Collecting Clothing for Ugandan Newborns

By Jeffrey Blackwell
Memorial Church Communications

Church School children in the Memorial Church are working with a long-time congregant to help clothe new-born babies in a small Ugandan community in need of help.

For the next several weeks the children will be collecting lightly used or new baby clothes (3 months to 1 year) in bins located throughout the church, for new mothers and their babies in the rural region of Uganda. The donations will be given to the Kisoro Children’s Foundation, a non-profit founded and supported by Ellen Williams, one of the faithful members the Memorial Church congregation.

Kisoro is located in south-western tip of Uganda, about 300 miles from the capital city of Kampala. With a population of about 13,000 it is in the shadow of the Mufumbiro Mountains, a home to rare mountain gorillas. The Kisoro Children’s Foundation helps provide funding to build schools, fund scholarships, and provide support for children in the region. In 2018 it provided funding for a permanent home for the Ineza Children’s Centre and Ineza Parents’ School.

Recently, the foundation worked with a non-profit in California to help provide disposable diapers for new mothers in Kisoro. It was a suggestion from a hospital nurse in Kisoro that sparked the idea for the clothing drive.

“When my colleague delivered the diapers, the nurse who was taking them said, ‘We know this isn't what you usually do, but would people ever be willing to donate baby clothes?”’ Williams said. “She told me mothers who show up literally don't have a single outfit to take the baby home in. So mothers come in and the nurses are tearing up a sheet, or they're wrapping the baby in grandmother's used dress or something.”

The donations will be packed and shipped directly to her colleagues in Kisoro. Williams is working within her own networks, and her daughter’s young mothers Facebook group to bring in clothing donations. But she also though she would reach out to the Memorial Church for help.

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“It's one of those happy things where whatever we get is more than what they have." And I told the church school children to consider yourself successful if you get 50 outfits and if you get 500 that’s wonderful.” Williams said. “We're just thrilled that people are interested and can help.”

Donation bins are located in the Sanctuary and in the Student Oasis.