The mother to Fr. Vincent DePaul passed through many difficult moments and struggles to raise her children with no source of funds, but she always taught her children to pray and trust in God. This was a painful moment for Fr. Vincent DePaul as he grew up. This painful and sad story provoked in Fr. a desire to be someone useful in life as he grew up in his village. It’s from this background that Fr. entered into the seminary to be someone useful by serving God among the poor and the most needy.
In 2015, the only surviving maternal Uncle of Fr. DePaul was knocked dead by over speeding vehicle. He was the only bread earner in his family and darkness befell a simple family leaving a widow with 5 orphans the youngest with 5 years. The poor widow had no source of income to feed and educate her orphans so she only turned to Fr. DePaul for school fees assistance. Remember Fr. was ordained in 2017 and being a missionary priest he had no funds to support the miserable and hopeless orphans, but knelt down and prayed to God for guidance for he believed that God was the only solution to this problem.
Due to constant asking for financial help by the widow to Fr. DePaul who neither had funds, this made him to think on how to solve the overlapping problem. In 2018, Fr. Vincent happened to meet and know the board members of Carlo Marchini, a charitable association in Switzerland. The same association later agreed to help the 5 orphans with school fees and other scholastic materials. Later Fr. saw this as an opened door of blessings not only to his late uncle’s orphans, but also to other orphans of his village and district of Ibanda. This inspired Fr. DePaul to then start an organized school fees project for helping the orphans and helpless children enabling them to get a bright future.
The project started in Ibanda District and has now been extended to the neighboring districts of Mbarara, Isingiro, Ntungamo, Kabale, Kazo, kiruhura, Kamwegye and Kampala .
The beneficiaries of this project are majorly the orphans and children whose parents are single or those in the worst state of living and cannot afford school fees and even basic needs like food. The project started in 2019 supporting 5 Orphans and currently supports beneficiaries of all Levels i.e. primary, secondary, University and Tertiary institutions. The number of those seeking for sponsorship is growing every day and we currently have over 150 seeking for help.
Since then, the project has passed several students who have graduated in different courses that include Nursing, Surveying, Midwifery, construction etc. and they are working various parts of Uganda.
Due to the increase of our beneficiaries, the current budget is always insaficient to support all.
Impacts
- Orphans have been able to acquire school education
- Graduates have got jobs and started working in various locations of the country
- Better standards of living and change of mentality
- Future potential and fight of poverty
- Emotional encouragement and empowerment especially with the girl child
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