CMU Candidates/ CMU Kandidaten fuer Examen

We thank God for the gift of life for you and for us. We know some challenges come in although in everything we should always keep our hope and trust in the Lord God Almighty.
All the children are doing well and we thank God for that.
The number of children has increased and we thank God for blessing us with such children. We also thank all the people that are supporting.

In the candidate classes, we had 3 children in primary, 3 in Senior 4 and 2 in Senior 6. We have not yet known whether those that have finished S.4 would want join tertiary institutions or not but next year we are likely to have a bigger number in the institutions.  This means that expenditure especially for tuition and other institutional needs will go up. It is a big challenge that is ahead of CMU and we are requesting for your advice and any way one would be of help to see how these children can make it in life. It is expensive to have a child in an institution.
We thank you for your usual support and we pray that God will continue to use you!

Wir danken dem Herrn, der uns und euch das Leben geschenkt hat. Wir wissen, dass Herausforderungen immer wieder auf uns zu kommen, aber wir sollen in allem Gott vertrauen. Den Kindern geht es allen gut. Mehr Kinder sind dazu gekommen und wir sind dankbar fuer alle Unterstuetzung.
Dieses Jahr haben 3 Kinder Grundschulexamen geschrieben, 3 Kinder O-Level Examen und 2 A-Level Examen. Wir wissen noch nicht ob die 3 Kandidaten, die mit O-Level fertig sind, noch A-Level machen oder einen Beruf lernen. Ab naechstem Jahr werden mehr Kinder Berufskollegs besuchen, was die Kosten dafuer in die Hoehe treiben wird. Wir sind dankbar fuer jeden Rat und Unterstuetzung fuer diese Kinder.
Vielen Dank und Gott moege euch segnen und zum Segen setzen.

Paten Gesucht

Zum CMU Kinderheim sind neue Kinder dazugekommen, die noch Paten brauchen. Wer moechte gerne mithelfen, dass diese Kinder gut versorgt werden koennen und zur Schule/ Kindergarten gehen koennen? Ausserdem haetten wir 3 aeltere Patenkinder zu vergeben, die gerade keinen "Sponsor" haben.
Vielen Dank wieder allen die bereits mithelfen!

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS/ Ferien

The second term for the year 2012 is over and some of the children have gone to visit their relatives in their villages. We have two children that have no relatives yet and they spend the short holidays like these on station.
We have so far received some report forms from some of the schools and the performance is not bad. We have some that are among the best and some that have not performed to what we expected.   
We shall continue to encourage, counsel and help them to improve on their performance especially that they are going to a promotional term. We are grateful to everyone that contributed to their studies last term.
We cannot forget to say thanks to Mirjam and Markus for the good work done for these children during their stay at CMU, we can as well attribute the children's better performance to the two.
We are encouraging more people to make different contribution of any kind towards the education of these children that we believe has a lot to their future.

Das 2. Trimester des Schuljahres 2012 ist vorbei und die meisten Kinder gingen nach Hause in die Ferien. 2 der Kinder haben im Moment noch kein Zuhause und sind somit hiergeblieben.
Die Zeugnisse der Kinder waren teilweise gut und teilweise nicht so gut. Wir werden die Kinder weiterhin ermutigen und ihnen helfen, dass sie bessere Abschlusszeugnisse bekommen, da dies das letzte Trimester des Schuljahres ist. Vielen Dank an alle, die dazu beigetragen haben, dass die Kinder lernen konnten.
Auch an Markus und Mirjam ein herzliches Dankeschoen fuer ihre Arbeit mit den Kindern im CMU Kinderheim.

Victor Wasswa!

Victor has gone to be with the Lord! We are all shocked and sadened about his sudden death. On Thursday he complained of not feeling well and was given Malaria treatment. Yesterday he got worse and was taken to hospital. He had lots of Malaria parasites in his blood, was put on drip and later on oxygen, but he couldn't make it. By 8:30pm he passed away. Our comfort is that he knew Jesus in his life and that he has gone home to be with Jesus.

Victor ist heimgegangen zum Herrn! Wir sind alle schockiert und sehr, sehr traurig ueber seinen ploetzlichen Tod. Am Donnerstag fuehlte er sich nicht wohl und bekam Malariatabletten. Am Freitag ging es ihm schlechter und er wurde ins Krankenhaus gebracht. Er hatte sehr viele Malariaparasiten im Blut und wurde an den Tropf gehaengt, spaeter noch an Sauerstoff, aber er kam nicht durch. Um 20:30 Uhr starb er. Unser einziger Trost ist, dass Victor Jesus kennengelernt hat und nun zuhause bei IHM ist.

Edwin!

