,000 people on antiretroviral
drugs out of an estimated 240,000 who need it. We intend to make
the drugs available to 300,000 people” (Mugisa, New
Vision/Allafrica.com, 4/30).

If you haven’t checked it out yet, please visit the World AIDS Orphans Day website. There are two essays from Nyaka P-7 students on their site. Read them here:

Nyaka Essays

Here is a comment to the blog posted by Heather Simon, a teacher at Hope Middle School who had students from two classes write to and receive letters from Nyaka students:

“I am so thankful for Nyaka and Chris Singer. He has brought a school half way around the world to our classroom. The energy in the room that morning was powerful, but what is amazing to me is the momentum of that energy. Each day, one of my students is connecting our learning or an individual conversation we have to the students of Nyaka. Open up some of my students’ lockers, and the first thing you see is the picture of their pen pal. Many have purchased frames for their new friend so they have a special spot in their bedroom.

Upon reflection, I realized that the opportunity Chris has afforded my students and I is a real, personal connection to another human being – a human being that is too often over looked in our world. However, one day, my students will be in a situation in which people around them will speak of Africa and Her people. They may even be in a situation where they are called to help Her children. They are more apt to embrace the conversation and speak up on their behalf or help them, because they have a personal relationship to a person who has touched their life. It may be more difficult to turn away from the suffering of people who have written a letter to you saying, “I love you,” or “If you come to my village, I will give you my three hens.” The seed of hope has been planted – I thank God for the harvest.

I greatly appreciate Chris and Nyaka for taking the next step in uniting our children – therefore, giving more hope to a more united future. I thank the students of Nyaka for bringing so much love and joy into my students’ hearts – from a simple letter. Wow – the power of words!”

Thank you Indiana Friends of Nyaka for organizing what sounds like an amazing concert!

Read more here:
Article about Indiana Friends of Nyaka Upcoming Concert

Krista Detor concert

Slideshow

Please contact me if you are interested in starting a Friends of Nyaka group:
Chris Singer, Project Assistant

I liked this article on saw on www.worldaidsorphans.org –

It connects the issues of the world food crisis with its effects on AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children around the world.

Here is the article link:Food crisis and AIDS orphans

An article about Stephen Lewis Foundation’s work with grandmothers in Africa:

Grandmothers, the unsung heroes of Africa

Thankfully, NGO’s like the Stephen Lewis Foundation are recognizing the heroic work and contributions being made by women in the fight against the world’s most critical global justice problem (HIV/AIDS).

Today, I visited Hope Middle School in Holt for a second time. This time was to bring them their letters from the Nyaka P-5 and P-7 students. If you recall from a previous post, I went to Hope Middle School back in February and two classrooms wrote letters to the children of Nyaka. I had heard from their teacher, Heather Simon, a few days ago and she told me how excited the students were for my visit and to receive their letters.

I was very impressed with the letters written to the Holt children by the Nyaka students. They were very touching. Here are a few examples for you:

* Onesmus (P-7) wrote in his letter that his penpal be very careful so as not to get HIV/AIDS and that he would pray for her so nothing would happen.
* Derrick (P-7) wrote to a girl and asked her to be his girlfriend and to come to his graduation! (this brought lots of giggles and smiles).
* Confidence (P-5) wrote in her letter that both her parents had died from AIDS and that she would pray that nothing like that would happen to her penpal’s parents. (After reading this, the girl was crying)

Many of our children wrote about how far they live from Nyaka and that got a lot of gasps from the Hope kids. One young man asked me, “How far is 20 km in miles?” Another boy raised his hand and asked if he could send all his old toys to Nyaka.

Obviously I’m a little biased because of my connection with Nyaka, but don’t all of our children here gain something when they can learn about other people in another culture in another part of the world. Our kids here gain so much from just learning how to empathize with someone they have never met and their difficult situation – a situation that we cannot really imagine.

We tend to have low expectations for young people in our culture, but I am convinced that youth can move mountains and bring about change(look at South Africa during apartheid and the Darfur movement today!). When I was visiting Kutamba School, I brought a huge bag full of books for the children. I presented them to teacher Miria, and she responded by saying, “Thank you for loving us.” I would like to pass on the following message to Heather Simon and all her students at Hope Middle School who wrote letters to Nyaka – “Thank you for loving us!”

~ Chris Singer

Our latest newsletter is out.

Go to our website to see it:
April 08 Newsletter