This week Grotto catches up with Maria Kane. She supports the work of Imprint Hope — an organization in Uganda that educates families of children with special needs so they can better care for them.
"I just really felt like the Lord was tugging on my heart to start educating people so they can start accepting these children for who they are," she shares.
If you want to learn more, visit Imprint Hope's website.
Video Transcript
Maria Kane: I'm Maria Kane. I learned about an organization called Imprint Hope, which is located in Jinja, Uganda.
There's a huge stigma in Uganda that children with special needs are cursed. They don't understand that it's actually a medical diagnosis, so I just really felt like the Lord was tugging on my heart to start educating people, so that they can accept these children for who they are.
Maria leads a microfinance program that teaches mothers how to run a small business.
Maria: Imprint Hope helps educate the entire family of a special needs child. A lot of mothers don't understand that their child has just as many human rights as their healthy child or as they do. The minute they learn that their child has all the rights they do, there is just a huge shift in the way they relate to their child.
Our mission is to equip, empower, and encourage these mothers so that they can better care for their special needs child. Our prayer is that we'll eventually break the cycle of how Uganda looks at these children, so that special needs children are really seen for who they are and not who the culture has decided that they are.
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