It’s been a long and beautiful day, filled with a multitude of accomplishments. At HOCT, our dedication has shone through in every task we’ve undertaken. We efficiently managed food distribution, ensuring that those in need received nourishing meals. Birthday gifts were delivered, bringing joy and celebration to many.

Our team made meaningful phone calls, connecting with individuals and offering support and encouragement. Letters were written and sent, carrying messages of hope and kindness to their recipients. The construction progress has been outstanding, bringing us closer to our goals and improving our facilities for the community.

Additionally, we received uplifting medical news, boosting our spirits and reaffirming our commitment to our mission. At HOCT, we approach every task with great love and compassion, always striving to make a positive impact on the lives of others.

May the pure heart of children be blessed always! Look at this little girl how happy she is, in her first wheelchair ever! Her name is Kagoya and we helped her last month with a little bit of food.

Kagoya still needs a long-distance parent or a few one-time donations to help her in the forthcoming months, as finding a sponsor for disabled children is usually very hard.

This wheelchair has been donated by the lovely, fantastic, hardworking and incredibly kind Ritienne Falzon the kindness of whom is know far and wide and who saved countless lives. May she and her family always reap the fruit of such kindness!

Many thanks to my colleague Mugoya Swaliki who drove to Kampala and back to get the chair, that too on a work-day.

CHILDREN WITHOUT SPONSOR

What’s in a name? A story, a life, nothing to eat.

In the last day of the month, we publish this list.

Kindly offer 10 euros to feed a child that has no one, or that has been forgotten / abandoned by their sponsor or who lost support due to other reasons, or who never had support.

Abdu Rahuman Musoga

Analusyia Namatende

Babirye Butamisi

Babirye Zaina

Byegeyo Shamu

Dhabasada Elimia

Grandma Loy and Kanza

Higenyi Erick

Igoma Prosper

Isabirye Issa Ashim

Isaza Basharu

Joan Yolya

Kadondo with Twins Naswiba and Uthman

Kagoya Ashafat

Kagoya Praise

Kanunu Isham

Kaudha Shukran

Kisige Swaibu

Kitibwa Evans

Kwagaliza Enya Atika

Lukwago Shafick

Maganda Juma

Magdalene Namunana

Mukama Shamu

Mukisa Bosco

Mutesi Latifa

Mutesi Shakira

Mutesi Shifa

Muwanguzi Elijah

Muzimba Jonah

Nabaigwa Rashidah (HIV-positive)

Nabirye Nahiya

Nabutanda Rashim

Nabutanda Salima, (3 months old)

Naigaga Shakirah (albino)

Nakato Zaituna

Nakisukwe Zaituna

Nampina with Twins

Namuganza Shatrah

Namugaya Azalia

Namugombe Kusinah

Namugombe Railah

Namuwanga Runet

Natukunda Helen

Nawambita Praise

Nkaye Abdul Basti

Nkobe Israel

Nkwanga Traifu

Ssebwami Mujahidu

Waiswa Basharu

Waiswa Dauda and Babirye Salima

Waiswa Swaibu

Today was incredibly productive; so much was accomplished that it would take around 80 photos to fully capture everything. I’m filled with happiness and gratitude as this month concludes on such a high note. Not only did we achieve a tremendous amount of work, but I also feel blessed to witness the inherent kindness, goodness, and beauty in people. Each day, I am reminded of the wonderful nature that lies deep within us all. It’s a comfort to know that, despite everything, there’s far more good in the world than bad. This realization brings me peace and helps me rest easy at night.

Reflecting on these experiences fills me with a profound appreciation for the opportunities each day brings. The support and cooperation I’ve seen remind me that, at our core, we share a collective spirit of generosity and compassion. This sense of community and shared purpose is a beacon of hope, guiding us through challenges and celebrating our achievements together. It’s in these moments that I find reassurance and joy, knowing that the world is filled with people who genuinely care and strive to make it a better place. As we close this chapter of the month, I look forward to continuing this journey, inspired by the goodness that surrounds us and grateful for the chance to be a part of it.

Last week was very hard and stressful for me. I have been feeling very unwell, with a darkness covering my mind and suffocating me. The stress of the IT outage has also taken a toll on me – you wouldn’t believe how many little processes were affected – but most of all, banking delays – those wear me out.

This week I am on a little vacation and, even though I took my HOCT laptop and files with me, I am working less and planning to rest a bit more (and read 1000 pages of Dostoevsky) . I also want to see the sunrise each morning at 5, so if you’d like some nice boring pictures of the sun lifting up, visit my Facebook 🤣

Today was busy as usual for HOCT, but beautiful and full of realizations. We were expecting a bit more children to come, but weather has not been good and a lot of them were cold (yeah… I know… meanwhile we are suffocating!).

Enjoy those beautiful photos and be happy that such joy and such kindness exist in our world.

Mondays have always been my favourite days. So much is being achieved, I am happy and tranquil and my work adds up nicely.

