A New Song International turned ONE this month!!! Can you believe it?!?
God has been incredibly gracious to us this past year! And we are beyond thankful to those of you who have caught our vision and have entrusted us with your resources to do the work God has called us to. Together, we have made an incredible impact on the children of Happy Times!
I returned from my last trip to Uganda three weeks ago, and I cannot even begin to tell you how incredible it is to see the children smile and laugh and dance freely as children do when their most basic needs are being met. Eight months ago, these children’s lives were merely being sustained with porridge a few times a day, but thanks to support through our child sponsorship program and other donations, they now receive three to four balanced nutritious meals every day.
Sponsorships, coupled with other donations that have come in, have also allowed us to retain staff and pay them consistently every month. These are our teachers who educate the children, our “mothers” who hold and love and bath and feed the little ones, our dorm “mothers” who care for the older children, our social worker who works unceasingly to ensure each of our children receive the services they need to heal from their past and thrive, our headteacher who ensures our students receive a level of education that leads them toward success, our cook, our security officer, and others.
The generosity of our donors has allowed us to purchase land to increase the size of Happy Times’ campus that will be used to improve living conditions and implement better programs and services provided at Happy Times. And they have also allowed us the ability to launch our first sustainability project, Happy Times Farm, with the purchase of our first five acres of land. This land is being seeded and planted with beans, maize (corn), cassava, and banana trees as I write this and will be cultivated to feed the children and staff of Happy Times.
We have come a long way, thanks to the generosity of those who support our mission, and all we can do is humbly thank each and every one of you for every dollar you have entrusted to us. We know there are many things you can do with your resources. There are many great organizations out there who do good work. But we are thankful you have chosen to partner with us as we partner with Jesus to transform the lives of these incredible children. We are beyond grateful to you, and we hope that you’ll stick with us!
We truly have made an incredible difference in these children’s lives, but we still have a long way to go.
There are still so many needs! The living conditions of the children and staff are in desperate need of improvement. Many children share small beds due to the growing population. Staff are not paid enough to live elsewhere and their quarters are quite simply deplorable. Our staff to child ratio is not where it should be. We need more “mothers,” more teachers, another security officer, and another social worker to work toward getting children back in families through reunification or local foster care or local adoption. But before we tackle all that, we must first address the fact that Happy Times is still not completely food and salary safe, as they like to call it. We’re getting there, and we’re certainly working toward that end with Happy Times Farm and our sponsorship program, but we’re not there yet.
And so I’d like to say, if you currently sponsor a child through ANSI, thank you! We know this can be a big commitment, but what you do makes a difference. At this early point in our ministry, our sponsorship program is our only reliable source of income we have each month to care for the children of Happy Times. Your monthly support, coupled with that of our other sponsors and donors, has allowed us to make significant changes to these children’s lives through nutrition, education, and their continued care from their teachers and “mothers,” as mentioned above. And if you don’t sponsor a child, please consider doing so on our Sponsor a Child page. Or if you’d rather, you’re certainly welcome to set up a reoccurring donation of any amount, big or small, on our GIVE page.
And help us spread the word! Tell others about what we do! Share our mission and vision on social media or over dinner with your friend and family.
If there’s one thing we know, it is this––we cannot do this without people like you. Jesus has given us a big vision for Happy Times, which I’ll share more about in the coming weeks and months, and our vision will not come to fruition without many coming together to see it through. We need you.
Together, we can make a difference.
