Letters from the children of Children UP

Letters from the children:
The following are excerpts from letters received in August 2011.
(Please realize that English is their second language!)

Owac Giwu Simon:
“Degrees of everlasting salvation go to all in the Children Up organization for their unfailing support and love exhibited in the course of our education. May God bless you for what you are doing.”

Anena Lillian:
Merci beaucoup pour la letter. J’aime aussi le francais, je vais l’apprendre aussi. Oui, c’est difficile mais facile a apprendre, a cause de sa connection avec l’anglais.” (This was in response to a board member and a sponsor who wrote to Lillian in French.)
My special thanks goes to all of you for the great work you are doing for me, since last year 2010 when I joined secondary school. It is because of your help that I am studying in this good school, which is the best girls’ school in Gulu District.”

Oryem Patrick:
“I am glad to tell you that my family members were so impressed with relevant pieces of advice and guidance you were able to give to both me and them and they warmly appreciated for your Godly effort of maintaining us in secondary school up to this stage.”

Akite Thereza:
“I would like to thank the almighty God for keeping us up to this moment and also want to thank God for making me at school. Without you I was not going to be where I am at this moment.”

Okello Jimmy Ronaldo:
“The main reason for me communicating to you through this letter is that I would like to appreciate you and your family members and the organization named Children UP.
Finally I would like to send an appreciation to Chicago’s fine football club [FIRE], my best football team although they were given 8-1 by Manchester United Football Club.”

Atto Concy:
“Through your support I wish to work with all my effort so that I have a bright future and I also wish to be someone respected or recognized in our country.”

Kinyera Simon:
I am so happy to write to you about my experience during the year. Generally, all went well, especially with sports. Our school went for rugby championship and emerged winners….I remember also meeting a friend who actually knew French and we communicated with him in the language.”

Amony Lillian:
“I am so grateful to write this letter to appreciate the help that you are giving me towards my academic. I hope you will continue to do the same.”

Atim Vicki:
“I know for sure that I will do all my best in order have a bright future because you are still with me. So I think that my aim is to be a doctor in future. I want to work hard to be a doctor.”

Okello Francis:
“I warmly like to send my high appreciation to you for all of your parental cares and supports you are giving me. I request to you to continue with such good spirits forever and I pray to God to keep you healthy.”

Letters from the children:
The following are excerpts from letter received in August 2011.
(Please realize that English is their second language!)

Owac Giwu Simon:
“Degrees of everlasting salvation go to all in the Children Up organization for their unfailing support and love exhibited in the course of our education. May God bless you for what you are doing.”

Anena Lillian:
Merci beaucoup pour la letter. J’aime aussi le francais, je vais l’apprendre aussi. Oui, c’est difficile mais facile a apprendre, a cause de sa connection avec l’anglais.” (This was in response to a board member and a sponsor who wrote to Lillian in French.)
My special thanks goes to all of you for the great work you are doing for me, since last year 2010 when I joined secondary school. It is because of your help that I am studying in this good school, which is the best girls’ school in Gulu District.”

Oryem Patrick:
“I am glad to tell you that my family members were so impressed with relevant pieces of advice and guidance you were able to give to both me and them and they warmly appreciated for your Godly effort of maintaining us in secondary school up to this stage.”

Akite Thereza:
“I would like to thank the almighty God for keeping us up to this moment and also want to thank God for making me at school. Without you I was not going to be where I am at this moment.”

Okello Jimmy Ronaldo:
“The main reason for me communicating to you through this letter is that I would like to appreciate you and your family members and the organization named Children UP.
Finally I would like to send an appreciation to Chicago’s fine football club [FIRE], my best football team although they were given 8-1 by Manchester United Football Club.”

Atto Concy:
“Through your support I wish to work with all my effort so that I have a bright future and I also wish to be someone respected or recognized in our country.”

Kinyera Simon:
I am so happy to write to you about my experience during the year. Generally, all went well, especially with sports. Our school went for rugby championship and emerged winners….I remember also meeting a friend who actually knew French and we communicated with him in the language.”

Amony Lillian:
“I am so grateful to write this letter to appreciate the help that you are giving me towards my academic. I hope you will continue to do the same.”

Atim Vicki:
“I know for sure that I will do all my best in order have a bright future because you are still with me. So I think that my aim is to be a doctor in future. I want to work hard to be a doctor.”

Okello Francis:
“I warmly like to send my high appreciation to you for all of your parental cares and supports you are giving me. I request to you to continue with such good spirits forever and I pray to God to keep you healthy.”

 

(The photo is of Owac Giwu Simon at home with his family.)

Nancy’s Success!

Children UP is excited. Nancy, our first university graduate has started her own forestry business fighting climate change…AND… she has been hired to do a three week Environmental Impact Assessment for a proposed road near the border with Tanzania. All this AND she does part-time translating for the BBC!

