Dear Friends of WE International,
In our effort to provide regular updates, we want to tell you about Sandra, one of the women who left a life of prostitution, came to the WE Restore home in Jinja, Uganda, and is now working toward a career in hairdressing.
The WE Restore staff say that Sandra is an example of the Lusoga proverb, “Abalamu bigogo bisalire, ti byekwekekamu.”
Loosely translated, these words mean, “People living in thinned banana plantations cannot hide there.”
The meaning of the proverb is that every person fits where they belong, no one can hide among others where they cannot fit.
Before coming to the WE Restore Home, Sandra spent more than 5 years in peer-group influenced prostitution. She had fallen out with her parents. Sandra and her friends were engaging in prostitution in Bugembe, a town about 8 km from the WE Restore Home in Jinja.
For the equivalent of 50 cents, Sandra was selling her body so that she could eat.
Sandra was also suffering from asthma and other health problems. Ultimately, Sandra was recruited to join the WE Restore Home because she realized that she could not hide in the life of prostitution that her friends were pursuing because she did not fit there.
Sandra’s first days at the WE Restore Home were not easy. She verbally and physically resisted staff and the other women at the home. Eventually Sandra, now 22, experienced physical and spiritual healing.
Sandra has learned life skills and is in a position to earn a living as a hair dresser, and dreams of owning her own salon.
“I feel like I am in heaven compared to time before I joined the Restore program months ago. I feel so much better that sometimes I even remember that I was every man’s sex object. Yes, I feel like I have finally started to live. I feel like a reborn person,” said Sandra.
If you wish to support the efforts of WE International to help women like Sandra, please consider donating using the link below. Any amount helps.
Thank you for your support,
WE International Board of Directors
Euphrase Amessoudji
Laura Breu
Alex Goellner
Lilian Kahite
Don Millis
