Today marks five years of Guiding Light Orphans, Inc., as a 501c3 registered non-profit organization! We have spent the last 5 years working to provide basic healthcare to orphans, vulnerable children, and their caretakers, in the most rural areas in Uganda. We have had so many major accomplishments over the last five years and we are very proud of, but we would haven’t been able to accomplish any of it without the help of our donors, volunteers, and fundraisers.
Jolly Lux was on a trip to Uganda visiting family in January 2011. When she was visiting some of the more rural areas of her home country with her aunt, a woman came up to her and pleading, asked “I have AIDS, who will take care of my four-year-old son when I die?”. Jolly was shocked and at a loss for words. Before she could reply, the woman disappeared into a crowd of people. Jolly tried to find her but was unsuccessful. This interaction sparked Jolly’s true understanding of the desperate need of assistance that people needed so close to where she grew up. She knew she had to do something, so she came home, told her husband Kurt everything that happened, and decided to register Guiding Light Orphans, Inc., as a non-profit organization in the USA, and do whatever she could to provide a better life for those living in poverty in her home country of Uganda.
Guiding Light Orphans has 4 major programs:
Bi-annual medical camps. We started with 500 patients in 2014. To-date, we serve nearly 4,000 patients during our two day camps.
Village Health Teams, which are Uganda’s Community Health Workers, are the first point of contact in the communities where they live and play an important role in keeping their communities healthy.
Treatment and support for patients with epilepsy, which has shown successful results since its inception one year ago, provide care and support for nearly 200 patients each month and most of whom are managing well.
Our first medical clinic, which will treat nearly 1,200 children and adults as the first health clinic in a rural area that lacks basic health care. When open, the clinic will have a medical doctor, a clinician, and a psychiatric nurse.
We also have two special projects; medical care for a young girl named Christine who suffers from spina bifida, and our Girl Empowerment Project, that provides 65 school girls with uniforms, school supplies, and sanitary supplies.
Our list of programs has grown over the last 5 years as we discover more needs in the areas we are serving. GLO prides itself on giving the people what they need and what they ask for rather than assuming we know what is best for them. By providing them with medical care, we are able to help them stay healthy so they can continue to work and support themselves and their families and live fulfilling lives. As the years have gone by, we have been able to accomplish more and more with the help of our generous donors, fundraisers, and volunteers and our hard working team on the ground. We are forever grateful to everyone who has believed in our mission over the last five years and continues to support us and our work.
As we anticipate the opening of our first medical clinic, we still have more work to. We have started a capital campaign to purchase equipment and supplies, stock our pharmacy with medicine and hire medical personnel. Click here to check out our clinic campaign.
Thank you for an amazing five years, and here’s to five more!