Author: Lot 2545

This past week, we went to check in on three boys that have been resettled with their families in Eastern Uganda. Since all of our guys are grown up now, we decided that moving forward we wanted to focus on resettling boys with their families. It is a common misconception that kids living on the streets don’t have families. While that is true for some, it isn’t the most common situation. Each child’s story of why they ran away is very personal, and sometimes we never get the full truth. And that is ok. When they are ready, they will share.

However, from experience we have seen that most reasons are simple fixes. Things like there were no school fees, not enough food at home, etc. So when we meet a kid that is ready to return to their families, we are excited to be a part of helping mend the fences and getting .

Did you know that we meet the boys that want to go back to their families at our lunch program? That is why it is so important. Kids living on the street have learned not to trust people. Many times, people come taking photos promising to help, but never do anything. Even one of the recently resettled boys told us exactly that when we promised to help him. However, through our lunch program, the kids get to know that we are serious about helping them and want to see them off the streets and will do whatever we can to make it happen.

Just in the last few months, we have been able to get 5 boys off the streets and back with their families. And it all started with our lunch program. But once they choose to go back home, our support doesn’t stop there. We continue to follow up and visit, provide food baskets during the school holidays(and this whole lockdown), and provide medical care and school fees and requirements. That is where sponsorship comes in.

Are you interested in partnering with us to feed kids or to sponsor once they get home? Send us a message or check out our get involved page.

LOT2545 has 3 main focuses: feeding people, education, and providing jobs.

We feed people because all good things involve food. Celebrating something? Food. Want to show someone you care about them? Cook for them. Remembering Jesus’ sacrifice? Bread.

All good things begin with being fed. And for those living on the streets, or struggling to get a meal, it is no different. A warm meal not only fills their stomachs, but it shows them that someone sees their suffering and cares enough to do something about it.

We also use meals to build relationships. Think about your friends. What do you do when you want to talk or hang out? Go get food. Relationships are built around the dinner table. That is why sitting down with your family every night is so important. You discuss your day and your problems. The same for the people we feed. It is a chance to meet them and talk about their problems and see how they want to be helped.

And lastly, it is providing jobs. We have 2 different people that we are working with to provide meals. One is a woman that has a small place where she cooks food. She was there before we started feeding people, and everyone loves her cooking. She has 4 daughters. Now with the boost of our business, her daughters school fees are always paid on time, and she is able to completely care for them. Her family is being fed too. Same with the man that has the chapati stand. He is able to plan for his future and save.

It is $10 for one month of meals for one person. The amount that you probably spent on one lunch, will feed someone 20 meals. Will you consider packing your lunch one day and donating that $10 to our feeding program? Sign up using the button below or send us a message for more info.

We have the joy of watching kids grow up into young men and playing a small part in them reaching their dreams and goals. Anytime you talk to any of our guys, they have big plans and dreams for the future. They always have. It was just before they didn’t know how they were going to get there.

School is expensive in Uganda. One of the major reasons kids run away from their families is that they want to go to school and their families cannot provide school fees or requirements. Yes, there are government schools and the fees are free, but there are still uniforms and books and pens and so many other things that have to be catered for. Even lunch at school is paid for by the parents. If parents cannot pay, the kids study from 7am up to 5pm without eating. By paying school fees for our guys, it sets them on a path that isn’t available to every child in Uganda. It is the first step in helping them reach their goals.

We also believe in nurturing talents and hobbies. By doing so, we have found out that we have talented musicians, dancers, boxers, soccer players and artists. Supporting the guys talents is just another way for them to reach their goals and dreams.

These things are only possible because of the generous people that choose to sponsor. By sponsoring, you help us to provide an education, medical care, basic necessities, counselors, extracurricular actives, and an opportunity for the young men under our care to reach their goals.

For each kid in our care, it costs roughly $150-200 per month to provide all of those things. We heard a lot of you saying that you would love to sponsor and get to know one of the guys through letters and photos, but $50 or more each month was more than you could afford. So we have changed our sponsorship levels!

Now you can set the amount you can give each month starting at $15. We will consider the student fully sponsored when he reaches $150 in monthly support. Check out the page of students still needing sponsors, and use the button below to sign up or one on that page. We will be in touch shortly to confirm your sponsorship.

