admin — Hope Ofiriha

We’ve Reached $50,000 in GlobalGiving Donations

I’ve got great news to share! Today, thanks to our generous donors, we reached $50,000 in GlobalGiving donations, more than $32,000 of it this year. GlobalGiving has given us an invaluable boost at a time when many of our regular donors are cutting back due to the global recession. Thank you Global Giving! Thank you Hope Ofiriha supporters! Thank you donors! As you may recall, last July GlobalGiving’s participated in (or turbo charged) our rally to throw a baby shower for our Onura clinic in South… Read More

October 21, 2011 by admin Tags: charity, donations, globalgiving, onura, south sudan

Lee Ben Ibo Has Found a Sponsor!

Lee Ben, the child of South Sudanese refugees, lives in Uganda with his grandmother. When his father disappeared in 2008, his mother began working three jobs to support her two children—as a night watchman at an industrial area, boda-boda (bicycle taxi driver), and gardener. She is currently attending a training program away from home to become a tailor. When she is done, she plans to open a tailor shop, so she can better support her children… Read More

July 14, 2011 by admin Tags: education, poverty, refugees, school, south sudanese, uganda

Help Educate & Feed a Malnourished Child

Brian Lobene is the fifth in a family of five children. His refugee parents are too poor to pay for nutritious food for their five children, let alone school fees. Brian’s hungry stomach is bloated, the telltale sign of malnutrition in children. His parents move from place to place around Kampala begging for employment, but it is nearly impossible for uneducated refugees to find a good one. Please sponsor him, so he can go to boarding school, have regular nutritious meals, and escape a lifetime of poverty… Read More

July 14, 2011 by admin Tags: education, poverty, refugees, school, south sudanese, uganda

Christine Anyero Has Found a Sponsor!

Christine’s parents are South Sudanese refugees who fled to Uganda in 1997 to escape the civil war. The family settled in Nakawa Acholi, a slum in the outskirts of Kampala. Although, Christine, and her six siblings have been living with their parents, it was their aunt who was the family breadwinner until her death in May 2011. As largely uneducated refugees, both of her parents have had a hard time finding descent work. Right now, her elderly and frail father… Read More

July 14, 2011 by admin Tags: education, poverty, refugees, school, south sudanese, uganda

Provide Hope to a Hungry & Homeless Child

When Annet’s father died in a LRA attacked in 2002, her mother supported her 10 children selling local breweries and bananas from land a kind Ugandan let them use. This good Samaritan died last year, however, and the family could no longer harvest and sell bananas. On March 30, they were evicted from the home they had been living in since 1997 because they had not paid rent in several months. Annet and her siblings are no longer attending school because… Read More

July 5, 2011 by admin Tags: education, poverty, refugees, school, south sudanese, uganda

Polly Amitto Has Found a Sponsor!

After both of her parents died, Polly and her two younger brothers and three younger sisters went to live in the Kakira slum outside of Kampala, Uganda. No family or friends stepped forward to care for the children. The children started a hair salon to generate income for school fees, house rent, and food. They didn’t have enough resources and training, however, to compete with other salons, so their business went under and they ended up homeless and hungry… Read More

June 30, 2011 by admin Tags: education, poverty, refugees, school, south sudanese, uganda

Celebrating Norway’s Constitution: Happy May 17!

Each year on May 17 Norwegians fill the streets with cheers and flags in celebration of Norway’s constitution, adopted in 1814. It sometimes happens that foreigners inadvertently walk out of Oslo’s main railway station and stumble into the capital city’s May 17 parade. Either they then join in, or they run for cover and exit the country muttering about total chauvinistic madness. There may well be an element of madness about Norway’s May 17th celebrations, everything being relative. The event commemorates the Norwegian Constitution, signed… Read More

May 17, 2011 by admin Tags: constitution, holidays, may 17th, norway, south sudan

Mathew Hobbe Has Found a Sponsor!

