The great truth in this world is that most people are looking for the same things. Health, happiness, and a better life for themselves and their families. Grace is no different. Grace lives in Anywang Village, Uganda with her five children, and she works hard every day with the dream of paying for their schooling so they can live better lives. Unfortunately, Grace and her husband are both HIV positive. For them, the diagnosis makes it hard to get help from the community due to the many stigmas still associated with the disease. These vulnerable families are the people that THRIVE looks to help most.
THRIVE has helped Grace learn important income generating skills such as gardening, masonry, and raising pigs. Not only will these new skills help her make money now, but the benefits are already being passed down to the next generation. Grace’s children work in the garden with her, and at a young age already know how to cultivate the crops, and help her create bricks for sale. With these skills, her children will grow up with the ability to support themselves and their communities.
Grace describes her experience with THRIVE in her own words: “I am very happy and proud of THRIVE as an organization that help the vulnerable people in the community, sometimes we do not desire to be like we are, but we just find ourselves in this kind of situation…”
Grace has gained the skills she has learned to help others in her community. She has benefitted from participation in one of the 10 THRIVE Ecoomic Empowerment Group. She explains: “The most important is the ideas I get during sharing with my group members make me forget that I even have any problem. THRIVE again Identified two of us and trained us as peer counselors, now am counseling my colleague. My life has greatly changed.”
This is just one story of success and growth that THRIVEGulu has contributed to in Uganda. People like Grace are looking for ways to better their world, and all they need is a little bit of help. THRIVE Gulu needs your support to keep creating and expanding programs that can help communities like Anywang Village and families in situations like Grace’s all over Uganda.
By Dora
