‘I Found Life Hard,” Uganda Nonprofit Helps Families Stick Together

Jake’s Network of Hope partners with Abide, a Uganda nonprofit, to provide cloth diaper kits to parents struggling to provide basic needs.

Monica, a 24-year-old single mother, fed her infant sugar water and black tea as a last resort – all the while wondering whether this is how raising her son would go.

“On a lucky day, well wishers from my community would give me cow’s milk for the baby,” she told Abide Family Center Uganda, a Jake’s Network of Hope partner. Monica believed that her son Henry belonged with her, the organization wrote on this Facebook post. She wanted the best for him; however needed additional support to achieve this important goal in her life. 

“I found life hard,” Monica recalls. “I used to think, is this going to be my life? Is my son going to grow up this way?”

After connecting with Abide, the organization explains what happened next:

  • Monica received formula (she still does) for her son Henry. 
  • She was enrolled into our business and parenting class where she graduated and received certificates upon graduation. 
  • After graduation, Abide worked with Monica and helped her start a second hand clothes business which is doing very well. 
  • Monica’s goal to stay with her son and be able to take care of him has been achieved.

Monica’s little boy also received cloth diapers from kits sent by Jake’s Network of Hope. 

Abide works with parents to help them achieve self sufficiency. Over 80% of the children living in orphanages in Uganda have at least one living parent, being raised away from their families because of poverty, not because they are unloved or unwanted. 

Our cloth diaper kits provide an additional resource so that more parents like Monica can afford to better their situation and take care of their children. It won’t be long before another mom like Monica walks through their door, and we need your help.