Uganda

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 * [[image:caring_smile3.jpg width="185" height="174"]] || =Run to Uganda = ||

 How far have we run?

 * [[image:elliot_and_child.JPG width="152" height="199" align="center"]] || We have decided to run to Uganda to help raise the profile of one of our students who is raising money for his airfare to go and visit the **Home of Hope** ||
 * = **This is Elliot** ||  ||

Below is one story about why Elliot is keen to help the children of Uganda

**MOSES** When we found Moses, this is how he lived his life—tied to a bed without even a mattress 24 hours a day. Moses has epilepsy but over in Uganda it is seen as an evil spirit so people were too scared to even touch him! He had food thrown to him, urinated where he was and had not been outside his house for years. The level of neglect he had suffered and his untreated epilepsy meant he spent his day rocking and making a droning noise. After a day at Home of Hope Moses began to experience movement, toys and people who would touch and interact with him. A year later, Moses is one of our more active children, who is now well medicated and attends our class programme on a daily basis.

How far is it from New Zealand to Uganda?
13,800 kilometers

How long will it take us to run there?
Well that depends on how many people get running. If each of the 70 people in our Learning Team runs 1 km per day four days a week we will run 280 km per week. If that is all we do then it will take us 50 weeks. Mmmmmm...... We haven't got that much of the school year left.

If we can convince more classes in our school to participate then we might be able to do it. If 200 people a week would run 4 km that would be 800 km a week and would only take us 17.5 weeks to run to Uganda. Wow! that is more achievable.

What can I do to help?
If you are a parent or pupil of Freeville School come and join us at first break (10.40 a.m.) and run a couple of laps of our track to help us get to Uganda. If you are able to make a donation to help Elliot raise his airfare and for the Home of Hope children's home contact paul@freeville.school.nz

Why should I care?
Because YOU can make a difference. Even though the problems in the world seem so big that our little bit won't be much help, by working together we can make a difference. One child in our school cannot run 14,0000 km. They would have to run 186 laps of our track every single day for the rest of our school year to achieve that. But if 186 children ran 1 lap each day it would be easy.

It is the same with money. It costs a lot to provide the help needed to address all the problems of poverty in the world. One person can't do much about that. But if every person in the developed world was able to give $1.00 that would raise over 1 billion dollars (that looks like this 1,000,000,000). Now that starts to be a useful amount of money to help address issues of poverty. And we can't solve all the problems in the world by running around our school. But we can raise the profile of Moses and encourage you to think about what you can do to help children like him.

Is there anything else I can do?
Talk about issues of poverty with your family. If we start to care the world can become a better place. Visit [|Freerice.com] and donate rice just by playing a word definition game. This cost you nothing except time.

More from the Home of Hope

 * [[image:classroom1.JPG align="center"]] || [[image:eating4.JPG width="251" height="191" align="center"]] ||= [[image:physio_exercises.JPG width="239" height="177" align="center"]] ||
 * = Classroom ||= Eating Time ||= Physiotherapy ||

**PROSSY** For her own safety Prossy was locked in this mud hut for up to 8 hours each day while her Grandmother trekked 2 hours to a garden to dig so they had some food to eat. Although Prossy’s Grandmother tried hard to care for Prossy, she could not lift or bath her and struggled to provide Prossy one basic meal a day. After a day at Home of Hope, Prossy asked a staff member to ring a previous community worker who was coming to visit her to tell them they wouldn’t recognise her because now she was clean and well dressed! A year later Prossy is one of our fastest learning children in the classroom! And loves the attention she now gets!

More information about Uganda How are we doing?