Earlier this year while I was leading a Compassion vision trip to Uganda, I met a beautiful little boy named Shakul.
The first thing I noticed about Shakul were his striking blue eyes and what looked like a long, pale birthmark that ran down the center of his face. When I asked the local staff about this boy, they told me that he suffers from a skin condition called vitiligo which causes a loss of pigmentation in patches of his skin. As a result of this condition, Shakul’s hands and feet are completely white.
Many people in Uganda believe that this unusual pigmentation is a curse from the gods. For this reason, Shakul’s mother abandoned him on his grandmother’s doorstep when he was only 7 months old. He is 17 months old now and lives with his paternal grandmother Zalika and his father, who is unemployed.
Zalika loves and cares for Shakul dearly but she does not have the means to support him. They survive on the charity of the local church, and every now and then Zalika does some cooking for the church to earn a little bit of extra money.
At the moment, Shakul cannot be registered to receive aid from Compassion Uganda because the nearby children’s centers are at maximum capacity. There are two Compassion centers a little further away that have space to enroll Shakul into their Child Survival Program (CSP), but the family would need to relocate closer to one of those centers in order to be eligible.
Shakul is a special boy who needs special care. From his physical symptoms, it is also possible that he suffers from Waardenburg syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by pale blue eyes, a forelock of white hair, skin pigmentation, and moderate to profound hearing loss. Even as a little toddler, he wears socks most of the time to hide his white feet. As he gets older, he is at risk of being bullied, abused, and discriminated against because of his skin condition. He already shows early signs of trauma as he is very wary of strangers and points his finger at unfamiliar people as though he is telling them to go away and leave him alone.
But with the unconditional love of his grandmother, a community that nurtures him physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and a little help from faraway friends like you and me, he can grow up to be a healthy and smart young man with a bright future.
We want to raise a total US$3,000 for Shakul to help him and his grandmother move to an area where Shakul can be registered with Compassion and Zalika can buy a small plot of land to build a house. Once they have their own piece of land, Zalika can also grow vegetables and other crops to sell and live off.
Here is the breakdown of estimated costs for this project as provided by Compassion Uganda:
Cost of purchasing a small plot of land (50m x 100m):
US$1,060–US$1,212
Cost of building a two-room house: US$1,200
Donation for family’s basic needs: US$500
We aim to reach our fundraising goal by the end of November so we can send the money to Zalika and Shakul before the end of the year.
Your donation, no matter how big or small, can help change this little boy’s life and give him a brighter future. We thank you for your kindness, generosity, and love for little Shakul. God bless you!
If you have any questions or would like further details, please
contact Matthew Hong at mhong@compassion.or.kr
If you would like to learn more about Compassion Uganda, click here: http://www.compassion.com/about/where/uganda.htm
If you would like more information about Compassion’s Child
Survival Program, click here:
http://www.compassion.com/how-we-work/child-survival-program.htm
If you would like to learn more about vitiligo, click here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitiligo
If you would like to learn more about Waardenburg syndrome, click
here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waardenburg_syndrome
