HOME: Welcome to Real Partners Uganda
Our Mission.....
"To reflect Christ's love in the world, we work in partnership with Ugandans to develop sustainable learning communities that model effective education, conservation, health care, & economic development."
We pursue our mission by providing education and comprehensive care for orphans and homeless children who are victims of poverty and the HIV-AIDS epidemic in Uganda. Children with no good prospects for a decent life are fed, clothed, given health care and supervised by loving adults. The impact is life-changing for everyone!
You can become a partner by sponsoring a child or supporting other projects...below.
Real Partners Uganda Executive Director Elaine Griswold gathers with children in the Nursery Section of Mustard Seed Academy. Teacher Ruth is on the upper left.
We pursue our mission by providing education and comprehensive care for orphans and homeless children who are victims of poverty and the HIV-AIDS epidemic in Uganda. Children with no good prospects for a decent life are fed, clothed, given health care and supervised by loving adults. The impact is life-changing for everyone!
You can become a partner by sponsoring a child or supporting other projects...below.
Real Partners Uganda Executive Director Elaine Griswold gathers with children in the Nursery Section of Mustard Seed Academy. Teacher Ruth is on the upper left.
Mustard Seed Academy Graduates Pioneer Class....
To see highlights of the colorful celebration...Click here....
Primary 7 graduate Oliver Birungi, celebrates with RPU Board members (left to right) Elaine Griswold, Kathryn Hiscock & Dana Hiscock (rt.). Kristen Pettet (3rd from left) served as a long-term RPU volunteer for 10 months in Lukaya as Director of Health Programs.
First Mustard Seed Graduates Excel on National Exam........
Members of the 2012 Mustard Seed Academy graduating class all passed the national exam.
Twenty-four members of Mustard Seed Academy's first graduating class took the Uganda national exam in November 2012, and all of them passed. The national exam scores are grouped in levels with First Grade being the best, and Fifth the lowest. Of the 24 candidates, a stunning 14 passed with first grade scores, 9 in the second grade range, and 1 in the third grade level.
Said Head Teacher John Robert Inyalio, "The achievement is worthy to be celebrated!", adding that "there is no doubt we are the best in Lukaya." He thanked RPU and the American donors for financial and spiritual support, and for making it possible to board the P-7 students for the two terms leading up to the exam. We thank John Robert and all members of the teaching and support staff for their hard work, in caring for and educating these children.
And what a wonderful way to start the secondary school in February--with an outstanding class coming in. Here in the United States, RPU partners were affirmed again--in a very concrete way--about the outstanding school system that has been organized to educate and care for orphans and vulnerable children Lukaya. We thank God for these new blessings.
To learn more about these children and the opportunity to sponsor them for secondary school, Click here.....
Said Head Teacher John Robert Inyalio, "The achievement is worthy to be celebrated!", adding that "there is no doubt we are the best in Lukaya." He thanked RPU and the American donors for financial and spiritual support, and for making it possible to board the P-7 students for the two terms leading up to the exam. We thank John Robert and all members of the teaching and support staff for their hard work, in caring for and educating these children.
And what a wonderful way to start the secondary school in February--with an outstanding class coming in. Here in the United States, RPU partners were affirmed again--in a very concrete way--about the outstanding school system that has been organized to educate and care for orphans and vulnerable children Lukaya. We thank God for these new blessings.
To learn more about these children and the opportunity to sponsor them for secondary school, Click here.....
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News Updates......
*Rapha's House Opens: A Haven for Orphans & Homeless Children...
*New Safari Adventure....The Amazing Wilds of Uganda...
*Ugandan Families don't invest in Girls...So Nancy's Girls are Special!
Primary 5 and 6 Children Perform Traditional Dance at 2011 School Opening Celebration:
Click here to watch the music video: Child of Lukaya...
This lovely ballad tells the story of the poor children in Lukaya and Mustard Seed Academy.
Real Partners Uganda and Tree of Life Ministries:
Where We are Today: December 2012
Faculty and staff of Mustard Seed Academy celebrate with RPU leaders. Nov. 2011
Joseph G. Griswold, President
and Chairman of the Board
Real Partners Uganda, Inc. is a faith-based US non-profit (501c3) that exists to serve orphans, homeless, and other vulnerable children (OVCs) in Uganda, especially in the truck stop town of Lukaya, along the "AIDS Highway." RPU works with a Ugandan charity, Tree of Life Ministries (TOLM), to address the root causes of poverty in the community. Our joint efforts are focused on four core elements: education, health, conservation, and sustainable development. Our motivation stems from a common commitment to provide better lives for the innocent victims of poverty and disease in a town ravaged both by HIV/AIDS and the exploitation of women and children. Real Partners Uganda is a totally volunteer organization with Board members who fund their own trips to Uganda one or more times per year. In 2012 about 94 cents of every dollar donated went directly to the work in Uganda. Click here to read the complete article....
In a Great Partnership, Move Mountains of Poverty in Uganda!
RPU's Health Programs Coordinator Kristen Pettet with nursery school students. Forming relationships across cultures is at the center of all we do.
Uganda....British leader Winston Churchill called it the "Pearl of Africa".....is a land of breath-taking natural beauty and incomparable human suffering. It's home to 31 million people who live in an area the size of Oregon state. Over half of those people are under the age of 18. It is one of the 10 poorest nations on earth with the great majority of people existing on less than $1.00 US per day. Ugandans live, on average, to 53 years of age.
