Charity
Learn more about my favorite charity, the Atai Orphanage Fund, and about the Atai Orphanage, currently home to more than 40 orphaned children, in Agu Village, Uganda.
The Atai Orphanage Story
Although this fledgling organization was born in America in 2004, the very first brick—the cornerstone of Atai Orphanage—was laid many years ago in the form of a solemn promise made to God by me at the tender age of six. When I was growing up, the mortality rate for children in my village was very high. Unfortunately, it remains so even today. Those who survive are considered to be very lucky, and I was lucky to have lived beyond age five.
A certain family in my village faced great misfortunes, and their troubles impacted me deeply. They were a family of four children—two boys and two girls—who had lost both their mother and father to disease. These children went to live with their grandmother who had almost nothing. I saw how they suffered without food and proper clothing. And of course, they couldn’t go to school.
I feared my own family might suffer the same misfortune. So I cried out to heaven, “Please God, I am scared and I don’t want my parents to die. God, if you will let my Toto and Papa live, I promise when I grow up, I will take care of all the orphan children.”
The Atai (pronounced: Ah-tie) Orphanage Fund is the result of that promise. It took me more than 30 years to start making good on my pledge.
Through those years, I grew up, became a wife and mother, and immigrated to the United States with my husband and children. When we became refugees in this country, my husband succumbed to alcoholism. I raised our four children, virtually alone, and worked to educate myself. Sometimes I worked three jobs just to keep my family whole.
A trip back home to see my family—my first visit in twenty years—rekindled the covenant I’d made long ago. For the first time in my adult life, I knew it was time to make good on my promise.
As I walked around my village, retracing the footpaths of my childhood, a sharp pain ripped through my heart, and tears began to flow down my face. So many villagers approached me for help. They had heard that “a rich madam” from America had returned home to the village. If they only knew I’d been squirreling away money for the past five years—just to afford my airline ticket!
I began giving away all of my clothing and other personal belongings. The needs of the villagers were so overwhelming that by the time I returned to St. Charles, Missouri, I had only the dress I was wearing and five dollars in my purse.
That heart-wrenching trip was the catalyst that brought about the Atai Orphanage, a small, 3-bedroom home I built for my parents and more than a dozen orphaned children they had taken in and were caring for. My mother now cares for nearly 50 children in that same small home! The needs of the Atai Orphanage are great. Will you help?
Thank you for allowing me the pleasure to speak to you on behalf of Atai Orphanage Fund, a 501[c][3] non-profit organization whose mission is to uplift the poor children of my home village of Agu by providing them with the basic support necessary to sustain strong bodies and healthy minds—food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and school supplies.
My fellow villagers—for I am speaking to you as members of a village of the heart—I cannot properly express to you just how precious Atai Orphanage is to me. That is why it bears my mother’s name, “Atai,” which means “free” in our native language. For me, Atai Orphanage is a tiny infant who has just been given the gift of life, and who requires nourishment to grow big and strong. “It takes a village to raise a child,” says an ancient African proverb. Likewise, it takes a village with a big and caring heart to save a child. In order to rescue these beautiful and precious children, together we must help to free them from crippling poverty and disease.
Atai has managed to survive and grow only through generous donations of money and clothing from devoted friends, and from my own paycheck. Today I appeal to you to join me in helping to fulfill the solemn promise I made to God. Please join this village of the heart and give generously!
In closing, I am reminded of the words of the Greatest Giver of all: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). Please accept my heartfelt thanks for your faith and for your contributions. May God bless you!
Sincerely,
Annah
The Atai Orphanage Fund Mission Statement:
To provide food, clothing, education, permanent housing, and vital health services to the Orphans of the Teso District of Northern Uganda.
An Invitation to give these precious children a chance at the life they deserve…
These children so desperately need your help. They have so little–most have no more than the clothes on their backs–but they have lots of hopes and dreams of a better life. Will you help us reach our goals? Give these children the opportunities that most of us take for granted… a loving home, food, clean water, clothes, education. You can truly help us change their lives! Please make a donation today.
Please visit the Atai Orphanage website or our facebook page to learn more about what the Atai Orphanage Fund has accomplished so far, other ways we raise funds, and our hopes and plans for the future of the children of Atai.
501[c]3 Credentials for Atai Orphanage Fund
Thank you for visiting AnnahFrances.com