Helping the Homeless with the Warm Your Heart Project!

We've learned over the last 5 years that the best way to say: "THANK YOU," is to share the results!  Because of "Warm Your Heart"...

Our partnership with Mauloa has helped them to continue to offer food, clothing, fuel / bus passes, showers, resume assistance and internet time to homeless and disadvantaged community members seeking employment.  Since our fundraiser, we've gotten to know several of Mauloa's success stories.  It is amazing when you get to help someone turn their life around completely.

Our on-going plan to is to help Mauloa maintain a pantry of much needed food and supplies for their community of hungry and homeless families.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the "Warm Your Heart" events… our volunteers, sponsors and donors!

There are over 5,000 homeless in Hawaii alone.  You can help us feed, cloth and care for them.  In some cases, we can help them with jobs and homes.  A hand "up" that can completely turn their lives around!


Thank You, The Dream Team!

Hope Medical Clinic Completed!

The OOH Medical Clinic, named The Hope Clinic, has been completed and supplies are being purchased!

Because of the extra funds raised during the "Warm Your Heart Campaign" and the 2013 / 2014 "Matching Gift Campaign," we were able to help OOH complete and begin to supply The Hope Clinic!  For years, volunteer nurses have been operating out of one of the rooms in the dormitory.  This clinic will have examination rooms, an office and beds for the kids who need extra medical care.  It will also house the medical volunteer staff and maintain a pharmacy.

The construction cost were more than expected and other urgent needs had arisen to the top of everyone's priority list, so the construction came to a stand-still over a year ago.  But, thanks in part, to all of you, it is now meeting the needs of OOH kids, staff, volunteers and extended community.

Construction Stopped

Clinic In-progress

Dorm Room Clinic & Nurse!

New Arrival to OOH

By the time the children find there way to OOH, they are often very sick.   "Momma" Holly or "Daddy" William (Founders of OOH) will get a call from a local agency or hospital asking them to take "one more child," and OOH always does.

The children, when they arrive,  are all HIV+ or have active AIDS. All are malnourished and need immediate medical attention.  William say: "Usually, though not always, the children start to come back to health after about three months, and then we begin to see the joy and life come back by about six months."

Here is a collage of photos of just a few of the OOH kids that we took when we were last there.  We think this expresses what William is talking about when he talks about their joy and life!

New Farm Land & School Plans!

Additional 4 Acres Purchased!

The NEW 4 acres of land adjacent to Our Own Home (OOH) orphanage has been acquired and clearing has begun!  That brings the total OOH Campus to 8 acres!

Back in 2010, we purchased the initial 4 acres that OOH is now farming and living on.  Over the years, we funded the dormitory and main house, part of the medical clinic and, "Warm Your Heart," kitchen which is under construction right now.

Jackson Button packing maize.

Dorm #1 & Medical Clinic

What started off as 4 acres of farmland has become 5 1/2 acres of farmland and 2 1/2 acres of a beautiful campus for 60 plus HIV+ orphans who are healthy, going to school and have big plans for their future!  They currently farm about 1/3 of their staple maize based food, called posho, certain vegetables and raise chickens, cows and pigs.

Hannah Button & OOH Kids

With this additional 4 acres of land, they will be able to expand their "farm to table" vegetable garden, grow nearly all of their maize requirement, add more potatoes and other daily staples.  This new land, in addition to the 1 1/2 acres currently being farmed, should provide the majority of the 50,000 plus meals served during the year!

Finally, a portion of this sustainable farm will eventually also become the campus for the Dream of a Better World Academy.  This will be a new neighborhood school with a student to teacher ratio down from approximately 150 kids per teacher to a manageable 30 kids per teacher and will be 100% funded by an existing child sponsorship programs… so, it's also sustainable with current funding!



What started off as just a DREAM is now giving these KIDS food, medicines, school, love… and, DREAMS of their own!  Thank YOU!

BREAKING NEWS! A $20,000 Response!

