The Land Rover is released from the Custom and is deployed to the disposal of our Program Coordinators in the ground. Reaching Omilling rural communities has been a major challenge not only for HO, but also for other humanitarian agencies working in the country. The vast area is rural, and roads are also bad. The land Rover has the capabilities to match the challenge. The land Rover is capable to transport two metric tonnes to reach communities in remote, difficult – to – access rural… Read More
Pigs For Education Project Fully Funded
Thanks to your generous support we are excited to report that phase two of our Pigs for education project is fully funded! The more than $1,000 donated will buy an additional 30 pigs for Omilling village’s six most destitute families who are eager to send their children to school. Giving pigs to widows and their destitute families will provide a much-needed income boost to help pay for vital basics like food, medicines, and shelter. More importantly, the boost will prevent young children from having to… Read More
Today is World AIDS Day
Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day. Theme: Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths. On World AIDS Day, organizations and world leaders hold events to commemorate and raise awareness around the struggles of people suffering from HIV/AIDS. Over the last month, world leaders have been speaking publicly in honor of the day, highlighting the need for not just medical interventions in treatment and prevention but education and awareness too. In her speech to the National Institute of Health, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary… Read More
Happy Thanksgiving from Hope Ofiriha
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the United States and around the world! Hope Ofiriha wants to send a most sincere thank you to all of our supporters, donors, child sponsors, partners, volunteers, and everyone else playing a role in our success. Together, we are making a huge difference in the lives of South Sudanese women and children struggling to build a better future for themselves, their families, and their community. Enjoy this special day of Thanksgiving and remember that we could not do this work without… Read More
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
Impoverished South Sudanese Children in Uganda
Impoverished South Sudanese children in Uganda often become slaves to their new “families.” Some, especially the girls, are sexually or physically abused, and all of them are expected to work hard. Polly’s story is unique. In fact, it is common for South Sudanese refugees to live as squatters in slums in the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda, often homeless. More than 1,000 children, most of them girls, have become “impoverished children” or “independent orphan children.” Their parents, too poor to feed, and educate their children, send them to live with… Read More
GlobalGiving’s ‘Baby Shower’ One-Day Miracle
UPDATE: Due to the overwhelming support of GlobalGiving’s donors, we’ve raised our funding goal to $14,074 to save even more mothers and babies. I am over joyed to report that GlobalGiving’s participation in our rally to throw a baby shower for our Onura clinic in South Sudan has raised nearly $4,000 so far in less than a day. Our Onura Maternal Survival Project has gone from being one of our least supported projects on GlobalGiving to being fully funded (between May 2010 and yesterday, donors had only given… Read More
South Sudan Gains Independence on July 9!
Five days after the United States celebrates its independence, South Sudan will become the world’s youngest nation. Decades of brutal fighting have decimated South Sudan’s already fragile infrastructure. Little more than 120 doctors and fewer than 100 registered nurses care for 8 million people. The result: the people of South Sudan are suffering. With one of the world’s worst maternal mortality rates, women face a 1 in 7 risk of dying during pregnancy. A young girl in South Sudan is 3 times more likely to die… Read More
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
No Flowers or Jewelry, Just Water without a Walk
Like hundreds of thousands of people around the world, you will wake this morning and twist a knob, granting you access to a stream of warm water. You might then proceed to make a call to your favorite flower shop and/or gift store and ask them to prepare something fit for a queen for your mother on Mother’s Day. You would like your mother to feel every bit of a queen today. If she is not that far from you, you may opt to take… Read More
No Tribe is Superior & No Tribe is Inferior
I’m deeply saddened that more than 1,000 people are dead after clashes between South Sudan’s army and militias. The unrest reminds me of the speech Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia gave in 1963 before the United Nations. Here’s the English translation, which was popularized in a song called War by Bob Marley: “That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a… Read More
Reproductive Health, Sexual Rights & South Sudan