Edwin is an adventures boy! He is a newcomer, who was brought to us by the Mukono District Probation Office. He got lost in the buspark when his mother wanted to take him to the grand mothers home. Up to now, we have not found his home. Recently he got lost again! He just walked out of the compound of CMU and couldn't find his way back. He walked and walked and walked and never came back the same day. The following day we had to hang this photo on the nearest police stations and go and search for him. Good enough one person had seen him the previous evening walking around in their village. This was about 10km away from CMU! It took a whole day until he finally was brought back to the station by "daddy Kalafa".

Edwin ist ein abenteuerlustiger Junge! Er ist neu im Kinderheim und wurde vom Jugendamt in Mukono vermittelt. Als seine Mutter ihn zur Grossmutter bringen wollte, ging er im Buspark verloren. Bis heute haben wir sein Zuhause nicht gefunden. Kuerzlich ging er wieder verloren. Er lief nur mal kurz aus dem Hof des Kinderheimes raus und konnte dann nicht mehr seinen Weg zurueck finden. Er lief und lief und lief und kam am selben Tag nicht mehr zurueck. Am naechsten Tag hingen wir dieses Foto bei den Polizeistationen auf. Gluecklicherweise hatte ihn eine Person am Abend zuvor in ihrem Dorf gesehen. Dies war ungefaehr 10 km von der Station entfernt! Am Abend konnte er dann endlich wieder von "Daddy Kalafa" zur Station zurueck gebracht werden.

HOME CARE PROGRAM

Towards the end of last year, CMU begun a new program of supporting children from their guardians homes. This program was begun because of the overwhelming number of children that were out of school due to lack of school fees, and some sponsors that were interested in supporting a child with less money.
Since the program begun at the end of last year we have recruited 11 children and have hope to recruit more before this year ends.
These are some of the activities that we have done:
Carrying out retreats that have brought all of them together and helped them to learn more from the different selected topics;
visiting their homes and counseling the children and their guardians where necessary;
visiting them at their schools to encouraged them and also finding out about their performance;
paying school fees and providing for all the school requirements.
We believe that apart from the orphanage, this program will also be able to change the lives of many children.

Seit Ende letzten Jahres unterstuetzt CMU beduerftige Kinder bei ihren Familien. Bisher wurden 11 Kinder in dieses Programm aufgenommen. Mit 20 Euro pro Monat ist dafuer gesorgt, dass solch ein Kind zur Schule gehen kann.
Bisher wurden folgende Aktivitaeten durchgefuehrt:
2 Seminare wurden gehalten, zu denen alle Kinder auf die Station kamen um ueber unterschiedliche Themen zu lernen;
Besuche bei den Kindern zuhause und helfende Gespraeche fuer Kinder und Erzieher wo noetig;
Besuche in der Schule um die Kinder zu ermutigen und ueber ihren Fortschritt zu erfahren;
Bezahlung der Schulgebuehren und Besorgung von Schulmaterial, Schultaschen, Schuhen, usw.
Bestimmt veraendert sich durch dieses "Aussenprogramm" das Leben vieler Kinder, die vorher keine Hoffnung hatten.

Farewell for one of the Staff Members

"Uncle Alex" has been one of the staff members of CMU children’s home. He has been working as the boy’s care taker. He first volunteered with CMU in 2010 and came back to work in 2011- 2012, when he got blessed with an opportunity of studying his masters degree in divinity. We are grateful to God for that opportunity given to him. He promised to continue coming over for voluntary work and any other support.
The CMU management organized a farewell party for him, on which gifts were given, songs were sung, dances were performed especially by children and words of encouragement from staff and children were said. It was a good day for us to say bye to one of our good and committed staff members for ministry.
We pray for more blessings upon him and success in his studies.

"Onkel Alex" war einer der Mitarbeiter des CMU Kinderheimes. Er war als Betreuer der Jungs angestellt. Zuerst kam er als Voluntaer 2010 zu uns und arbeitete 2011 bis 2012 als Angestellter. Waehrend dieser Zeit bot sich ihm die Gelegenheit fuer einen "Master in Divinity" zu studieren. Er wird weiterhin in seiner freien Zeit kommen und im Kinderheim mithelfen.
Auf einer Abschiedsfeier fuer Alex hatten die Kinder einiges weiterzugeben: Lieder, Taenze, Geschenke und ermutigende Worte. Wir beten, dass Alex weiterhin Erfolg im Studium hat und noch mehr Segen erfahren darf.

Our kitchen staff cooks every day for around 80 people using firewood. We are contemplating of putting up a biogas unit, using the waste from our pigs and cows. So far we lack the knowledge and financial resources to put it in place. It would help us safe alot of firewood and thus safe our environment.

Unsere Kuechenmitarbeiter kochen jeden Tag mit Feuerholz fuer um die 80 Leute. Wir ueberlegen eine Biogasanlage aufzubauen, die mit dem "Abfall" der Schweine und Kuehe versorgt werden wuerde. Bis jetzt fehlt uns dazu aber das noetige KnowHow und auch die Finanzen. Diese Anlage wuerde helfen, Energie (Feuerholz) zu sparen und somit auch unsere Umwelt zu schuetzen.