Mathew needs your love and support to gain access to basic things, such as shoes, a bed with sheets and blankets, and an education. He lives with his mother and grandmother in the slum of Kajansjji, an outskirt of Kampala, Uganda, and will never attend school without finding a sponsor. Mathew’s father has been unable to find work locally and moved out of the area to work, when he can find it, on construction sites. Mathew’s grandmother and mother… Read More

February 9, 2011 by admin Tags: education, poverty, refugees, school, south sudanese, uganda

Educate Children and Fight Poverty

Since the signing of the peace agreement in 2005, Omilling village has seen an influx of returning refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), including hundreds of war orphans and former child soldiers. The only school the village has to serve several thousand elementary-aged students is a small two-room temporary shack made out of twigs. The shack, used for early elementary, has no text books and no pit latrines (giving the school grounds an unpleasant odor)… Read More

November 15, 2010 by admin Tags: children, omilling, sudan

Stop Childbirth from Being a Death Sentence

The maternal mortality rate in South Sudan is one of the highest in the world. An absence of trained healthcare staff, structures, and paved roads means the small, rustic maternity clinic Hope Ofiriha runs in the Onura settlement is the only medical facility about 3,500 area women can turn to give birth. The clinic isn’t fully equipped to handle deliveries, so many mothers needlessly die giving birth. Our Onura Maternal Survival Project pays for sterile supplies… Read More

November 14, 2010 by admin Tags: clinic, maternal mortality, onura, sudan

Provide a Village with Drinking Water

While water has always been a problem in Onura, the drought (affecting more than 20 million people across east Africa) has created a crisis. Villagers, mostly women and girls, must walk many kilometers every single day to collect every drop. This prevents many girls from going to school and many women from having enough time to earn a decent living. Most of the water they collect—from stagnant ponds, marshes, or ditches—is contaminated with parasites and bacteria… Read More

November 13, 2010 by admin Tags: hand pump, onura, sudan, water, well

Provide Lifesaving Healthcare and Medicines

The consequences of insufficient healthcare in South Sudan are dire. The region’s neonatal, infant, child, and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world, and the average life expectancy is only 42 years old. Routine health issues, such as diarrhea, pregnancy, and puncture wounds, can be a death sentence. Omilling, where Hope Ofiriha’s Loheru Health Post is located, faces the added burden of having one of the worst HIV-AIDS concentrations in South Sudan… Read More

November 12, 2010 by admin Tags: medicine, omilling, sudan

Combat Malnutrition with Beekeeping

Many women in the remote village of Onura are single mothers supporting three or more children—their own off-spring, the children of relatives, war orphans, or children separated from their families. Many of these children, like half of children in the area, suffer from malnutrition. Beekeeping is a relatively cheap business for women to run to earn income to feed their families. Bees find their own food (while helping fertilize crops and without over grazing or contributing to deforestation)… Read More

November 11, 2010 by admin Tags: beekeeping, bees, honey, onura, sudan

Keep Impoverished Refugees in School

South Sudanese refugee children in Uganda

Our Uganda Education Project sends South Sudanese refugee children living in slums on the outskirt of Kampala city to school. Not only does the project pay their school fees and buy them school uniforms and books, it ensures the children are fed, clothed, and have access to medical care. The project is similar to our direct child sponsorship program, except it pools donations, allowing donors to give once or now and then without making a commitment. In 2010… Read More

November 10, 2010 by admin Tags: refugees, school, sudanese, uganda

Stop Cookstoves from Polluting and Killing

Virtually everyone in the remote village of Onura uses wood to cook over traditional cookstoves. This means villagers, largely women and girls, have to spend hours foraging for fuel and hours inhaling the toxic smoke from the fires (often with infant babies strapped to their backs). The toxins in smoke cause serious respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia, emphysema, lung cancer, and bronchitis. At the same time, cutting down trees for fuel woods is contributing… Read More

November 9, 2010 by admin Tags: climate change, cookstoves, deforestation, onura, sudan

Invest in Microloans for Women Refugees

Microloan recipient selling her goods at the market

Many South Sudanese women living as squatters in slums in the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda, are single mothers supporting three or more children—their own off-spring, the children of relatives, war orphans, or children separated from their families. Because jobs for unskilled and uneducated refugees are scarce, their best hope for supporting their families is creating and operating their own tiny enterprise. Without assets and referrals, however, these women cannot… Read More

November 8, 2010 by admin Tags: sudanese, uganda, women, womens groups

Provide Better Blocks for Reconstruction

War-ravaged Magwi County is in dire need of permanent homes for the 100,000 refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) flooding the area. Building materials are in short supply, however, and people are cutting down trees at an alarming rate. Severe deforestation (Sudan has one of the worst deforestation problems in the world) results in soil erosion, declining agricultural productivity, and contributes to climate change worldwide. Blocks are a better choice, but… Read More

