Welcome to Volume 1 of the JustCause Journal! Along with our social media pages, it is here that we plan to give monthly updates on what we are up to and inform you on the projects that lie ahead. Read on in this first edition to see the impact you made on our first trip to Uganda and how you can help support our next project!
From the bottom of our hearts at JustCause, we want to thank you. Your generous support through donations and prayer gave us the opportunity to go to Uganda, teach and train a team of Ugandan men how to build an OASIS (Off grid Agricultural and Sanitation Integrated System), and change their village forever. It was a very successful first trip and we are grateful to you for making it happen.
It was February 6th when we arrived in a small village of Soroti, Uganda at Life Renewal Ministries. We were greeted by joyful cheers, happy dances, and flower petals thrown about. We got out of the van and were immediately lifted onto the shoulders of villagers and escorted to a decorated arbor drawn with ribbon. “What on earth?” we thought to ourselves. “These people care this much that we are here?” The answer was YES. The villagers described our arrival as “an early Christmas.” A full on celebration took place after the ribbon was cut and we were taken with emotion knowing how meaningful our work would be in the days, weeks, and months ahead. The men learned a lot from us in the form of metalworking and vocational skills, but we learned equally as much from them in the form of love, gratitude, and joyfulness. Truly a life changing experience we hope to keep chasing. Check out the photo gallery here for more content of our time in Soroti.
A letter from one of our Ugandan Team Members, Ray-Ray, describing how much the support from JustCause has changed his life.
Before we went to Uganda, we envisioned the OASIS being the most important thing we would do through JustCause, but we quickly realized how impactful teaching and training of vocational skills to the Ugandan team really was. During the course of our stay, this became our bigger focus. Build an OASIS, but pour deeper into these men the knowledge and skills of which we have brought. As it turns out, COVID has brought significant challenges for our next project, but because of our focused energy on training, we have an existing team of Ugandan staff and volunteers able and ready to pursue our next project while we support them remotely.
With that being said, we are excited to announce the beginnings of our next project. Our team in Soroti has identified a perfect community for the next OASIS to serve. Trinity Secondary School is right outside of Soroti and serves over 600 students on a daily basis. They currently lack proper sanitation facilities and only have one well on site which also serves the surrounding community. Wait times of nearly two hours are seen regularly to fill a couple of Jerry Cans (5 gallons each). We plan to kick off a fundraising campaign in the coming months to raise enough money to build not one OASIS, but two and dig a new well for the school. Our hope is that you come alongside us to help change the realities within this community for years to come. Check out the detailed field report from Pastor Joseph and his team about Trinity and why they found it to be a good match. Stay tuned for updates about our upcoming fundraising efforts and more details about our next project.
With love and gratitude,
The JustCause Team
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