What do you do when 8 of your siblings die from AIDS over the course of a year, leaving 14 children orphaned? Sam and Irene Kisolo, responded by opening their hearts and home to several of these children, while Sam’s sister Alice took in the rest. What seems unimaginable to most of us became a fulfilment of the passion and desire God had already placed in their hearts. At the very beginning of their marriage, they used their honeymoon to volunteer at an orphanage for 3 months! This experience birthed the Foster Family Network.
This passion did not stop with 14 children. Over 39 children have found a forever home with the Kisolo’s, and many more have been fostered… and the doors are always open for one more. Some children are orphaned through accidents and illnesses, but most from the ravages of AIDS.
The Foster Family Network was founded in the 90’s and is directed by the Kisolo’s. It was born through a desire to reach widows and orphans who are in desperate need. The network provides support for 280 children in 28 families! The Foster Family Network has a wide variety of ministries including: a medical clinic, a farm, support for widows and orphans, college scholarships, primary schools, and many other projects that rewrite the stories of the most vulnerable.
“We don’t just teach our children to work hard; we teach them to love hard work. Only by loving hard work can they break the cycle of poverty”.
Sam Kisolo
Uganda
Uganda is a landlocked eastern African country. This beautiful country is full of volcanic hills which accent the treeless plains alongside dense mountains and warm lakes. Uganda has 46 million people, 56.97% under the age of 18! It is also the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, with more than a million refugees from Sudan and Congo.
84% Uganda’s population lives in rural areas and rely on subsistence farming to survive. Nearly half the population lives on less than $1.90 a day. There are more than 50,000 orphaned children and the government declared that 15,000 children were living on the streets within the capital of Kampala alone.
Education is one of the first opportunities lost. UNICEF reported that one out of five Ugandan children between the ages of 6-17 years old had never attended or attended but never completed primary school. Research from the U.S. embassy places the number of Ugandan children involved in prostitution between 7,000 and 12,000.
