Journey of Mud

Imagine the street as your home. Pause for a moment and think about that. The street lights as your bedroom light. The garbage as your food. Which one of us has ever been this desperate? Imagine living a life without love, longing for a glimpse of hope. The picture I am painting is a reality for over 10,000 street children in Uganda. Putting that in context, it would be like every primary school pupil in the south and west of the Highlands suddenly living on the streets; raiding rubbish bins; surviving alongside one another. This is a scene that we cannot imagine, but it is a reality in Uganda and there is worse: Stories of children sewing each other?s open wounds after they are forced to sniff glue to relieve the pain because the hope of them being seen at a hospital is nil. Children are losing their parents in car accidents and, having no one else to care for them, they must become part of the streets.
Dwelling Places (D.P) (dwellingplaces.org) is a Christian, non-governmental organisation that rehabilitates ex-street children, abandoned babies and high-risk slum families. Through holistic care, these children are relocated into safe, loving homes. Not only does it remove children from their hopeless situation on the Ugandan streets, but it gives them a hope for the future in a loving environment.
One new project is the boys? home at Buloba. Here boys aged five and over will be accommodated and educated before being resettled. Getting children off the streets is one thing, but an education is another aspect which changes their lives, as they gain skills and knowledge which can be used to keep them from the streets.
Bringing children from the streets to a place they can call home takes staff, volunteers and money. If you have not already watched the D.P video, please do, as you will see the heart they have for their work. (youtube.com/watch?v=HLYvBWvLqsM)
My target is to raise £1,750. This will pay for the following:
school fees for 200 children for one year
an additional teacher for new pupils
school uniforms for 200 pupils
equipment (books, pens, etc) for 200 pupils
On Saturday, 25th June, 2016, I will be running in a Tough Mudder event in Dumfries. The course will be ten to twelve miles and packed full of obstacles (here is a video to see what I've signed up for; please take note they fail to show the tear gas chamber! youtube.com/watch?v=3OigQ-a6hFc).
With so many different fundraisers going on, I wanted mine to stand out for Dwelling Places and for the children who have no voice. To ensure that they have a chest to rest their head on and a place to call home, I will be running Tough Mudder twice in one day. That will be two laps, one after another, twenty to twenty-four miles, forty to fifty obstacles, two sore legs and two blistered feet!
I hope that by reading this short bio, you will see the need to support Dwelling Places and its ongoing projects. I would love to raise £1750 for Dwelling Places but in four weeks it does seem a big ask. The power of social media is amazing, however, and it can be done with your help! If 175 people donated just £10, the target would be reached.
In advance, I would like to thank those of you that read this and, on behalf of those you help when giving, express my sincere gratitude for your generosity.
Many thanks in anticipation,
Keith Nicolson