MC Sponsor Mark Wagner, visited the Child Mothers’ Village of Hope this summer in Gulu, Uganda, and now we have this video to share with you! Check it out!

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Sara (on left, one of our partners in Uganda) and MC Events Coordinator Marisa Van Houten (center) with other team members from Midtown Fellowship at Village of Hope
On a recent visit to the Village of Hope in Gulu, Uganda, one of the MC trip teams learned about a game called “netball.” This photo was taken right before the team played a game of netball with the Child Mothers who live at Village of Hope!

Netball is similar to basketball and is a popular game at Village of Hope to help build community among those living there. Sports can be the universal language!

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Our Mocha Club Events Coordinator, Marisa Van Houten, had the chance to visit Village of Hope in July. We wanted to share some photos she took at the AWACH IDP camp outside Gulu.

Several of the Child Mothers from Village of Hope who are being rehabilitated are now helping serve and lead clubs for other Child Mothers at local IDP camps in Gulu! Here are some photos…

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Are you a leader on your college campus…in your church…at your high school? Mocha Club is about to launch out a new initiative called Make Change that will equip YOU to activate your community by running a campaign to provide aid to millions suffering in Africa.

What is a campaign, you ask? It’s you using your VOICE and your LEADERSHIP to call others to come together and make change. You have the ability to engage your community to be a part of something bigger than themselves and make a huge difference! An initiative of African Leadership and the Mocha Club, a Make Change campaign is based on the premise that a little help goes a long way…and YOU have the power to influence your community to learn…to act…to give…to make change.

Just like in Mocha Club, you can decide on a specific project that gets you excited…like building clean water wells in Darfur, Sudan, or sending kids to school in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, or supporting Child Mothers at the Village of Hope in Gulu, Uganda. As you continue to read and learn about the different areas of injustice all over Africa, try and notice what gets you the most fired up—that’s where your voice and your influence will be the most effective! Once you decide on the project area you think others would get excited about helping with, we can get you materials and resources to run a campaign – which can be one night, one week, one semester, or one year!

Mocha Club is all about creating community, connection, and a long-term commitment to give, while Make Change offers a short-term way for others to get involved by giving their time and their money through a campaign.

If this sounds like something you would want to be a part of, email us at makechange@mochaclub.org. And look for the launch of our site in the coming month. It’s time to Make Change for our friends in Africa.

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Mark and Gasper (I didn’t know he smiled till I saw the picture)

The boy never said a word. For three hours we sat and played and enjoyed the company of 60 children at the Home of Love in Gulu, Uganda. And still after three hours, not a word. The expression on his face was one of defeat, a look that says, “I don’t know how to be a kid.” Gasper is five years old and lives at the Home of Love. His story is not a unique one. Many of the children there have experienced some type of abuse and abandonment. But there is hope.

My friend Missy from Mocha Club asked me to paint a picture for you of what my time in Africa was like. I thought of only two words: Desperation and Hope. For the first time in my life I was face-to-face, hand-in-hand with real people who are truly desperate for hope. My friends in Gulu, Uganda have walked through desolation and destruction, and they have been living in a country ravaged by war for more than thirty years. The consequences of this war for many of these people have been loss of loved ones, displacement and poverty. Most of all, many of our brothers and sisters in Africa have lost their hope.

Twenty minutes outside of the town of Gulu there is a village. In this village, more than 500 women, former sex slaves of the L.R.A. (Lord’s Resistance Army) Officers, have come to live in peace. They arrive with their children in arms, broken and devastated from years in captivity, seeking refuge from a life they did not choose. Here, they find shelter and security. They are educated, counseled and equipped to eventually begin a new life for themselves and for their children. Their lives have been restored thanks to you and your support of the Village of Hope.

My friend Gasper never spoke. He only stared. Slowly and quietly he explored my face and my hands. I imagine he was wondering why this big white dude was hanging out at his home in Gulu. At that moment, I was thankful for my hands that held him and offered him the reassurance that someone cares. I was thankful for the chance to offer hope.

Mark playing for the child mothers at Village of Hope
Editor’s Note: Mark Wagner is one of our MC Artist Sponsors who traveled to Gulu, Uganda in June 2008 to visit Village of Hope, a safe community that Mocha Club helped build where nearly 500 “child mothers” can live with shelter, a job training center, a medical facility, and a school for their children. These young women are called “child mothers” because they were only children themselves when they were abducted, trained as fighters, and given as sex slaves to rebel soldiers in the LRA, a rebel paramilitary group in Northern Uganda. “Homes of Love” are the homes for the orphans in the area. Each home consists of a number of children with a house mother.

