ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD This June, Watoto held a big party to celebrate 20 years of Watoto Child Care Ministries. Thousands of people including many of our global friends joined in on the anniversary activities in Uganda. For the past 20 years, Watoto has rescued and raised more than 4000 children in Africa (3000 in current carfe). During the same week, Baby Watoto rescued its 1,000th baby. We are greatfull to God for His never ending mercy. The Watoto Children’s Choir opened up the celebrations with an epic “Beautiful Africa“
performance, a song loved by many. Restore Tour; “Child Soldier No More” a production that depicted the plight of people in northern Uganda during the LRA war and mainly consisted of former child soldiers, left many in tears. The choir also had the honor of performing alongside grammy award-winning artist Israel Houghton, the guest artist of the night. During the same week, several people were able to visit Watoto’s Suubi village and other Watoto sustainability projects such as the poultry and vegetable farms.
During the vision tour, Watoto founder Marilyn Skinner, recognized Watoto mums who have served for over 19 years, for their faithful service in helping raise and nurture Watoto children. We were honored that many of our partners, friends and sponsors all over the world managed to come to Uganda for the celebrations. We give all the glory and honour to the one amazing God who has brought us this far.
WATOTO AUSTRALIA • PO BOX 782 • SPRINGWOOD QLD 4127 (07) 3208 3500 • AUSTRALIA@WATOTO.COM
HOPE REGAINED Pregnant with her fifth child, Mercy joined the queue of expectant mothers waiting to sign up for prenatal treatment at the busy maternity unit. After three hours of waiting for her HIV test results, she was led into a small room where she was told by a nurse that she was HIV positive. A wave of emotions broke over Mercy. She was shocked, afraid and angry. She was told by the nurse that with treatment she would be fine and transmission of HIV to her child would be prevented. Unfortunately, a year after their son’s birth, her husband died and Mercy’s health deteriorated, requiring her to spend some time in hospital. Her siblings, who
A SOURCE OF JOY Watoto’s new gift pool policy was introduced in October 2012. It replaced a policy where beneficiaries directly received
looked after her children while she was away, said they would evict her children if she died. Mercy cried as she realized that she was the only person her children had left. If anything happened to her, there would be no one to care for them. This ignited something within her. She drew from inside her the strength to carry on. Life was hard but with her basic skills in tailoring, she managed to keep herself and her children alive. The children had to drop out of school and the family sometimes could only afford one meal a day, but she never gave up. Mercy came to Living Hope in 2008. Here she improved her tailoring skills and learned how to save some of her earnings. Today
gifts from their sponsors. Unfortunately, not every child would recieve a gift and this caused some children to feel unloved or not thought of by their sponsor. As a result, It was decided that parcels or gift items
Mercy works as a trainer in our Kampala workshop and is able to send all her children to school. She is able to send all her children to school too. Her desire is to build a home for her children, to ensure that they have a place that belongs to them, a place from which no one can chase them away. This year, she opened her second bank account and is well on the way to saving the money she needs to buy a plot of land and build her own home. Thank you for partnering with us and helping us empower women like Mercy. Encourage your friends to do the same. www.watoto.com/livinghope
received from donors and sponsors would be inventoried and distributed to each Watoto village. These gifts are now given on special occasions such as birthdays. The day of the gift distribution is a special day that all children and mothers look forward to. The whole village is filled with excitement as people look forward to receiving a gift. “The gift pool policy is a great idea because it makes all the children and mothers feel loved and valued,”mum Sarah Nalweyiso says. In the month of April, several Children received their birthday gifts. “I love cooking, so this is a perfect gift. The book will help me learn new recipes and also help me improve on my cooking skills,” said 15-year-old Amelia. Fiveyear-old David was excited about his drawing board. “I will use it to draw cartoons,” he said. Thank you to all our sponsors who have adhered to the new policy. www.watoto.com/Sponsorshipwww. watoto.com/sponsorship
WATOTO SPONSOR LOUISE HAYES HAS WON A TRIP TO UGANDA! In January 2014 Watoto Australia launched an incredible competition to give one of our amazing, dedicated sponsors the opportunity to WIN A TRIP to Uganda on our Trip of a Lifetime sponsorship team. To win, one of our Watoto sponsors simply had to encourage 4 or more people to sign up to sponsor with Watoto and they would go in the draw. To assist people in raising awareness about Watoto and sponsorship, we supplied everyone on our database with a ‘Watoto passport’, which included information about Baby Watoto, Living Hope, and child and mother sponsorship. Our hope and prayer was that people would use this resource to communicate with others about the incredible work Watoto is doing and the amazing difference sponsorship is making in the lives of vulnerable women and children in Uganda. Louise was so excited when she learned about this opportunity. This will be her first time in Uganda and we can’t wait to hear all about it in the New Year.
CHOIR 66 IS LOVING AUSTRALIA It has been a busy start to the Choir 66 tour. 22 adorable Watoto Children and the 10 adults who care for them landed in Brisbane, Australia on May 11th where they had a week of training before commencing their tour on the Gold Coast. The beginning of their tour has consisted of wonderful performances, the Watoto children’s FIRST trip to the beach and media engagements including filming for ABC News and being interviewed live on Vision FM’s breakfast show. This has been a fun and exciting time for the children and adults alike with many firsts for the children including their first trip on the plane and pizza. Choir 66 will be touring Australia and New Zealand presenting Concerts of Hope until the end of September 2014. They will be visiting Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the North Island of New Zealand. “Through the choir’s Concert of Hope, we share a message of transformation by telling the story of Africa’s rescued orphans and women,” says Gary Skinner, Watoto founder. Since 1994 when a Watoto Children’s Choir toured internationally for the very first time, 66 choirs have travelled; including the one
currently touring Australia. This has given over 1,200 children the chance to tour providing them with a bigger worldview and an opportunity that most would otherwise never get. For your opportunity to meet Choir 66 and see them in concert at a venue near you, visit www.watoto.com/the-choir/see-the-choir.
If you are interested in hosting a performance, contact Kerri-Ann at choirau@watoto.com or 07 3208 3500. Follow along behind the scenes with choir 66 by subscribing to the blog at www.watotochoirs.wordpress.com and make sure you stay in touch with Watoto Australia on social media for all the latest updates. Please remember Choir 66 and the Watoto team in your prayers as they continue this amazing journey.
SPONSOR BABY WATOTO TODAY Baby Watoto exists to provide quality care, love and stimulation to the most vulnerable babies and toddlers in Africa. This foundation is a vital part of the overall mission of Watoto, to rescue the most vulnerable, raise them, and help them to become Africa’s future leaders. Partner with us by sponsoring Baby Watoto at www.watoto.com/sponsorship
WATOTO AUSTRALIA PO BOX 782 SPRINGWOOD, QLD 4127 (07) 3208 3500 AUSTRALIA@WATOTO.COM
Watoto Child Care Ministries (Australia) is proud to be a partner for Projects J210, J329, J416 with Global Development Group, the AusAID approved NGO responsible for the aid & development projects according to AusAID guidelines.