The easiest thing I did today was change the lives of 279 children

Many of us like the idea of money from the richest people in the world being divided in a fairer way to help the poor. This was largely the basis of the Occupy movements worldwide, but there wasn’t much focus on the “third world”.

Although the Occupy Movement didn’t have a clear objective due to there being no agreed upon terms or leaders, it largely appeared to be unwealthy people protesting for a better and fairer life for themselves and those that they know. In other terms, they wanted the richest people in the country to make less money and the poorest in the country to make more money.

For a number of years I’ve supported charities such as Oxfam with regular monthly donations based on a blind trust that they do good work. I’m still sure that they do good work, but I don’t receive updates about how my money helps and I know that some of the money goes towards fundraising. I believe this distance of not seeing what good our money does can often lead us to believe that sending money doesn’t result in real change.

In November 2014 I received a message on facebook from Ivan Ssewankambo, the founder of an Orphanage in Uganda called Vangrace Compassion Orphanage. The orphanage takes care of 279 children of various religions and beliefs regardless of Ivan’s evangelical faith.

I donated a small amount of money through PayPal. The sum wasn’t enough that I was going to truly miss it, and the following day he sent me a message with a photo of a receipt showing what the money had been spent on. He purchased a large bag of beans.

Some time later, in early April, a storm hit the village and several buildings needed to be rebuilt, after telling me about it I made another small contribution.

As weeks went by I had more contact with Ivan and spoke about the specific needs of the children and the orphanage, usually in the form of questions from me and his responses.

I asked him about how clean the water is and he told me they drink from the lake directly and that diarrhea was a common problem for the children. He said none of the children had died from it for 2 years, but they still get ill. Enquiring with him about the cost of a water filter he found a price locally and it translated to $87 (USD). My co-worker Michael and I decided to each pay half if we could see the filter being used with the children, still retaining our skepticism of sending someone a more substantial amount of money. The following day (the day I am writing this) he sent me some more photos.

We can clearly see Ivan with the children and the water filter, all excited about something that we have built into our houses, a necessity for us, but a luxury for them that may save their lives.

Ivan regularly updates his Vangrace Compassion Orphanage website and facebook page with regular updates, photos, and videos. It didn’t take him long to create a new post (click here) with more photos about the water filter and that it can filter 10 litres of water every 8 hours. Ivan also let me know that the filter itself is good for over 2 years. $87/£57.42 isn’t an amount that I can donate on a monthly basis at this time. However the one-off donation is enough to provide clean water for almost 300 children for over 2 years, that is definitely worth it to me.

There is a lot more that the children at the orphanage need, for example a girl called Maureen has a painful lump on her chest that continues to get bigger and more painful (click her for video). I asked Ivan about her and he said that no one has helped, it would cost $125 to get her to a hospital 30km away, scans, and checkup results and he estimates another $50 for the medication. $175 is too much for many of us to donate, and while I don’t wish to make this an advertisement, I do hope that she receives help.

The great thing about Ivan is that you can speak with him directly through email ([email protected]), skype (jeremiah.11) and facebook (click here). He doesn’t really have a set agenda, and if you’d like to donate money to pay for something specific then you can tell him what you wish for the money to be spent on, for example mosquito nets are $5, ducks are $15 and goats are $112.

I enquired about if they have access to electricity and he let me know that they plan to have a small solar panel setup in order to provide lighting at night, but Ivan has access to a computer elsewhere. So I decided that I would send him 1 or more old phones containing a large amount of video, audio and ebook content. Cellphones and tablets are great for this environment as they can be used remotely for hours, yet because they are a few years old now, it’d be virtually pointless selling them.

The girls at the orphanage have many issues with menstruation. A packet of 2 AFRIpads costs $21 and can be reused. Over 60 of the children require AFRIpads.

You could choose to donate any amount, in a one-off payment or monthly payment, you can choose to sponsor a child, sponsor a teacher or whatever else is agreed upon with Ivan. Click here to donate directly to the orphanage.

Not only do they ask for donations but they sell products they create through their African Academy of Arts & Crafts.

If you’d like to help but don’t want to donate money, they also accept material things such as books and clothes at P.O. Box 32113, Clock Tower, Kampala, Uganda.

This is just one meaningful way that those of us with more than we need to survive can make a real difference in helping real people across the world without much effort. We don’t have to depend on large charities, and indeed in many cases we can make a more meaningful difference through helping directly solve problems.

This isn’t just a nice story about charity, these are peoples’ lives, and knowing how easy it is to help them I couldn’t say no.

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