Thanksgiving birthday wish: support child united charity

Thanksgiving birthday wish for Christine Umayam: give to child united  www.childunited.org charity.  They are an international relief organization that empowers children through education.  short link for this blog http://theyshallwalk.org/?p=336

“Our Mission is to empower the poorest children in the developing world, with the vision that promoting education to a child will lead them, their family and eventually their community… out of poverty. ”  (from their website)

Child United promotes education in three ways:

1. Send educational material overseas.

2. Sponsor children in rurla schools.

3. Build learning centers.

Hope,  Help and Education delivered directly to kids…

What does this have to do with They Shall Walk .org , rehab, LIFESUIT robotic exoskeletons and me?  I have had a variety of experiences with children in distress in my life.

Make a donation today so Christine Umayam: will have her birthday wish.

As a child I had friends who lived in foster homes and abusive homes in the Seattle area.  When I was in grade school I collected dimes for an international charity.

While I served as a US Army Airborne Ranger I saw children who lived in horrible conditions in: Somalia, Oman, Panama, Honduras, Egypt, and other classified locations where we were under strict orders to “observe but DO NOT INTERFERE” where I felt helpless because I know I was capable of helping but was not allowed.

As a consultant and speaker I witnessed children in: South-side of Chicago slums (the best form of income for a seven to nine year old was to sell or distribute drugs or be hired out as a guard / lookout for keeping parked cars safe.) where they lived in tenements without windows, electricity or running water.  I met children in Kenya and Tanzania who were nine years old and the man of the house caring for three or four younger siblings.  In downtown Seattle I have met homeless children who had run away from home and were homeless by choice because going home meant accepting physical abuse as the norm.  In England I met children selling “scrumping apples” at the train station.  (*scrumping action of stealing apples from an orchard; also v. to scrump)

Recently when I was in India I met children who wanted to be students but could not and I met a group of students who wanted to posses their first dictionary.  The thing that was unusual about the dictionaries and the group of student sin India was the age group.  In Seattle the Rotary Club of Shoreline raises money to purchase dictionaries for third graders in the school district.  The Rotarians volunteer to take the dictionaries to the schools and give them to the children. The students get to use the books at school and at the end of the year they take them home because these are a gift from Rotary to the third grade students.

In Vellore India the Rotary Club of Vellore is raising money to purchase dictionary’s for students to own their first dictionary.   The students are all undergraduates at a local college.   You can donate online to They Shall Walk and designate the funds for the dictionary project and we will give the money to the Rotary Club of Vellore so they can buy the dictionaries.

In talking to friends about there travels I have heard so many stories about children in distress I can not even mention them all.  Two I will take time to mention are the Kyle & Laura Ashcroft, and Ted Walker.

Kyle & Laura have been serving in Northern Uganda as missionaries to the orphans and other unwanted people.  They are raising money now to complete the orphanage and school compound.  They recently attended a missions conference at PC Seattle where they shared more about the last couple of years and where they envision the ministry going in the next few.  The biggest need they had was for a truck so they could haul people and supplies in the undeveloped landscape of Northern Uganda in a small village called Usuk in the Katakwi district.

Ted Walker is the Outreach director at They Shall Walk.  He also is a minister and a prayer warrior.  Ted was born with CP (Cerebral Palsy).  Several times in his life he was told he can not go to school.  His mother was also told that Ted should not bother “wasting his time” going to school because he would never amount to anything.  Ted just recently celebrated his seventieth birthday and if you can imagine being a child with CP six or seven decades ago attitudes were a little worse about the prognosis of a child with a disease that cripples your muscles like CP does.

Ted’s mother was great, she just looked for a different; doctor, teacher, school, or specialist whenever she got a “no”.  Ted learned to be persistent.  Ted attended Seattle Bible College and has been working as a minister and teacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He recently traveled to the Philippines in his manual wheel chair.  This was hard for Ted to do because his power chair gives him so much independence.  For those of you who do not live in a wheelchair you need to know why Ted did not bring his power chair to the Philippines.

“The airlines will destroy a power chair or they will loose it!”  I would quote Ted but I have heard this from over thirty people, I consider it a fact.

Ted had two helpers who pushed his wheelchair and sometimes carried him up and down hills or stairs so he could go to preach and teach to the people in the Philippines.  Christine Umayam spoke about her recent trip to the Philippines and the expression of the children when they received a simple one dollar gift.  Because of Ted Walkers experience with the Philippines and Christine’s being so similar I was inspired to write this blog and make sure you all know about her “Thanksgiving birthday wish: support child united charity”

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