It is Friday and I am asking you to pray for Suubi Teen MOPS in Kampala Uganda.
Last Friday they handed in a bid to make 30,000 washable sanitary pad kits (over 100,000 pads). These would be given to orphans and women in prisons. It is an amazing opportunity that would employ all our sewing women for an entire year. And they would need to hire more women as well. I do not know when they can hope to get an answer. These things can drag on for months. And it can be that the bid gets rejected. So they need to continue to see what other doors open. And the leaders of Suubi are looking at how to market their goods.
The dictionary defines courage like this-
noun
"the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery."
I can not agree that courage means without fear. I think you feel a great deal of fear and do it anyway.
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
Pray for our women to have the courage to keep trying. Eventually, they will succeed if they do not give up!
They finished the dolls and the baskets. The shipping prices have more than doubled because the International airport is closed. But they have received some generous donations that make it possible to ship the baskets. The dolls would be too expensive to ship right now. And the children at Suubi enjoy the dolls so much. So they are going to keep the dolls in Kampala. More dolls can be made. And when the opportunity is there they can be exported. But right now shipping would eat up 100% of the profit. So right now it seems wise to wait. Eventually, dolls will be made available to you. Many of you were so encouraging to us concerning the dolls. We do not take that for granted. And we will try to find a way to ship dolls. But the good news is the Suubi families will all get a doll for Christmas.
I asked Sylvia how much soap they had made. It was over 1000 bars. And I asked if they are selling much soap. They are not. The people are so poor because of the lockdown that they can not afford to buy soap. They have to decide to either do more marketing to richer people or give soap away. And I think they are going to do both. They will make 3000 bars a month to give away. And they will continue to make very high-end soap as ordered. People are so desperate for soap. One person was charged with murder for breaking into a neighbors house and killing them while trying to steal soap. I know none of us can comprehend how poor that is. But this week police raided a wedding. A man was trying to marry a 12-year-old girl. The mother sold her daughter for 12 USD. The people are desperately poor in the slums. The loudspeakers blast the message to wash with soap. They can not even afford food. And soap is one more thing they can not afford. They do not have the funds to pay for the materials to make 20,000 bars of soap. But they have the skills. So in faith, they begin. The need is there. We pray God proves what is needed. It takes courage to start because you know it is right.
Last weekend they handed out 600 face masks in the slums to seniors. The outreach was a huge success. But our women often fail to practice safety measures. They get hot and keep removing their facemasks. So I feel it is not safe for them to hand out 3000 bars of soap a month. Pray that Suubi can partner with an organization like UNICEF to hand out soap to the ones who need it. Suubi makes it, they hand it out. COVID 19 is killing people in Uganda. Suubi wants to help the population without exposing their families to risk. They need wisdom and direction.
My mom sent 100 of her facemasks to Germany. I have them available to sell. The funds will now go towards materials to make soap for the poor.
God willing the baskets will be shipped this week. I removed them from our shop. But we will have about 10 baskets available in Germany to sell. We bless everyone who bought baskets. Your funds helped pay the rent of our women for 3 months.
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