Amid a Global Pandemic, Creativity Abounds!

Hope Alive! staff, mentors and students are showing great creativity and flexibility during this challenging time.

In Uganda’s capital, Kampala, the pandemic brought everything to a screeching halt a few months ago, including all public and private transportation. Recently transportation and some other sectors of the economy have been allowed to resume. Sadly, schools, churches and the daily type of work our students’ caregivers are involved in have not. Moreover, there are few activities for children and teens in the poorest areas where our students live. Even if a student’s home has electricity, and many do not, the students don’t have computers or tablets. They are hungering for things to fill their time, and creative solutions are flourishing.

Podcast Launched

Our communications team (top photo) has begun a podcast. They are keeping it short so that more of our students can access it through phones. If you'd like to listen in, links are posted on the Hope Alive! Facebook page.


Student-led Study Sessions

Our office is hosting small group study sessions focused on math and science, led by one of our advanced students. The students greatly appreciate this, as they are afraid of forgetting what they were taught earlier in the year. (The school year started in February, was stopped in March and has yet to resume.)  An added blessing is that our advanced student leader has discovered a love for teaching!

Small Group Bible Studies

Since we can no longer hold Saturday Club, our students have begun gathering weekly in very small neighborhood groups with one or two mentors to pray, study the Bible and encourage one another. This has become a weekly highlight. The feedback has been so positive that we may continue the groups even after Saturday Clubs resume.

Hope Alive! COVID-19 Fund Continues to Bless Families

Thanks to supporters who have been donating generously to the COVID-19 fund, we continue to provide our families with staples, including beans, rice, cornmeal, cooking oil, sugar, salt, soap and charcoal. Many families are receiving more food than they can usually afford on their own. Parents and students alike have expressed gratitude for the timely help. In turn, they are being generous neighbors—and those neighbors have also expressed their appreciate for Hope Alive!’s care.  If you’d like to donate to the COVID-19 fund, click here.

Rejoicing in heaven!

Jesus said there is rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents. Imagine what it’s like when there are almost 30! Between June and September, at least 25 caregivers of Hope Alive! students gave their lives to Jesus Christ. (Caregivers include parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and older siblings—anyone considered the guardian of one of our students.) In the wake of severe job losses and the ongoing inability of many of our families to obtain food and other necessities, Hope Alive! has been providing food relief to the families, with additional food going to those with sickle cell anemia or AIDS. Thankfulness to God for this provision has led 25 caregivers to accept God’s even greater offer of forgiveness of sins and eternal life through his Son Jesus Christ.

Three of our students have accepted Jesus recently, too. Hope Alive! has worked with educators to develop materials that our older students and mentors can use to tutor younger students while school is shut down. (Online learning isn’t a possibility when schools have no resources and homes have no electricity.) With the permission of local authorities, we’re holding tutoring sessions with small groups of students throughout the day. As we mentioned before, they’re also participating in small group Bible studies. These popular studies are making a deep impact and led three of our students to become believers in Jesus.

Please join with us in celebrating these new members of God’s family!