November 7, 2010 by admin Tags: deforestation, omilling, soil blocks, sudan

Bring Hope to a Destitude Family

Hope Ofiriha hopes to expand our reach and help women and children from South Sudan rebuild their lives in Omdurman. As a pilot project, we are helping a family of six: Ms. Alia, a divorced mother; her four children; and her elderly mother. The family was left destitute after Ms. Alia’s husband divorced her and refused to pay child support. As a divorced woman, she is shunned by her community, and Sudan has no social services to help her and her children… Read More

November 6, 2010 by admin Tags: children, omdurman, school, sudan

Build a Classroom for Vulnerable Children

Since the signing of the peace agreement in 2005, the remote Onura settlement has seen an influx of returning refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), including more than a hundred war orphans and former child soldiers. Thanks to Hope Ofiriha’s generous donors, the two-classroom Onura Primary School opened in the settlement in 2006 to serve 72 students. Since then, the school has grown to more than 350 students (150 girls and 200 boys), forcing some classes… Read More

November 6, 2010 by admin Tags: children, onura, sudan

Prevent HIV-AIDS through Awareness

During the civil war, rebels frequently stormed area settlements in the dead of night and gang-raped women, sometimes infecting them with HIV-AIDS. When thousands of refugees flooded Omilling after the peace agreement was signed in 2005, many of them brought HIV-AIDS with them too. Today, between 20 and 40 percent of people in Omilling settlements test positive for HIV-AIDS compared to 2 percent in Sudan as a whole. The HIV-AIDS epidemic is devastating the war-ravaged… Read More

November 6, 2010 by admin Tags: aids, hiv, hiv-aids, omilling, sudan

Give Fresh Fruit and a Greener Environment

Forests are being cleared in Sudan at an alarming rate, creating one of the worst deforestation crises in the world. Deforestation is eroding soil, reducing agricultural productivity and biodiversity, making local climates drier, contributing to climate change worldwide, and fueling conflict over dwindling usable land. In Magwi County, trees are being cut down for building materials; to make room for farmland; or for fuel wood for cooking, drying tobacco, and firing blocks for reconstruction… Read More

November 6, 2010 by admin Tags: biodiversity, conservation, deforestation, sudan

Reduce Hunger and Women’s Workloads

One of the foods people in South Sudan eat almost every day is a porridge type dish made out of ground maize. Before it can be made, maize kernels have to be cut off cobs and then ground into a smooth powder. In Omilling, women do all this work by hand. For the grinding, they must squat on their knees for hours, hurting their back and joints. This laborious work takes several months to complete after each maize harvest. Sometimes, families go hungry when women’s… Read More

November 4, 2010 by admin Tags: grinding mill, hunger, maize, omilling, sudan

Save People from Dying from Malaria

Malaria, spread from the bite of an infected female mosquito, is epidemic all over South Sudan. The two health clinics Hope Ofiriha operates in Omilling and Onura do not have any equipment to test for it. When patients come to the clinics with malaria-like symptoms, they get treated for malaria. If they are sick for another reason, the misdiagnosis can cost them their life. The misdiagnosis also contributes to the spread of drug resistance and unnecessary antimalarial… Read More

October 31, 2010 by admin Tags: malaria, microscope, mosquito nets, omilling, onura, sudan

Stop Poverty from Forcing Kids Out of School

Since the signing of the peace agreement in 2005, Omilling village has seen an influx of returning refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Most of them are women and children, and most “families” are single mothers caring for three or more children—their own off-spring, the children of relatives, war orphans, or children separated from their families. Many of these children never step foot in a school, practically guaranteeing a life-long cycle of poverty… Read More

October 30, 2010 by admin Tags: children, omilling, pigs, school

We’ve Reached $50,000 in GlobalGiving Donations

Help Educate & Feed a Malnourished Child

Celebrating Norway’s Constitution: Happy May 17!

Educate Children and Fight Poverty

Stop Childbirth from Being a Death Sentence

Provide a Village with Drinking Water

Provide Lifesaving Healthcare and Medicines

Combat Malnutrition with Beekeeping

Keep Impoverished Refugees in School

Stop Cookstoves from Polluting and Killing

Invest in Microloans for Women Refugees

Provide Better Blocks for Reconstruction

Bring Hope to a Destitude Family

Build a Classroom for Vulnerable Children

Prevent HIV-AIDS through Awareness

Give Fresh Fruit and a Greener Environment

Reduce Hunger and Women’s Workloads

Save People from Dying from Malaria

Stop Poverty from Forcing Kids Out of School

Stop Poverty from Forcing Kids Out of School

Healthcare

Education

Agriculture

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