Your support is needed for our Children's Festival

HOPE Children's Foundation Africa (HCFA) is pleased to inform our donors and well wishers about the opportunity we have from Children's World International (CWI) a UK charity which has given a one month tour to HCFA in Uganda to provide a children's festival with the aim of providing educational, social and emotional benefits to all children, especially those most in need, both in and out of school periods. At the moment we have time for this CWI tour from October 13th to November 11th, 2010.

2 shows a day will be performed over 20 days, for a total of 40 shows. The shows have been organized and scheduled by HCFA in collaboration with local schools and community groups in Kampala, Mukono, Jinja, Kireka and Wakiso districts. For a look at one of their shows, see the video below from their tour of Sumatra in 2008 for kids affected by the tsunami.

HCFA being the organiser of this wonderful festival, we have the number of local community projects and schools we collaborated with all over Uganda who are excited and happy to have this opportunity for the CWI team to perform at their projects. CWI will be sending a team of 4 people who need to be collected from the Airport and also require adequate transport for the team & their equipment/luggage to visit the places they will be performing at. So we added a need on our betterplace page about the need for the Van (which we are planning to rent) , therefore HCFA asks everyone to help us fulfill this need so we are able to make this Festival happen which is going to bring change to Uganda's children/youth and everyone in our community. "With your help, we shall make it happen".

Thanks to our latest donors!

Everyone at HCFA wishes to thank all of our donors, and all of the organizations that have recently partnered with us to help our community.

We are pleased to be working with:

- Paper For All (www.paper4all.org)

- To Love a Child (www.toloveachild.net)

- The International Book Project and Books as Bridges (http://www.intlbookproject.org/books/)

We are also very pleased to report that, having received some generous donations, we have been able to distribute some blankets, mosquito nets, and school supplies to some local children. You can read an excellent account of our most recent distribution at:

http://hcfa.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/an-indelible-gesture/

This was written by Giles who was volunteering with us at the time, and we thank him (and the other volunteers who have come to work with us) for their time, ideas and helpfulness.

From eveyone at HCFA.

Thank you for the goats!

We were very grateful to receive the donations that allowed us to purchase 7 goats and distribute them to some of the needy families in our community! With the income generated by breeding these goats, many children will now be able to afford to attend school. We thank everyone for the help they have given to our community and look forward to being able to provide more goats in the future!

Video of the children's reaction to an English Acc

This video was taken at one of our Community Seminars being held at a local school.

Everyone introduced themselves, including Steve who is visiting from England. The children were a bit surprised by his accent!

Goats - a simple, effective way of providing an in

Modeled on several successful projects in other local communities, our Goat Project aims to provide one goat to each needy child. The key to the success of this venture is that the children who receive a goat will each give back its first female offspring to HCFA. We will then be able to provide that goat to another child and the project is then sustained by the children themselves.

The goats will provide milk for the families, and their future offspring can be sold for income that will pay for the child's schooling for a year. HCFA will provide instruction to the children on caring for their goats, and eventually plans to train some community members on Animal Health Care to give them a skill that both helps the project and can provide them an income.

For 180.00 Euro, we can buy 6 goats, provide their initial vaccinations and a supply of food! One goat can produce up to about 16 babies over the years and the income from that can make a tremendous difference in the lives of the children. Goats are relatively hardy and easy to care for and for such a low initial investment, can provide so much HOPE to so many children.

We are looking forward to posting pictures of the goats as we present them to the children!