Hopes & Dreams

Joy Patience Gama lives every day with the scars of South Sudan’s civil war. Her vision is damaged and she struggles with chronic eye infections. Her health problems are a response, she thinks, to the many illnesses she suffered as she fled the violence as a very young child in 2014.

Separated from her family, she was fortunate to escape with her life. Now at 12 years old, she has no idea what has become of her parents – where they may be, or even if they are still alive.

Orphans of War

“I’m living with my aunt, my siblings, and my cousins,” she says. “My aunt tried reaching my parents. Maybe they will be dead, or they are alive, but we don’t know where they are.” Without her parents, she presses on as best she can, despite her health complications.

Medical support is rare in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement in Uganda. Medicine is hard to find. But Joy Patience faces an even more urgent fight every day; the fight against hunger. Your generous support through Feed The Hungry is helping to feed hungry children like Joy, and make a powerful impact on their everyday lives.

“When it’s lunchtime at school, all of us are happy when they cook for us,” she says. “They take it to class, and we eat and all of us are full. We can learn well and understand well.”

Good nutrition is the solid foundation that thousands of children like Joy Patience desperately need. The fortified rice she receives through Feed The Hungry is packed with nutrients and greatly improves her strength and health.

For the first time in a long time, she can stay in class all day, play with her friends, and laugh and play without feeling sick or hungry. You might be surprised at her dream for the future… this dedicated 12-year-old wants to become an accountant. She says it’s important to be able to plan for the future – and accountants are experts at planning! “Accountants help people by keeping their money safe, and they help them to plan how to budget and buy things,” she declares.

Joy is dreaming of a stable, secure future when she and her family can meet their needs – and help others do the same. And she has a message for you, to thank you for your generous support today: “My aunt is struggling so hard to help me study, and if you help me, I’ll be so glad. I ask for God to send more blessings to you so you can keep helping others. For people who are supporting us, I would like to say a very big thank you!”