Grateful for the help of all good friends.

I am not feeling well today, and it is a little bit difficult to navigate through some of my usual tasks.
But so many good things happened!

Today, we found long-distance parents for two children at HOCT – for the sweetheart Nangobi Agnes, of whom I wrote earlier (Thank you so much Daniela!) and for the disabled girl Kagoya Ashafat (for whom we still need to buy the wheelchair). The dear friends that decided to take care of those girls are not new at HOCT and, if they decided to keep helping, I am assuming it is because they are pleased at how things unfold, and that our work is good. I cherish Daniela and Claire for having brought such a spark of joy in our word today.

I want to share with you what Claire said today: “I’m glad to help someone who has less chances. Sickness and disability should not make a child loved less.”

Those words come from the heart, and they state the pure truth.
Love those whom no one loves; see those who are not seen. I am telling you, you will be loved and seen a thousand times more.

In photos, Kagoya Ashafat in her first day at HOCT and after having received food from another friend called DaNi, and also from Claire.

At HOCT, no one is really rich. We do not have rich sponsors that dwell in castles and drive expensive cars. We have people who struggle to live, who live in harmony and pure morality, we have people who know what it means – not to have. We have people who understand that giving is receiving.

It is not only due to the religion that I follow, that I believe in Karma. Karma is a very brutal reality, that translates into a very simple equation: you reap what you sow. If you are generous, it will be repaid to you a thousand times more. How do I know this? I know this because I see this each and every day, in my work and through talking to people.

My friend Sunny Staša is by no means rich. What is more, life has thrown all sorts of things at her: a fragile health (which is a large understatement), natural disasters destroying her house, loss of her father, and many other struggles. But Stasa has kept a pure heart and, sometimes, out of the little she has, she sends me a small amount to buy food for a few children that do not have anything.

Many people send one-time donations; but Stasa’s gesture has brought me to tears, because she is really, really struggling. I should be the one helping her, and instead, she is the one helping HOCT.

And this is how grace manifests itself in our wounded world, this is how this world heals and becomes better.
This is how you become reach: when you are like Stasa.

PS: Stasa does not know I was going to write this post, so I hope she will not yell at me too much!

…but first, I nearly died out of fear!

This beautiful boy is called Kidumbulu Musa and he has been through so much, incredible… he almost died several times. We have managed to pull him back from the abyss now, once more.
Kidumbulu is 12 years old, but as you can see, he looks like a 8-year-old. He has suffered from malnutrition in early childhood, and he also suffers from sickle-cell disease (SCD) which is not curable. He has been treated by our beloved Dr. Marriam for a while, and when the situation deteriorated massively (yellow eyes, loss of consciousness) we rushed him to a more specialized clinic.

I was fearing liver failure and he has not been very far from that. I do not understand the whole plethora of diagnostics that have been written down for him (I am better at understanding invoices for payment lol) but I do know this, he has been very ill – and now, thanks to our care, he is doing so much better. I am very relieved and happy.

Many people helped me pay his hospital bills and I am greatly in your debt. Janet, Ruth, Claudia, Denise, Claire, his sponsor Charmaine, Maria & Mom Helen, Noemi, Sylvana, forgive me if I forgot anyone.

Funds from the hospital bills were left and we got him a little bit of food and charcoal, as well as 10 hen which will provide eggs for him and his family, which is very good. I got inspiration from Sylvana, who raises turkeys.

The child is still weak, getting tired easily, but his life is no longer in danger, and so I hope that he will gain more strength and be alright in the end.

And so, I am happy that we did not live for nothing… together, we saved a little life.

We have many disabled children in the village. The usual sufferings are hydrocephalus, “weak bones” (insufficient development of the skeleton), sickle-cell disease (SCD) which is a debilitating illness, malnutrition (with its own plethora of disasters), arms and legs malformations, missing limbs, deformed spine.. and so many other indescribable horrors.

I kept thinking and researching why do these occur. For some of them, the reason is obvious: lack of nutrition and clean water, women giving birth in all sorts of conditions, often without any assistance. In some other situations, the malformations are due to women being abused whilst pregnant, not receiving enough sustenance during the pregnancy, or drinking / bathing / doing laundry in very polluted bodies of water. And then, unknown diseases and mutations. It is very difficult to go around such causes and conditions (but I am trying; at least, women can come to our hospital and give birth!) and so sometimes I am wondering…

…we are all wondering about this at a certain moment in life.

Why should children suffer like this?

At HOCT, we all do our best to stop the suffering of children. To change those horror photos that we see sometimes. We usually manage.

Christian, in the below photo, is a child who is always so excited!! He loves to come to the office and to be around people, around other children, to receive attention, to play a bit. He has a severe mental and coordination disability.

And so, what I believe is that those children are born and get to live among us, so that we may learn the true meaning of devotion, the true meaning of love, of boundless, unconditional love.

They feel our love.