Thank you for partnering with us to help our young men reach their goals!

Is Christmas on your mind?

Are you wanting to give gifts that give back this year?

Did you answer yes to both of those questions?

We have the perfect solution for you.  Did you know that we employ over 20 women throughout the year with our Kwagala Jewelry line?  Each piece of jewelry purchased provides at least 4 jobs:  the person selling the materials, the man that cuts the paper for the beads, the women that roll the beads, and finally the women that put the beads together into the designs you love.  

All along the way, each person sets the price that they know is fair for their labor.  We cover the costs of the materials, so what each person is earning is only for their labor and goes directly to supporting their families.

Just in time for Christmas, we are offering a HUGE promotion on our jewelry club membership.  You can order for yourself (we won’t tell!) or to give to the jewelry lover in your life.  Each month, they will receive a new piece of jewelry, that was handmade in Uganda.  If you choose to give it as a gift, we will mail you a certificate for the person to open on Christmas morning.  From now until December 10, for every 3 months of jewelry club that you purchase you get 1 month free.  Yes!  You read that right.  When you pay for 3 months, you get 4.  If you pay for 6 months, you get 8.  Pay for 9 months, you get 1 year of beautiful jewelry.  Pay for 1 year, and 16 months of the jewelry club is yours.

We have 3 different levels.  Do you love bracelets and earrings?  The silver level is your best choice.  Do you love necklaces?  Go for gold!  Do you want to keep a piece for yourself and gift one?  It’s platinum for you.

Check our our Jewelry page for more info or use one of these links to sign up.   We will contact you shortly for shipping details!

I always have an intention of writing more here, and then a year passes….

It is the rainy season in Uganda. My flowers are loving it, and I am sure the farmers are too. But for those of us that are trying to run errands or get work done, the rain can be a real pain. Everything basically comes to a stand still until the rain passes. It completely disorganizes everything. The worse the storm, the longer the delays and chaos.

Yesterday, I was running all over town to see some of the women that make jewelry for us. They are on opposite sides of town, so I decided to take a boda (motorcycle taxi) to make it easier and quicker. There isn’t parking at one place and what would have been a 3-4 hour ordeal driving, was supposed to be 1 hour by boda, but the rain came…

It started with the sky getting darker. Then one drop. Then two. Very quickly, it became a serious downfall. We pulled over into a parking lot and took cover under the building’s verandah. But the rain kept increasing, and then the wind, and soon the verandah wasn’t offering much shelter. We were getting wet and cold.

The owners of the building saw what was happening, and offered us the protection and warmth of inside their shop. They gave me a chair and closed the doors. I was safe from the wind, rain, and coldness that comes with severe rainstorms here.

As I sat inside, waiting out the rain, it occurred to me where would we be without the kindness of others in our darkest moments, our darkest nights. They didn’t have to open their doors to us. To shelter us. To offer us protection. But they did. They saw the storm we were weathering outside, and offered us relief. Sometimes we see people’s storms. Sometimes we cannot, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

It seems that as soon as you get on social media, or turn on the news these days, it is nothing but meanness and cruelty disguised as “truth”. There’s no kindness. No shelter. No relief. We cannot always understand other people’s storms, actually rarely can we, because they aren’t ours and everyone experiences things differently. But it isn’t our job to understand the storms. Agree with the storms. Judge the storms. Jesus calls us to help provide relief. To do justice. And you can argue with me that Jesus is the only one that saves, but I will argue back that here on Earth, if we are to be His hands and feet, how else are we supposed to do that other than providing relief from storms with the gifts that we were given by our Creator?

I sat in that building for over an hour, waiting on the rain to pass. Even once it did and we started our journey again, it wasn’t easy. The roads had flooded and we couldn’t see where we should pass. Again, it was the kindness of strangers, that knew the road, that showed us the way. We had to take a detour to get home, because our road floods and becomes impassable, and even the detour was a muddy, frightening mess. If it wasn’t for my boda driver being a great driver, and experienced, I was going to come home a muddy mess. If I was alone, I wouldn’t have made it.

We are all just trying to get home, on a road that sometimes is a muddy, frightening mess in need of kindness to show us the way.

Be well and be kind.