One of the great ways that Dream of a Better World has communicated it's projects to potential donors is through proposals and letter writing.  This month, we received the most amazing response to Dream of a Better World's "Matching Gift Campaign Proposal" spearheaded by Dream Team Members Hannah and Jack.  The anonymous US based non-profit organization gave $20,000 to kickoff the "Dream of a Better World School" and "Sustainable Farmland" Project!  Wow!

Dorm & Unfinished Clinic (Behind)

Back in 2010, we purchased the land that Our Own Home (OOH) orphanage is now farming and living on.  Over the years, we funded the dormitory and main house, part of the medical clinic and, recently, the new kitchen being built right now.

2 1/2 Acres Cultivated

What started off as 4 acres of farmland has become 1 1/2 acres of farmland and 2 1/2 acres of a beautiful campus for 60 plus HIV+ orphans who are healthy, going to school and have big plans for their future!  They currently farm about 1/3 of their staple maize based food, called posho, certain vegetables and raise chickens, cows and pigs.

Vegetable Garden Smiles! 

With this generous $20,000 grant, they will be able to purchase an adjacent 4 acres of land that will expand their "farm to table" vegetable garden, grow maize, potatoes and other daily staples.  This land, once cultivated should provide the majority of the 50,000 plus meals served during the year!

Main House & Meeting Place

Harvesting Potatoes

When Moses found his way to OOH, he was HIV+, had tuberculous and was very sick.  Today is quite a different story… he gets love, medicine and HEALTY farm fresh food!

Hannah & Moses!

Valentine's Day at Fisher House 2014

For the second year in a row, we've delivered Valentine's gifts to our military families at the Tripler Fisher House in Hawaii!  It is part of our Operation Holiday Heroes that so many of you support.

You might remember the story of our team leader, Hannah Button, who inspired what we now call "Operation Holiday Heroes."  She was sitting with her 6th grade classmate, Riley, at Trinity Lutheran School.  A soldier quietly entered the classroom and tapped Riley on the back.  As Riley turned around,  she screamed with excitement to see her dad home from a year of deployment in Afghanistan.  Tears rolled down Riley's face, and soon Hannah found herself in a puddle of tears as well.

That moment inspired, our on-going relationship with Fisher House.  In the last three years, Dream of a Better World, along with classmates from Trinity Lutheran and Island Pacific Academy have collected, wrapped and delivered gifts to our nation's sick and injured military families.

Operation Holiday Heroes delivers these gifts on Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, Easter and, Christmas!





This is all in addition to volunteering with and becoming a lead sponsor for the "Hero & Remembrance Run" across Ford Island Bridge!  Thank you ALL for your support of Dream of a Better World, the sick and injured U.S. military families at Tripler Fisher House and for remembering the soldiers and families who gave there ALL in service to our nation!

If you world like to DONATE for any of our Operation Holiday Heroes events, please click the appropriate donate button to the right.  Thank You!

A BIG Heart Warming Success!

THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU!  

Let's hear it for the Dream Team members and supporters who care enough to DREAM of a BETTER WORLD here and also far away! 

 

Thank you to the volunteers… and supporters!  Thank you Chris & Kylie Wall of the Mauloa Foundation! THANK YOU Sistema U.S.A. for donating nearly 400 soup mugs!

 A special thank you to our California Dream Team Leader and event organizer Natalie Burrous, with help from Max, Karen & Paul.  They put on a terrific event and had a GREAT letter writing campaign!



Many, many of you dropped by our Warm Your Heart fundraisers in both Hawaii and California! Some of you dropped by our website and donated on-line!  Some of you dropped a gift in the mail!

Thank you Our Own Home for having some of the sweetest, most loving and grateful kids on earth, and for all you do to care and love on them.          

We set a goal to raise $8,000 and thanks to everyone… we raised $10,278!!  We promise that 100% of that money will go directly toward food and services for the homeless locally and for building a permanent kitchen for the orphans we know and love in Jinja, Uganda!

You are never too young or too old to make a difference!

Hawaii Dream Team Leaders,  Jack & Hannah Button.