a person's worth

There are quite a few things that I could blog about right now... My first week in Kampala has been so full and there have been so many things running through my mind. So I guess I will just tackle one thing at a time.

Since coming here I have been able to be exposed to quite a few organizations that are doing incredible things here... to name a few: 31 Bits, Krochet Kids, and Purse of Hope. This post though has a lot more to do with Purse of Hope's work... they have different homes across Uganda for women who have been or still are prostitutes. In Bwaise (a slum area in Kampala), they have a halfway house for these women, where they are can receive vocational training. They are learning to be hair dressers or seamstresses in hopes that they can get out of this truly awful profession.

This week I learned something so disturbing about prostitution in Kampala... Apparently in Bwaise alone there are around 100 brothels with about 30 girls working in each of them. I was totally shocked that an area that small would have over 3,000 prostitutes, so I asked a girl that works with Purse of Hope why the demand was so high. She said that it was because the girls were so cheap.... Just hearing that phrase made my heart break for them.

Some of them charge as little as 1000UGX.

The equivalent of about $0.46.

That is so sick... But it makes sense why the demand for prostitutes is so high. For men who are interested, it's the least expensive form of "entertainment" around.

And even though these girls live in such darkness, all I have heard about them is how joyful they are and how amazing it is to be around them. I absolutely cannot wait to go to the house in Bwaise and get to meet them.

At Purse of Hope, the motto of sorts is "from vulnerable to valued," and I think that describes not only these women, but others in Kampala as well.

I had mentioned the street kids earlier, so I wanted to bring that up again... Julie and I were riding in the back of a taxi (when I say taxi, don't picture a New York City taxi.... picture a super-ghetto 16 passenger van rattling down the pothole laden streets), and watching some of the kids begging. She asked me if I had seen August Rush or Slumdog Millionaire, and we started comparing these kids to what we saw in those movies... They are owned. Anything you give them goes to their owner. So "helping" them by giving them spare change is actually one of the worst things you could do, because it is just promoting this awful system of using children for personal gain.

There are quite a few ministries that work with street kids, to build relationships with them and invest in them personally to show them that they are worth something...

I think that seeing people so undervalued, people who are created in God's image and who are dearly loved by Him so terribly mistreated has been one of the most difficult things to see here. These women, these kids... they are used... they are owned. But they are also God's children. I am so thankful that people are responding to the needs of these people and are aware of the atrocities that are taking place. I hope I never forget what I have seen here, and that I will always carry these people with me.