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Flourish is a very important word to our organization as it is at the core of our mission. What we hope to see on a daily basis is a child flourishing in all ways, and we encourage and guide this beautiful process.

flour·ish
/ˈfləriSH/
to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly favorable environment

That’s what we want for YOU! Every day we see girls flourish in our program from the counseling, education and work training. Uganda has an orphan crisis with children living in severe poverty, lacking money to attend school and have no family. They have no support or examples of how to grow up and live an independent life. Without any tools and support, they often have no hope. We make strides every day to provide the resources and environment necessary for them to flourish in a life of their own.

We serve the most destitute children in our program who have a strong desire to educate themselves, so they can have a productive and self-reliant future. Children not participating in one of our vocational programs, attend Ugandan schools and all children receive food, shelter, counseling, spiritual development, social and life skills classes.

We’ve seen many children flourish and create a life for themselves that they never imagined was possible. For example, Annet Alumna lost her father at an early age and was raised in poverty in a slum called Ndeeba. Her family could not afford to pay for school and she was forced to abandon her education. Annet wanted to learn, and under the guidance of our caring staff, she received counseling and entered the catering vocation. Annet is flourishing in life.

As Spring begins to ramp up, take time to self-reflect and see if you are flourishing in the different avenues of life. If not, what can you do to change it? It’s time to put yourself first and make sure you are in a supporting and loving environment that allows you to grow and develop into the best version of yourself!

Peace + Prosperity
Cristen Lyn
Hope for Hearts Founder

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With confidence, you can do anything

This week’s Weekend Word is extra special to me because the children are reminded every single day of their confidence and abilities to succeed.

con·fi·dence
a: a feeling or consciousness of one’s powers or of reliance on one’s circumstances had perfect confidence in her ability to succeed met the risk with brash confidence
b: faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way have confidence in a leader

Imagine being ten years old, unable to go to school, not knowing if you will have food to eat for dinner or where you are going to sleep at night. Living a life like that would make it hard to have any confidence or faith.

When the children start at our program, they often think that they can’t succeed at anything. We turn can’t into can. At our program, confidence is the key to success. We take vulnerable children many with very little confidence and self-esteem and teach them how to turn their lives around. We teach them about self-worth through therapy and classes. By making them feel like their life matters, they get a boost of confidence. The children express what they are interested in and we teach them the necessary skills, so they can gain experience and lead a fulfilling life.

Everyone deserves a chance at a happy life – and that’s what we strive to provide these innocent children. We meet these kids when they are scared, insecure and hopeless about the future. By helping them face their fears, they gain strength and confidence along the way. With a little bit of love and education, we build confidence and make it possible for these kids to do anything they put their mind to.

With love always,
Cristen

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Take a Trip Down Memory Lane

February is always a fond month for us here at Hope for Hearts. It is the month that St. Elizabeth’s Girls Academy was founded. This year, we celebrate the school’s 20th anniversary. In honor of that, I thought we’d take a trip down memory lane and look at 20 things society was doing in 1998.

Take a Trip Down Memory Lane

  1. World population: 5,912,000,0000
  2. The price of a 2L bottle of Coke is only 89 cents.
  3. President Clinton gets impeached for misconduct with Monica Lewinsky.
  4. Hampsterdance.com, one of the earliest examples an internet meme and click-bait, was created by a group of Canadian students competing to see who could generate the most traffic. Hampton and the Hampsters are still around and enjoying a career in music today!
  5. We lost Seinfeld. The final episode of this classic, well-loved show, aired on May 14, 1998.
  6. JetBlue Airways was founded.
  7. The hit teen drama primetime TV show, Dawson’s Creek aired for the first time.
  8. Everybody’s favorite toy – the Furby – hit store shelves and made its way into homes everywhere in 1998.
  9. Total Request Live, a TV show counting down the top 10 music videos, aired for the first time. The show was canceled in 2008 and only recently saw a revival last year.
  10. Sex and the City aired for the first time. Women everywhere were following the lives of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda as they explored the dating scene in Manhattan.
  11. Girl Power was unleashed in the US via the debut of the Spice Girls.
  12. Apple first brought iMac into the world.
  13. Google was founded.
  14. That 70’s show appeared for the first time.
  15. Mp3 Players were introduced to the world.
  16. Britney Spears debuted in the pop music scene and hasn’t stopped yet.
  17. Bellagio Hotel & Casino opens in Las Vegas.
  18. Frank Sinatra, one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century, dies.
  19. The Euro was introduced in Europe.
  20. SEGA (St. Elizabeth’s Girls Academy) opened its doors to the orphaned girls in Uganda, promising to lift them from poverty to prosperity through education.

