You may well recall that, following my visit to Uganda last summer, we have the privilege of supporting a family of beautiful triplets that have lost both parents. Joseph, Josephine and Dennis have been cared for by their grandmother for a few years. They weren’t able to attend school because there simply wasn’t the money. They lived in rags and ate one meal a day, if they were lucky. Triplets are rare anywhere, but triplets that survive to this age in a place like Uganda is incredibly rare.

Through a fantastic sponsorship program, the triplets now get everything they need. For this post, I’m going to let Martin Duhimbaze, who is Director of Our Father’s House Ministries in Rukungiri tell their story. He can do that much better than I ever could.

Back in October 2018, Martin sent this update on Joseph, Josephine and Dennis.

I am happy to let you know Joseph, Josephine and Dennis are doing well, they are happy and are proud that they go to school. Their grandmother gave a testimony how she met you and you helped change her life… she said “he removed tears on my face now children go to school, have clothes, shoes and gets food”. I want to join her and family to thank you and your family for helping change their life.

We did health screening and found all three are okay, free from HIV/AIDS and no other illness. We tried sending them to a boarding school but the headmaster of the school thought they are still young and together we saw that their grandmother is a good woman and responsible to monitor them as they study as day scholars in the school near their home and once they are of age to be in a boarding school they will join. So at the moment they go to a school near the church where we met them and they have lunch at school and other meals at home… we try to help the family to supplement on the little food they have.

Since then, the children have gone from strength to strength. Here’s the latest update from February 2019.

Greetings to you from Uganda and Happy New Year. The year 2018 ended very well and so far we see the beginning of the year starting well we pray God continues to guide us. We thank God who brought you to Uganda and connected us. Now three children and family are happy, smiling and life being changed. May God continue to bless you.

Yesterday I and my staff visited Joseph, Josephine and Denis and the good news is that life has continued to change. They now keep their home clean, they drink clean water and are now confident. That is unlike those days when they would not talk or smile and I want to tell you their grandmother is the happiest. She testifies she has learnt a lot from our centre lessons. She has five coffee plants and is almost harvesting.

• I observed children are interested leading prayers and proudly say they are Sunday school members.
• They now play games with each other unlike those days when they would look unmotivated.
• They stay with another girl her name is Hilder 8 years whose father and mother are living but are very needy and sickly.

Their neighbour mentioned that being born triplets and connected them to another parent in UK means so much. They say they must look at it as open miracles that they need to thank God and be good children. Unfortunately their house is in a sorry state its almost falling and we are worried it might fall on them I am praying to reach their local church and ask for trees and may be ask some of our caregivers their time to help build them a temporary house i think we would transfer the iron sheets to the new temporary house though they are also very old and leaks whenever it rains.

Bless you, Martin Duhimbaze

It’s clear that the need is still very acute. We do all we can for those we support in Uganda and we are so grateful for the support we receive from schools around the UK. If you think you would like to donate to a fund we have setup to make sure the house is safe and secure, drop me a line at ian@schudio.com and I’ll send you further details. Otherwise, do think about how your school could get involved to join us in supporting families like this. Never underestimate the change you can see from what might feel like a small amount.