This from a young woman who lost both parents to AIDS when she was five years old. She and her siblings were raised by her grandmother. In order to have school fees she worked in a stone quarry with her grandmother. The process is back-breaking as they swing sledge hammers to break major boulders into gravel to sell to road crews. She did very well in secondary school, earning a college scholarship. However she could not go to college in Kampala since she did not have the money for board and room or for textbooks and supplies. Children UP was delighted to have found her and to have supported her over the years at the university.
We are very proud of her accomplishments. Her entrepenurial skills and her knowledge serve her well as she makes her way in a difficult economy and assists her family and others.

Creative Donors

Children UP appreciates all of the donors who generously support the education of Ugandan youth. Besides the normal generosity of our supporters, we have been particularly impressed with some of the creativity of helping out.

A young couple feels it important to tithe their earnings each year and then they split the funds between helping out locally and helping out internationally. As a result one young man is being supported.

In memory of an aunt, a relative has asked friends and family to each donate a small amount yearly to a fund in her aunt’s name. Enough is raised to support a young woman’s education.

Another couple unexpectedly found themselves in receipt of some money that they had not expected. Their generosity decided to support a young person’s education will carry her through four years of education.

After the loss of her son to the war in Iraq, a sponsor found that one of our young men shared the same love of soccer that her son had. She decided to sponsor that Youngman in memory of her son.

A Middle School in Elmhurst Illinois decided to sahre the proceeds from their snack bar sales to support another young student. As a result, Children UP makes a yearly visit to update the students about how that student is doing in school.

Because of a similar namesake between their grand-daughter and a student in Gulu, Uganda. A couple has decided to have a Ugandan daughter as well with the same name.

One couple is exploring the possibility of writing in a donation into their will to assist Ugandan students through Children UP.

Supporters have also held art sales. They have held craft parties and wine tastings.

To all donors, large and small….You do make a difference…. Thank you.

Taking Flight – a fundraiser

The Pavlik family painting birds!

On a very hot and steamy Saturday, July 2nd, friends gathered at the back yard of John and Susan Nester to paint birds as decoration for their homes. Under the shade of a tent and trees in the back yard there was a flurry of activity as people picked out their cement birds and wandered to the painting tables. It was a wonderful family event as children and adults mingled and asked to have the yellow paint passed down the tables. Adults helped the younger children clean brushes and pour the paints into small plastic cups. It was a riot of color and painting styles.
Thanks to John Nester, who had saved molds of birds from his days teaching at York High School. These are the same molds that now grace the commons area of the school. An eighth grader commented that she had seen the birds at York and was trully excited to be painting a couple of birds to bring home.
For the very young children, there were tables set up with round river stones, sea shells, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, paint and little multi colored puff balls. It was fun to see their creative little minds coming up with projects to bring home. I saw a hermit crab, wormy things, rings, a critter with twelve eyes and all sorts of delightful and silly imaginations.
We had considered this a very small fun-filled funraiser. At $10 a bird, imagine our surprise at the end of the day when we realized that we had brought in $1,300. Thanks to all of our suporters who turned out to support our effort. It is more than enough for another year of education for a child in Uganda.

Akite Tereza

Akite Tereza finished primary school last year with high results on her primary school exit exams and especially good grades in mathematics. She has been living with an uncle, as her father has a disability that prevents him from earning a living. Her mother has done all she could to take care of the home.
Now that she has received the support of Children UP and one donor in particular, she is at Sacred Heart School in Gulu, Uganda. Like other secondary schools it is a boarding school. At the end of her first term she received very good graades in all 14 subjects. (The schools follow the British model of education) We wish her continued success.

Children UP in Forbes.com

Eight Retirees Who Founded Nonprofits    by:  Michelle Cerone,                            used with permission of Forbes Media LLC / May 19,2011  http://www.forbes.com/2011/05/19/eight-retirees-who-start-a-non-profit_slide.html

For many, it was a desire to feel useful and use some of their job skills after retirement. Charlie Laliberte, founder of Children Up retired from teaching to follow his life’s passion–teaching, albeit this time in Istanbul. While there he met another teacher who eventually took a post in Northern Uganda. When he and his daughter visited the country, he found that many talented high school aged students couldn’t afford to attend high school.

While the country has a public education system for children up to the seventh grade, secondary education is private and costs approximately $1,000 a year, more than many families can afford.

Laliberte began Children Up as a scholarship program, where they find students who have scored highly on the standardized tests at the end of grade school and pay their way through school.

Though he acknowledges helping the students, he says for him and the other retired teachers in the organization, it is a treat for him.

“There are only so many crossword puzzles I can do,” Laliberte said. But more than that, he said he believes that many teachers just have a soft spot for children.

Amony Lillian

Amony Lillian is now attending Gulu High School where she joins 4 other Children UP supported children.   This was made possible through the generous contribution of a Children UP supporter.