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Thank you for helping us change lives of the “child mothers” and children at Village of Hope in Northern Uganda…

This little boy named “Second” lives at Village of Hope. The photo below was taken the first month he arrived…

When he first came to Village of Hope, he would not smile, could not stand or walk, and didn’t like to eat. He was born in captivity by an abducted mother who was later killed. Lucy, the head matron, has cared for him all these years (she is his “mama”). Lucy started by carrying him everywhere, loving him, and praying for him, and he slowly started blooming into such a special little boy.

Today, four years later, Second has had surgery on his leg and will be due for another one to finish straightening his foot. He is in K-3 and will be in Primary School next year. He is full of energy and love for everyone. He is one of the first children to help a new child that comes to the home. God’s love given daily in the form of loving care, good food, proper medical treatments, laughter and hugs do make a difference. Here is Second today…



Thank you for praying for Village of Hope and for the 60 children living there now.

————— What is a “Child Mother”?
These young women are called “child mothers” because they were only children themselves when they were abducted, trained as fighters, and given as sex slaves to rebel soldiers in the “Lord’s Resistance Army,” a rebel paramilitary group in Northern Uganda. Now that they have escaped or been excused as expendable, the community at large rejects them and their children.

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Here are links to the latest updates on the delay in signing the peace agreement in Uganda. Please pray that this agreement would be signed and a lasting peace would come to Uganda.

>> Uganda Rebels Delay Peace Signing

>> Ugandan Negotiators Leave Venue

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See how Mocha Club Artist Sponsor, Matt Wertz, is reminded of how his $7 a month makes a difference in Africa!

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Here’s an update from Village of Hope, which you helped us build in Gulu, Uganda for child mothers and their babies. Thank you for serving them with us!

Evelyn’s Bullet Removal Head Surgery
Evelyn is a child mother with AIDS. But to add to her trials in life, she was shot up during cross-fire between the Government army and the LRA rebels as they were trying to rescue. On February 21st, she had surgery to remove the 2 bullets that were starting to come to the surface of the top of her head. She removed her scarf and the sight of those bullets emerging and the scars were horrendous. Still, with all of the tragedies in her life, Evelyn is known at Village of Hope for her smile. She chose to follow Christ at the Village of Hope ministry program several months ago. Jesus gave her the peace and a joy that caused that smile. Please pray for Evelyn’s recovery. Our partners at Village of Hope are also going to sponsor her children in school. Pray for sponsors and that she is well enough to join in the child mother program of Adult Education/Bible Class and Skill Training restarting in March.

New Container Office Arrives!
Who knew an entire office could fit in a traveling container? Recently, a container finally made it to Village of Hope in Gulu, Uganda to function as the new Nursery School office! We heard it was not an easy unload, but we thank God for its amazing, safe arrival! (We are working on getting some photos to show you!)

What is a “Child Mother”?
These young women are called “child mothers” because they were only children themselves when they were abducted, trained as fighters, and given as sex slaves to rebel soldiers in the “Lord’s Resistance Army,” a rebel paramilitary group in Northern Uganda. Now that they have escaped or been excused as expendable, the community at large rejects them and their children.

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Things are going well at the Village of Hope, which you have helped us build in Gulu, Uganda! We wanted to give you an update on life there and the progress of the peace talks, as this affects all of the mothers and children you are serving at Village of Hope…

PRAY FOR WAR TO STOP
Peace talks have been resumed and the war has been extended until March. You can only imagine how unnerving this is for the people of Northern Uganda, never knowing. People are so tired of it all, of being displaced, of their children still in captivity, of not knowing when to be able to move back, and they all know that this is a political and money grafting situation. In the meantime our Ugandan troops are sent to Somalia to aid in their war. Pray much! Many Ugandans also have been killed in the Kenya warfare. We all are affected by that violent-tribal civil war.

RWANDAN MISSIONARY
A precious young girl, Aimee, from Rwanda who is finishing up her Masters in Christian Psychology stayed at Village of Hope recently. She who went through the genocide and God miraculously spared her family. Hearing of that horror afresh, just makes us desire to cry out to God to come and intervene, now here in Uganda and in Kenya. Aimee has a real desire to return several more times and then upon her graduation in May 09 to return full time as a missionary in Gulu.

PEACE TALKS
To update you on the progress of peace talks in Uganda…“The government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have resumed talks aimed at ending the 22-year conflict in northern Uganda and agreed to extend by a month the cessation of hostilities deal signed in August 2007…” READ MORE…

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