Reproductive health problems remain the leading causes of death for women of childbearing age worldwide. The impact is far worse in developing countries, which also have high fertility rates. Besides terrible reproductive health outcomes, these counters score poorly in poverty and education outcomes. South Sudan is no exception to this picture. The long civil war between the North and the South made reproductive health a crisis for South Sudan’s women, many of whom are widows and girls who had their sexual and reproductive rights abused… Read More
New Volunteers to Redesign Mairo Primary School
Work on the Mario Primary School—which will give hope to war orphans, former child soldiers, and other vulnerable children in Omilling village—is racing along! I recently met with Astrid Rohde Wang and Olav Lunde Arneberg, two students from The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, who have volunteered to redesign the school’s structure at village Standard. For several months nothing was happening on the project, keeping the door closed for hundreds of vulnerable children to ever receive an education. Behind the scenes, the Hope Ofiriha team was busy working to find out… Read More
Distant Relatives: St. Patrick’s Day & South Sudan
Today, all eyes and thoughts are on Europe’s third largest Island best known for potatoes, Shamrocks, and the reason for the season: St. Patrick’s Day. It has, however, not always been all bliss for the country that produced the Saint of the day, St. Patrick, as mass starvation, disease, and emigration during the Potato famine coupled with decades of violence between Catholics and Protestants brought much civil unrest. Though St. Patrick’s Day is not that popular in Africa—save for Catholics attending Lent Mass, who take… Read More
100 Women Become Beekeepers in Onura
Hope Ofiriha’s Onura Beekeeping Project has raised $3,328 on GlobalGiving, and the results are just terrific. The project is running very well under the guidance of the village’s woman project manager and her team at the Onura Women’s Beekeeping Association. Women’s businesses are growing steadily larger and the local economy is also expanding noticeably in Onura sub village where the project is running. The beekeeping project will provide local women with the opportunity to learn a sustainable agricultural skill and earn an income to support their… Read More
Referendum Update: Bye-Bye Jalaba for Good!
As you know, millions of south Sudanese went to the polls two weeks ago—many for the first time ever—to make a historic vote on the future of our country. Together, the south Sudanese decided whether to form our own nation or to remain part of Sudan. My mother, brothers, sisters, and I voted for separation, and I travelled to Sudan to participate in this historic moment (visit the Sudan Referendum album on Hope Ofiriha’s Facebook page to see more photos). I campaigned and mobilized people around Magwi County to vote… Read More
Pigs for Education Project Fully Funded
Thanks to our generous donors, phase one of our Pigs for Education Project is fully funded! The more than $1,000 donated will buy 30 pigs for Omilling village’s six most destitute families who are eager to send their children to school. Giving pigs to widows and their destitute families will provide a much-needed income boost to help pay for vital basics like food, medicines, and shelter. More importantly, the boost will prevent young children from having to drop out of school to help earn money… Read More
Don’t Want to Bring Gloom & Doom to Holidays
I don’t want to bring gloom and doom to your holidays, but I do want to make sure all our supporters are aware that we are less than three weeks away from a referendum vote that might partition Sudan and start a return to bloodshed. If you don’t mind interrupting your holidays to learn more about this potentially dire situation, the Sydney Morning Herald has put together an excellent multimedia website about it entitled Sudan: Referendum of Hope. Former Sudanese child soldier turned rap star, Emmanual Jal, has set up… Read More
10 New Microloans Given to Women Refugees
Thanks to kind support of our Uganda Microloans Project, Hope Ofiriha is pleased to announce that it has granted loan to ten (10) new additional women to start their income generating business. With their ability to generate income and save profits these women can better protect themselves and their children in areas of poverty, education, and heath. In the six months to come these women will invest in the education of their children by paying school fees through profits earn from their businesses. During the… Read More
HIV-AIDS Project Makes Remarkable Change
Hope Ofiriha’s Omilling HIV-AIDS Project has made a remarkable change increasing the number of people knowing their HIV status. In Omilling Sudan, 1 out of 5 is HIV-infected. If people can find out their status, they can take necessary steps to remain negative or access care, and treatment services if positive. To further this goal, Hope Ofiriha made a decision to expand HIV-awareness campaign and counseling availability by visiting HIV-experts. Integrating HIV-awareness program into local health services allows local volunteers to offer testing and counseling as… Read More
