This is my new friend Robbinah. She is a hard working servant of the LORD. I am truely blessed because God has put her in my life to help me get the Women of the Proverbs under way. Robbinah works for an organization called Kaana Foundation that helps build the capacities of people who are living with HIV and also those caring for children living with HIV. In which case are most families in Uganda and in Africa who care for one or more children or adults children from outside their immediate family who live with HIV. The director of Kaana Foundation, Isagara has also committed to help me establish Women of the Proverbs through the proper connections in the community, a baseline data questionaire to assess the resources and income of women who are the head of households and generally give me wisdom.
And although the Women of the Proverbs does not state that it supports and builds the resources and capacities of people living with HIV and vulnerable children living with HIV, there are few women in Uganda who do not carry a heavy burden of providing resources for education, meeting the daily needs of multiple children and daily nurture of the least of these, children living with the HIV virus. In fact each day i encounter people in my neighbor hood, women and children at church and aquaintances who live with this haunting virus. Kaana Foundation and Women of the Proverbs serve the same population through similar strategy but different avenues and the same desire to reach out to vulnerable people living in poverty to build thier capacities for living and caring for families through Bible knowledge, art and hand craft - Disciple a Woman, Disciple and Nation!
These are the leaders of a Cultural Group that create hand crafts to bring income to their families. They also disciple young girls, teach them to cook and mentor them in nurturing and bringing up their children. This group is making beautiful baskets and floor mats to sit upon. These are local cultural ways of living and blessing family life that includes weddings, festivals, burials, brides and also serve the tasks of daily living.
The few men, women young and old work together to bring blessing and honor to their families and perserve cultural ways of life. After Justin told me about their group, explained the blessing of the bride with incense and beauty oils from cow ghee we enjoyed looking at the baskets and discussing what would help their group. I presented our proposal to bring two members from their group for several trainings in Busoro for one week multiple times through the year. These women will be called the Lydia's they will be the Trainers and train others in their group by passing on knowledge, information and skill.
I asked the group for a local proverb and they said, "We have many proverbs!"
"Though we have no hump we can still do something." This referred to the hump on the shoulder of healthy Angola Cattle. The hump must be a sign of being hearty and strong. They are saying though they are not strong and healthy they are working to do something good for their families.
Robbinah has used the same funny local proverb on several occaisions when we have been discussing the Women of the Proverbs that goes,
"Too many rats cannot complete a task."
