Batwa - Heart 2 Heart Hand N Hand International

About the Children of Batwa

Richard Mwesigwa

This is Richard Mwesigwa From Kabale, Uganda. He is a H2H Inlt partner. He runs a safari in Africa and learned of the Batwa on a gorilla tracking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, home to Gorillas and the previous home to the Batwa. Richard's heart is for the sweet children of the Batwa. His efforts are on empowerment for food, security, income generation, healthy bodies and souls. The Batwa have become his family he has advised them, shared meals and footed some of the medical bills any time they came to him. They have become good friends, we know them they know us. Richard plans to continue to help the Batwa in every way he can and H2H Intl wants to help also. Your generous donations are very appreciated!

AboutThe Batwa People

The batwa are an indegenous people of the forest who lived together with the gorillas before conservation in early 90s, these people lived and guarded the forest and gorillas as their home. They harvested honey, tree leaves, fruits and hunted small wild game for food, but the government misunderstood that and cast them out of the forest without any clear resettlement and compassion plan. Today the Batwa are living as squatters on other peoples land. Having had no survival skills in the new environment, the Batwa live an un-certain lifestyle with no housing, land or even basic needs of life meanwhile facing a lot of stigmatization, exploitation and marginalization with many people regarding them as useless subhumans. Their children have no future and do not go to school, this has led to continued increase in poverty levels. The Batwa have the highest child death rates in Uganda. More than half of the children of landless Batwa die before the age of five and are killed by preventable and treatable diseases. Such diseases include malaria, dysentery, diarrhea, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, Acute Respiratory Infections and Malnutrition, a disease of poverty has claimed most of the Batwa lives. Adults fare only slightly better. Over 70% of the world’s hungry live in underdeveloped countries. Women and children are most negatively impacted. Every ten seconds a child dies of malnutrition, making up 45% of all child deaths under age five in developing countries. Among the Batwa, child survival is minimal and very few make it to age five. The causes of death are preventable. With all this the batwa remain a very happy people with great love for music and live to share their culture with others. You can be a hero and save one or two innocent souls in rural Uganda by donating today.

Thank You For Your Support!

Learn More About the Batwa People

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How We are Helping

We have been engaging the Batwa in their spiritual growth, learning of the word of God, teaching verses and how to pray and rely on prayer. Their faith has greatly grown. We hope that we will see total transformation with time. First aid skills are very essential in very remote areas where medical services are very scarce. The Batwa represent the highest rates of child mortality from minor injuries and accidents in the country. The people need to know how to manage patients until specialized treatment becomes available. We hope to extend these skills to the Batwa through medical camps and medical training. We have already began holding medical camps and CPR training camps and hope to continue in the future.

School For the Batwa Children

The greatest gift we can ever Give to the Batwa is a Christian education. The Batwa have very many needs but educating their children would empower them now and into the future. Many schools reject the Batwa and others take them in but marginalize and discriminate against them. There are a number of other reasons which force the Batwa out of school, such as hunger, domestic violence, early marriages, rape, lack of scholastic materials, uniforms and sanitaries in girls. Our wishes are for a school that will address all these problems and ensure that the Batwa children stay in school and learn a skill or two by level seven. We are raising funds to build this school for them. Donations can be made for this project on our secure giving page.

Purchasing Land For Batwa

It is believed that possession of land is key in making permanent decisions. The Batwa seem to have lost hope after they were evicted from their home with out compassion for their lost land. Because they lived in forest as hunters and gatherers, they lacked the skills to survive in the new environment. Now they live destitute lives, with a lot of hopelessness. Friends of Batwa International is working towards restoring this lost hope, by giving access to land for education to build a school with clean water, medical care and food security with agriculture. Some of the major problems hurting the Batwa in Uganda are land, poor housing units, household incomes, sanitation and hygiene, but the biggest of all being land. “Friends of Batwa International “ has been formed by Richard Mwesigwa and Bob and Gloria are on the international board. Friends of Batawa International has 5 board members that are Ugandans, along with Tino and Pastor Safari who speaks the Batwa language. This is just the beginning of helping the Batwa people, we will have many years of helping them. Village K is a model village to replicate for other villages in the future. There are many people to help in this region.We are trying to help secure land for the Batwa. One acre is already purchased and we are hoping for it to be used for growing tea to create income, teaching gardening skills, vocational training and spiritual transformations. We are wanting to create a building for the leaders to gather, fellowship, worship and help others with the many needs of the Batawa people. We need funding for moving forward, this is only phase one of many plans for helping the Batwa.

Non Profit Information

Institutional Relationships

Although H2H works along side other organizations in sharing God’s love and message, it is not directly affiliated with any organization, church or ministry.

Tax Deductible Donations

Heart 2 Heart Hand N Hand Intl (H2H) is a Oregon, USA, Nonprofit Humanitarian Organization. H2H is a IRS 501(c)3 tax exempt organization. All donations are tax deductible. 1045 letter and EIN is available upon request and will be mailed out in January. The directors and staff of H2H serve as committed volunteers.