About Us
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…touching all hearts with love… Charity number: SCO38320
’Funded by the Scottish Community Foundation’
Tel: 0141 883 9931
Support Home of God Project (SuhoG Project) which started in 2001 as a non-governmental organization in Nigeria is now an international charity serving the local community in Glasgow – Scotland, elderly persons, orphans and the poor in rural communities of Nigeria, Kenya and Sierra Leone. In Kenya and Sierra Leone we care for the elderly who are now carers of their grand children whose parents died of AIDS/HIV. SuhoG’s focus is on rural communities of Africa. We run projects that alleviate poverty and improve the quality of life of the rural people through education, healthcare, and empowerment of rural communities to better their plights.
SCOTLAND
SuhoG as a Scottish Charity operates around the Glasgow environs. We provide services to the Elder, the Ethnic minority women, single/lone mothers, women who experience domestic violence and abuse. We also work with women who have alcohol/drug addiction and especially those going through DETOX. Our aim is to provide services that encourage independence, dignity and better quality of life. We help the ethnic minority be well integrated into their communities and access resources that are available for their enhancement to contribute positively to the society. We run activities that help the disadvantaged and those on social benefits overcome barriers, build self confidence and improve their opportunities.
The Elderly
In Africa we still rely on the extended family system to provide for the elderly. Caring for the elderly has always been taken for granted to be filial responsibility with little or no government support. However, social and economic changes currently occurring have put into doubt the continued viability of such traditional arrangements for the elderly. Such changes, like increased emphasis on smaller family units, migration to urban areas, more working wives, new life styles and changing values have eroded the traditional form of caring for the elderly who are custodians of our rich culture.
The main concerns of older people relate to conditions associated with extreme poverty, inadequate living conditions, and problems with inter-generational violence and abuse. These poverty–stricken elderly of our society, lay dying with debilitating disabilities and diseases of any nature that even reduce their dignity. It cannot be over emphasized that the situations of our elderly men and women deteriorate by the second. They have no access to clean water, nutritional food, clothing, healthcare and basic needs.
There is no workable social security for the elderly in Africa. All focus of the Government has been on the youth, family planning etc. No body thinks and plans for the elderly in rural communities. Instead some rich folks use them for profit ventures in the urban areas where they are littered all over the place for street begging. They are in the streets, exposed to very harsh conditions of living, are hazards to road users and to themselves and are exploited in every way inhuman. Yet nobody ‘blinks an eye’.
In the light of these problems, SuhoG Project came to birth to try improve the quality of life of the elderly poor in rural communities and to be a ‘voice’ for the voiceless.
Children
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In Sierra Leone, one of several West African countries recently devastated by civil war, SuhoG works to save children from prostitution or forced labor.
A decade of conflict has made poverty in Sierra Leone so bad that many families cannot afford to take care of their children. Over 1,500 children live on the streets in Freetown alone, making a living doing odd jobs. They are the children most in danger of violence and sexual abuse.
As the levels of poverty increase so are their levels of vulnerability. Children as old as 5years are pushed onto the streets to fern for themselves and in some cases, the entire family. Some of these children especially girls are trafficked down to Europe and other parts of the world.
SuhoG is working with the Sierra Leonean government to bring children back into the educational system, so children are not exposed to dangers on the streets. Most importantly, it is mounting campaigns against physical and sexual abuse of children. But attitudes are difficult to change. SuhoG also campaigns against child-trafficking in Sierra Leone.
Women
Women in rural African countries face a wall of challenges to their individual rights, inside and outside of their homes. They have little or no economic powers and rarely see the profits of their work. The daily life of a typical rural African woman is that of hard labour with minimal support.
Abject poverty and the struggle to make ends meet remain their biggest obstacles. They have limited facilities available to them especially, healthcare, water, electricity and food. The double burden of decease especially AIDS/HIV puts huge strain to the scarce resources. Disabilities both mental and physical affect their independence and thus women bear the brunt of poverty and hopelessness.
We run programmes that are tailored to their individual needs especially the widows, child-mothers, single parents and the elderly. We meet them at the point of their needs via education, healthcare and micro credit facilities.
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SuhoG Kenya
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Miserere Orphanage Home - Siaya Kenya
THE FACTS
In Kenya, HIV/AIDS is a national emergency. An estimated 2.1 million adults and children live with HIV/AIDS, representing about 14 percent of the sexually active population. Kenya has the ninth highest HIV prevalence rate in the world. UNAIDS estimates that about 500 persons died of AIDS each day in the country in 1999. Many experts in Kenya now use the figure of 600 deaths or more per day. U.S. Census Bureau projections indicate that by 2005, there will be about 820 deaths per day from AIDS in Kenya.
HIV/AIDS has ravaged Kenya during a period of dramatic increases in the rate of poverty. In 1972, it was estimated that about 3.7 million Kenyans lived in poverty (defined as an income level of less than U.S. $1 per day). Today that number is about 15 million, or about 52 percent of the population. Nyanza Province-which has the highest rate of HIV infection in the country, about 29 percent - also records the highest poverty rate, 63 percent, whereas in the early 1990s it was among the least poor regions.
Girls are especially affected by the AIDS epidemic in Kenya. The rate of HIV infection in girls and young women from fifteen to nineteen years old is about six times as high as that of their male counterparts in the most heavily affected regions, a pattern seen in many African countries. One Kenyan girl in five reports that her first sexual experience is coerced or forced.
Girls are more readily pulled out of school when someone in the household is ill with AIDS, as has been noted in other countries. Ministry of Education figures show that after four years of primary school in heavily AIDS-affected Nyanza Province, girls make up only 6 percent of those who are promoted to grade five. In Eastern Province, which has the lowest rate of HIV prevalence of Kenyan provinces, 42 percent of those passing into grade five are girls. The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education attributed these disparities to AIDS and also noted that girls and boys passed through to grade five in roughly equal numbers twenty years ago before the epidemic’s impact was felt. A recent detailed study carried out by the nongovernmental organization Population Communication Africa found that out of 72 children orphaned by AIDS on Rusinga Island in western Kenya, girls from AIDS-affected households were less likely to be in school than boys.
Miserere Home is one of our projects in rural Ugunja –Siaya district that helps the communities with their orphans. We also run projects with the youth, women and the elderly. Healthcare and health education are our paramount programmes to help combat the spread of AIDS/HIV.
Directors
Nigeria:
Sr. Mary Prylla Eugene (Chairperson)
Anthonia Nwagbo ( Founder)
Rev. Fr. Kevin Paul Elendu (Project Coordinator)
Dr. Tom Adaba
Mrs. Vera O. N. Fintan
Mrs. Ann N. Brown
Mr. Joachim Chiekwe Nwagbo
Barr. Clement Ukattah (Legal Secretary)
Mr. Charles C. Achor
Mr. Sunny N. Fintan
Mr. Bruno N. Chike
Kenya:
Rev. Fr. Frederick O. Nyanguf (Project Coordinator - Kenya)
Mr. Jared Buoga
Mr. Vincent Otieno
Sierra Leone:
Bishop J.O.P Lynch (Bishop Of Freetown And Bo)
Martin Malamah-Thomas
Julia Lynch
Ike Nwagbo
Scotland:
Noel Mcavennie - Trustee
Rev. Fr. Frederick O. Nyanguf – Trustee
Mary P. Eugene – Trustee
Mijo Ayo Agbededo - Trustee