Innocent victims of the relentless poverty are millions of children-- malnourished, poorly educated, sick and dying, and sometimes abused. It is a very rough place to grow up! Real Partners Uganda, Inc., a registered US not-for-profit charity [501(c)(3)], was organized to address poverty in Uganda and serve the orphans and vulnerable children who suffer under it in the truck-stop town of Lukaya. In the photo above, RPU's Health Programs Coordinator Kristen Pettet, who served in Uganda for nearly a year, is mobbed by happy nursery school children. Mustard Seed's nursery program, the most comprehensive in the region, prepares students for success in primary school and beyond. Over a 3-year period they come to speak English, learn school skills, and are supervised all day by loving adults. And their physical development is nutured by the feeding and health care programs. At this age (3-6 years) many local children roam the streets of Lukaya, often hungry and unsupervised. All sponsored students who attend Mustard Seed Academy are provided with school fees, food, uniforms and health care. The school motto is "We can move mountains" but more sponsors are desperately needed to help us. You could be one of them....Click here!
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions can help you find out a lot more about our work, Uganda, and travel there. Click here........
Innocent victims of the relentless poverty are millions of children-- malnourished, poorly educated, sick and dying, and sometimes abused. It is a very rough place to grow up! Real Partners Uganda, Inc., a registered US not-for-profit charity [501(c)(3)], was organized to address poverty in Uganda and serve the orphans and vulnerable children who suffer under it in the truck-stop town of Lukaya. In the photo above, RPU's Health Programs Coordinator Kristen Pettet, who served in Uganda for nearly a year, is mobbed by happy nursery school children. Mustard Seed's nursery program, the most comprehensive in the region, prepares students for success in primary school and beyond. Over a 3-year period they come to speak English, learn school skills, and are supervised all day by loving adults. And their physical development is nutured by the feeding and health care programs. At this age (3-6 years) many local children roam the streets of Lukaya, often hungry and unsupervised. All sponsored students who attend Mustard Seed Academy are provided with school fees, food, uniforms and health care. The school motto is "We can move mountains" but more sponsors are desperately needed to help us. You could be one of them....Click here!
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions can help you find out a lot more about our work, Uganda, and travel there. Click here........
At the Center....Care and Education of Poor Children
Children enjoy porridge at morning break
Working in partnership with Ugandan leaders we founded a pre- and primary school, Mustard Seed Academy, to educate and otherwise care for orphans and homeless children. Our students are ones who lived in such poverty that they lacked food security (will they eat on any given day?), health care (so many die from treatable diseases), clothing, adult supervision and other basic necessities. In our school program, then, we must provide care for the "whole child." Children are outfitted in "smart" uniforms, fed two meals per day, taught in smaller classes, offered health care when they are sick, and provided with loving adult supervision. Our teachers model the love and caring behavior we expect in a Christian, faith-based school. Our kids come from Protestant, Roman Catholic and Muslim families, mostly too poor to afford even the basic costs of having a child in school. Over one half of our 406 children are sponsored by individuals, families and organizations in the United States. Many more still need sponsors. Learn how you can sponsor a child....
Breaking the Cycle of Poverty.....Sustainable Practices
 Old kitchen at Mustard Seed was smokey and inefficient Multiple Causes of Poverty............ Many causes of poverty in Uganda stem from traditional behaviors or ways of doing things that worked when there were a few hundred thousand citizens living in Uganda, but now drive the cycle of poverty that is so persistent for its 31 million citizens. For example, most cooking is done using open wood fires that pollute the air, cause health problems for women, and necessarily add to the deforestation and loss of wild habitats.
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Poverty: options and solutions....... Solutions require ingenuity and investment as well as education to help people understand the benefits of new sustainable ways.
Ugandans, like most of us, like the old familiar ways, and gaining acceptance of new methods and technologies can be a challenge. However, without making some changes, the future looks bleak for all Ugandans, including the precious children we are committed to care for. Among the most important needs are to reduce pollution and the consumption of firewood that produce greenhouse gases and causes massive deforestation. Surprisingly, growing new forests is quite widespread--the only problem is, people plant Eucalyptus and other fast growing non-native species, and no native kinds of wildlife live in the forests. In the picture (left), cooks Bbosa and Ruth at Mustard Seed Academy prepared meals for 300 people in this smokey, inefficient cooking shed. But now with the help of RPU everything has changed. See Cooking Lite..... |
How We Began......A Brief History
This juvenile gorilla approached close to us to get a good view
Gorilla conservation and poverty are connected! We first traveled to Uganda in 2003 as safari tourists with a special goal of trekking Gorillas in the far western mountains of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. The four of us who went (Griswolds and Hiscocks) are deeply committed to conservation of wild areas and the life that is found there. Although a small country in size, Uganda is nearly unmatched in the diversity of wildlife that can be found there. For example, over a thousand species of birds live in this tiny country (vs. 850 in all North America). The diversity of primates is remarkable, and many of the species are endangered. Our story continues at A Brief History.....
Becoming a Partner.....How to Help
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Working together to overcome poverty and serve destitute children in Uganda will take a large team of partners, each using his or her own talents and resources. That is how Real Partners Uganda has been growing since 2004.
Please consider joining our team by making a donation today. Just click here... to make an online donation through PayPal or you can mail a check made out to Real Partners Uganda to the address below. Also you may email us directly, or go to the Contact Us... page to use the secure form there. Email us at: realpartnersuganda@gmail.com Send checks by regular mail to: Real Partners Uganda, Inc. 523 Lafayette Blvd. Brigantine, NJ 08203  Seven Americans joined long-term volunteer Kristin Pettet (2nd from lf) to work at Mustard Seed Academy in October 2012. Lf to right: Ken Bennett, Pettet, Deanna McMillian, Elaine Griswold, Mike Grant, Kathryn Hiscock, Dana Hiscock and Joe Griswold. |
Click here to DONATE NOW......