Much like the celebrity marriages of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston or Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, a few of the things on this list have come and gone. But several, like Google, Apple, The Euro, Bellagio, JetBlue, etc. have stayed and thrived over the years. We’re proud to have SEGA listed among one of the great organizations that are celebrating 20 years this year. That’s two decades of creating new memories and opportunities for orphaned girls in need.

The school wouldn’t be able to continue to do what it does best without the support of organizations like Hope for Hearts, and generous donors and supporters like you. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who continues to play a role in the success and future of the kids in our schools.

If you wish to say congratulations to SEGA, you can do so by making a donation, in any amount, to Hope for Hearts, so that we can continue to help the school support even more children throughout the next 20 years.

Donate Today

With Gratitude,
Cristen

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Continuing our conversation from the last blog, today I want to talk about the classic holiday story “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.” The Grinch had no Christmas spirit. He lived alone high on a mountaintop, away from society, fending for himself. Cast away by so many for so long, many would say he had an evil spirit scaring passersby and trying to steal Christmas.
But, as the 2000 Jim Carrey remake of this tale shows, The Grinch wasn’t always this way. Despite his unconventional looks and behavior – his spirit wasn’t bad as a child. He was a kind, fun-loving soul just like any other kid. He tried his best to get in the Christmas spirit, but teasing and taunting from the other Who’s broke him. So he became an outcast, fled to live alone high on top of a mountain for years to come, hating the Who’s and letting evil control his spirit.
You could say that his spirit was broken, until Cindy-Lou Who came and changed that. She too was in search of what it means to be in the Christmas Sprit. She found her spirit by bringing joy to others and helping the Grinch find joy again.
The lesson to be learned here is that only through kindness, can we change a broken spirit, and spread peace and happiness in the world. Much like the Grinch, there are several orphaned children in Uganda, alone, in dangerous environments, left to fend for themselves with no shelter or protection from people who care. For some, their spirits may be broken, some may be forced to darken their spirit by doing things like cheat, lie or steal just to survive. But they too weren’t always this way, and their spirits can also be mended.
If we’ve learned one thing from the story of The Grinch and Cindy-Lou Who, it’s that spirits can be repaired with a little love and kindness. Will you be the Cindy-Lou Who to our kids this year? For just $240, or $20 per month, you can sponsor an orphaned child in Uganda, providing them with a year’s worth of education and shelter at one of our schools. That’s a year to show them compassion, teach them kindness and provide them with the family they desperately need. A year to help heal their broken spirit and prove to themselves that they can break free from the cycle of poverty and be a productive citizen towards the healing of their nation.
We’ve got the spirit to continue on in the fight against poverty in Uganda. Yes, we’ve got spirit, yes we do. We’ve got spirit, how about you?
Wishing Many Blessings
Cristen
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I hope you have had an amazing holiday season filled with love, laughter, joy and family.  By now you’ve hopefully had time to decorate the house, put up the Christmas tree, bake cookies, drink hot chocolate, gaze at your neighbors holiday lights, and most importantly spend time with those you love. Yes, the Christmas spirit is all around us.
In the spirit of the season, let’s just see what that really means. In a two-part blog, we’re going to explore the word spirit in a special edition of the Weekend Word.
 
spir·it
ˈspirit
noun
 
1. the nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul.
 
2. those qualities regarded as forming the definitive or typical elements in the character of a person, nation, or group or in the thought and attitudes of a particular period.
Oftentimes we refer to the spirit as if it’s inherently a good thing. Just like the old cheer goes “We’ve go spirit, yes we do. we’ve got spirit how about you?” Nobody says what kind of spirit they have, we all assume based on social cues it’s a good spirit based on bonding by a group or nation. But that same bonding can be used for bad as well. There are 15 types of spirits in the Bible, some bad and some good; but at the end of the day, everyone has a spirit.
If everyone on Earth has a spirit, then I believe it’s our job to make those spirits whole, and filled with as much happiness and light as possible. Outside factors may bring us down and break our spirits quite a bit, but as the old motivational saying goes “Whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” It means that in the face of adversity, our spirits may be down in the dumps, some might say broken. When we face a struggle we can and must do whatever it takes to heal our spirit and let our true light shine.
At Hope for Hearts we certainly have spirit. We are warriors of the soul. Helping children at the worst times in their lives work hard to battle their physical and emotional wounds. heal their own soul, and lift themselves from poverty to prosperity. We do this so that one child at a time, we can help lift the spirits of an entire nation.
To Be Continued…
Cristen