Real People, Real Stories, Real Impact.

Emuria and his grandparents were enrolled in our sponsorship program in 2016. He was about 12. The family was struggling and had no money for school fees, so he rarely attended his local school. When he was finally enrolled in a private school through our sponsorship program, it quickly became apparent that traditional subjects were…

As part of our #GUW20for20 series, we have asked Mary Klauda, one of our devoted supporters, to share her experience: “I have been an extremely proud GUW sponsor to Musana Emmanuel, fondly known as Emma, for the past 5 years. I became his sponsor in 2013 when he was a boy in Tororo Uganda, ready…

  Nayamwenge Faisi, age 66, is a widow living in rural Kayoro, Uganda. She is the main provider for her family, which includes her daughter (also a widow) and grandchildren. There is no running water, no electricity, and no windows in their one room mud home with a metal roof. They share mattresses and woven…

  Nyapendi Mary and her family are a part of the Lwenyi Gi Pinyi community group in Kayoro, Uganda. This group has the objective to encourage each other, “especially women to express their minds and have self-support.” Nyapendi Mary and her husband Akaye Godfrey are parents and grandparents, and they have a large household of 12…

  Before Awori Abeza was enrolled into Give Us Wings’ sponsorship program, her father, John Martin, was hesitant and even feared the motives behind it. He felt that GUW wanted to use Abeza to enrich themselves, and not truly help her gain an education. He also did not see an importance of his daughter receiving…

Mary Frances Adikini has been a part of the Give Us Wings community for two decades. She was a very poor, illiterate, and vulnerable widow with six children. “I could hardly speak in public or even defend myself when in trouble. I faced a lot of harassment because I was a woman. I was not…

    Sharon was invited to join Tororo Girls School this year, a highly prestigious secondary school in Eastern Uganda. This is in part due to the education she received through Give Us Wings’ Family to Family Sponsorship program. She was able to get a private education and stand out early in her academic career.…

  Kevin was a 3-yr-old girl in rural Uganda when AIDS took her parents and made her an orphan. Kevin’s aunt, Manjeli, quickly took her in and did her best to support her. They lived in Kayoro, Uganda in a mud home with a thatched roof and no running water or electricity. Kevin would occasionally…

  Emojong is 11 years old and has been in the Family To Family Sponsorship Program for about a year now. He was not originally selected to be the in the program, his younger sister was. Tragically, she was hit by a car while walking on the road to the market. She was killed instantly.…

Janet Akinyi was forced into an abusive marriage plagued by poverty at a very young age. She soon became pregnant and had to leave school. She was abused by her husband and eventually left. Janet was a new mother of three kids and had no education or job.              …

  Grace Awasa and her husband, Vincent, have 9 children ranging in ages from 20 to 6 years old. She has a tailoring business, and Vincent has a small transportation business, which likely means that he provides short rides for people on his boda boda (motorcycle) for a small fee. They work very hard each…

  Pamela and her family live in the Bison slums in Tororo, Uganda. In an 8’x9’ room, the family of 7 sleeps on the mattress on the floor. There is no electricity or running water, and there are mosquitoes and rodents. Pamela is part of the Hera Women’s Group, made up of women who fled…

  In 2016, Oburu Charles was an 8-yr-old boy living in a remote village of Kayoro, Uganda with his grandmother. He attended an under-facilitated public school, but because of an absence of food, Oburu would sometimes skip school to look for fruit along the way. Oburu is an orphan with clear physical evidence of stunted…

  Mary Alice Namono is an orphan who lost both of her parents to AIDS, Mary Alice Namono lived with her aunt in Tororo, Uganda until she forced her into an abusive marriage at age 14. Her education was abruptly stopped due to her marriage and her aunt’s inability to provide for Mary.   With…

Ochieng Samuel, a 63-year-old man from Kayoro, Uganda, arrived at the St. John’s Kayoro Health Center II (SJKHCII) in great pain—unable to walk or sit. He had large and deep wounds on his buttocks that were turning septic. He had become bedridden, bringing enormous despair to him, his family, and friends. Mr. Ochieng explained to…

  Rose was beloved—by every one of her fellow members of the Katonda Mbera group in Tororo, Uganda and by all of the Give Us Wings volunteers who had the privilege of meeting her. Her kindness, generosity and gentleness radiated from her as easily as her sweet smile. Courage came from a place deep inside…

  Michael has had neurological damage since birth.  He cannot speak, and instead screams and screeches in an effort to be heard and understood. He has difficulty going to the bathroom. Until recently, he spent much of his early childhood living in one of Africa’s worst slums imaginable—the Bison Slums in Tororo, Uganda. Sometimes Michael…

  Jacinta lives with her husband and children in Tororo, Uganda. Her incredible story of courage is best told in her own words: The day you walked into the village, I did not know what to think. No one had ever come to our place before. Give Us Wings people seemed so kind. You sat…

  Geoffrey and his family live in Kayoro, a rural area about seven miles outside of Tororo, Uganda. They are members of the small community group called Makimoth, founded with the help of Give Us Wings in 2007. A few members live in semi-permanent houses made of metal sheets, but most live in grass thatched…

  Justine and her husband were subsistence farmers when they began working with Give Us Wings. The family of 9 barely survived on the little food they were able to grow. Then her husband passed away and Justine became the sole-provider for her family. Her family desperately needed a more reliable source of income. So…

  Judith is married and has 5 children. For years, she and her husband tried desperately to provide for their family through subsistence farming. Then, in April of 2014, Judith enrolled in Give Us Wings’ Building Business for Family Sustainability (BBFS) program. She received training in business management, savings and record-keeping. With the help of…

Give Us Wings’ focuses much of our work on educating girls and young women. The rural areas of Kenya and Uganda have been decimated by the AIDs epidemic. Thousands of men and women have died from the disease leaving hundreds of thousands of orphans. Many families generously adopted orphans. Many families generously adopted orphans, but…

  The women of Ngiyo Ber are are valiant, intelligent, some serious, some funny, some shy, some not. They are the hard-working, loyal, generous, courageous, and determined. They have had to be. When Give Us Wings met the Ngiyo Ber women they lived in a slum near Tororo, Uganda. Many were farmers who had fled…

“Before Give Us Wings came we sat together for many years to comfort each other. Now we have real hope that our lives can be different. Because we are with Give Us Wings people know that we are somebody even with our disabilities.”   ~ Margaret, Member of Mari Group   We found the Maari Group…

  Fatuma, a member of the Mari Abled group, was an elderly widow who cared for many children in the village despite the past scars she experienced from leprosy. She lived in a rat-infested home for 50 years, where she had to sleep with insects and vermin. In 2012, Fatuma moved with members of the…

They have watched their husbands and daughters die from AIDS, and now they find themselves getting tested only to discover their worst nightmare is true. They are HIV positive. In a community where the stigma around HIV/AIDS is wrought with disgrace, this group finds strength in each other. “I thought I had lost everything, but…

  The members of the Victoria Young Women’s Group are between the ages of 15 and 28. All of them were forced to leave primary school before graduating from 8th grade. It is a sad fact of life in rural Kenya and Uganda that girls are frequently forced to leave school before they complete their…

When we first met the Nyaoga Women’s Group in 1999 we talked extensively with them and learned more about who they were and what they wanted for their community. The Nyaoga Women’s Group was formed in 1991 by 20 local women to improve the income, food security, and health status of the village. They were…