Firewood/ Brennholz

On Saturday some kids and staff went to the forest to bring a lorry full of firewood for cooking. It looks much but it will last only one to two months! The fire in the cooking stoves burns from morning to evening. Starting early morning with warming the porridge, cooking beans for lunch (they take 2 to 3 hours to get soft, depending on the quality), cooking posho, boiling big pots of drinking water, cooking supper, preparing porridge for the next morning and at last cooking dogs food.

Am Samstag sind einige Kinder und Mitarbeiter in den Wald gefahren, um Feuerholz fuer die Kueche zu holen. Es sieht nach sehr viel Holz aus, reicht aber nur 1 bis 2 Monate! Das Feuer brennt von morgens bis abends. Frueh morgens wird der Porridge fuers Fruehstueck aufgewaermt, dann Bohnen gekocht (brauchen 2 bis 3 Stunden bis sie weich sind, je nach Qualitaet), dann Maisbrei, mittags werden grosse Toepfe Trinkwasser abgekocht, und dann das Abendessen zubereitet. Danach wird wieder Porridge fuers Fruehstueck am naechsten morgen gekocht und zuletzt noch das Hundefutter.

Kids are enjoying their new playing room. Thanks to Mirjam and Markus for their creative work!

Die kleineren Kinder spielen gerne in ihrem neuen Spielzimmer. Vielen Dank an Mirjam und Markus fuer die kreative Gestaltung des Zimmers!

Some Numbers / Ein paar Zahlen

Since this week, CMU supports exactly 100 children inside and outside the home. 71 children are living on the station and 29 children (and adults since a number of them are above 18 years old) are being supported from outside the home. There are 36 boys and 35 girls now. 10 Fulltime staff are taking care of the children, one man is taking care of cows, goat, pigs and chicken, 3 women are permanently digging in the farm, one man comes every evening to watch throughout the night. Alltogether CMU has 14 staff. 37 kids are in secondary schools and higher institutions of learning (colleges and universities).

Seit dieser Woche werden genau 100 Kinder von CMU betreut. 71 Kinder leben auf Station und 29 Kinder und inzwischen Erwachsene werden bei ihren Verwandten unterstuetzt. Es sind 36 Jungs und 35 Maedchen, die hier wohnen und leben. 10 Vollzeitmitarbeiter kuemmern sich um die Kinder, ein Mann kuemmert sich um Kuehe, Ziege, Schweine und Huehner, 3 Frauen arbeiten jeden Morgen auf dem Feld und ein Mann kommt jeden Abend um die Nacht ueber zu wachen. Zusammen sind wir 14 Mitarbeiter. 37 Kinder sind in Oberschulen, Berufskollegs und Universitaeten.

NEW VOLUNTEERS

Its almost three weeks now since we received Mirjam and Markus at CMU to volunteer with us for six months. We are blessed to have this couple work with us. So far they are doing amazing work with the children including visiting their schools, participating in shopping for the children and much more.

In their first week of their stay at CMU they went with one of the staff members and attended a traditional "give away ceremony" of which Mirjam dressed in an Ankoletraditional wear.We pray for joy and a blessing upon their stay in CMU, Uganda and Africa as a whole.

Mirjam and Seerah on the way to the ceremony

Stay blessed.

Happy New Year

Praise God for we are able to see another year of 2012.
We thank everyone that thought about starving, undressed, school drop out, sick, homeless, abandoned and depressed children within any community and we pray for God's blessings upon you all! For that matter we thank you our sponsors and friends for being there for our children and the CMU community.
The New year has begun and we are hoping for God's blessings upon us and our work especially in the children's ministry.
Children are a gift from God and here at CMU we treasure them and we pray that God will continue to make them a blessing to us.
Allow children to be a blessing to you this year in any community that you live in.
The number of needy children has increased and we have more than 250 requests in the file for the needy children that are not yet considered.
These are a few of those that are needy to the extent that they cannot afford to get to CMU station.
Oh God may you help such children to find favour before you and your people on earth.
Please, whoever can help please do and God will bless you.

Yesterday, in the news on one of the television stations in Uganda, a mother threw her own new born baby girl into a pit latrine in which the baby spent a night alive and was discovered in the morning. It was removed and taken to the hospital where it is treated and the report says its out of danger.
When the mother was asked why she had to do that, she reported that she had two children that the father abandoned and the father of the new born had also denied the pregnancy. She was not able to take care of three children without a father. She thought that having the baby died would reduce on her burden. But thank God the baby girl is alive.

Let this year be a year of helping one or more vulnerable children.

Stay Blessed in 2012!