2024 Update

So much of the world has been impacted in the past 3 to 4 years due to COVID. As a volunteer-run charity ECHOES was greatly affected by this challenge, but we quietly kept on going. We feel so grateful to our donors who heard us when we called, thank you.

Our partners in Uganda showed us the way: the government closed all schools for at least a year, what happened to the students, the teachers and their salaries?

• Those students who lived in the challenging areas around the school just played, begged, or sometimes got themselves in trouble. Not a good option but there was no help for them.

• The teachers were not making any money – how were they to feed their families?

Some of the families went back to their rural home sites where they could at least grow some food but some stayed. Our creative leaders had an idea to provide income. They requested a $1,000 grant from ECHOES to start a mushroom business in the empty dark classrooms. For a year, this project kept many teachers and families fed. What a great use of their resources at hand – we are so inspired by their ingenuity and thinking outside-the-box mindset.

During Covid and the two years that followed, we were sent photos of the Double Cure Hospital and School of Nursing and Midwifery as it was growing floor by floor. With the generous support of our donors, ECHOES was able to support a portion, but not all, of the building costs. Again, the resourcefulness of our Ugandan partners, under the leadership of eldest daughter Dr Lydia Serunjogi, kept the work going. When the building was ready, we received monetary donations to secure two shipping containers full of hospital beds and equipment, and general supplies – a great start to outfitting the new facility.

Finally in 2023, ECHOES board members felt it safe to make a trip to Uganda. Nine volunteers traveled to Uganda to reunite in person with our partners and witness the good work completed despite life being disrupted due to the pandemic. What a beautiful site the new 5-story hospital and nursing school was - some were in tears seeing this modern hospital buzzing with patients.

The ECHOES team learned much about the working of the hospital and the professionalism of the hospital’s leaders and staff. Their commitment to provide quality comprehensive care to their community was apparent in all they did. The three medical professionals on the trip worked alongside the staff – listening, learning and teaching while the other six volunteered around the hospital.

Their Nursing School program was up and running. Recently, we learned 100 students are enrolled. Due to their efforts, the school has been noticed regionally as having the best instruction available and top nursing students.

The Uganda visit also included visits to the two schools we support: Trinity Children’s Centre and Centenary High School. The students and faculty at each school extended a warm welcome with bright smiles and joyful singing. During the visit it was shared that Trinity needed a new school building to continue to meet the educational needs of their student population. Our 2024 fundraiser, Harvesting Hope, is focused on raising funds for this project.

Our partnership with locally run Days for Girls, Wayne PA Team has grown enormously thanks to donations and the hard work of many volunteers both here in Pennsylvania and in Uganda. With the support of the Wayne Team’s leadership, in coordination our partner Mrs. Sara Serunjogi, a Days for Girls Enterprise was started in Uganda and is operating from Trinity Children’s Centre. This enterprise sews the kits, educates and distributes kits for Days for Girls in the Ugandan Masaka region – it also provides income for two female tailors. It is quite an achievement and underscores their commitment to women and their community. Funds raised at Harvesting Hope will also support he local Days for Girls team as they continue to support other regions both locally in the greater Philadelphia area and abroad.

We are excited for our Harvesting Hope fundraiser this October - our first in-person event since covid.

Blessings,
Nereida Gordon
President, ECHOES Around the World