Cathy Groenendijk, beaming along with children in her program, Confident Children out of Conflict.
I first met Cathy Groenendijk, a Ugandan, in Juba, South Sudan. She runs an extraordinary organization named, Confident Children out of Conflict (CCC), which provides a home and support for 100 girls and a few boys. I learned about CCC simply by doing a Google search because I knew I wanted our Foundation to work in South Sudan— a country torn apart by war and poverty.
The Bill Cook Foundation provides CCC with several types of support for the children. First, through Cathy, I met a girl named Mary who had been tragically burned in a fire in a refugee camp near Juba (with Cathy, one spends a lot of times visiting camps and slums). The Bill Cook Foundation had the connections and the loyal donors (you!) that allowed Mary to have several reconstructive surgeries over the course of a year at the famous child burn center, Coaniquem, in Santiago, Chile.
Cathy returned to Uganda from South Sudan, taking some girls including Mary and boys with her so she could care for them, get the medical care that they needed, and start them in appropriate schools.
In the meantime, I was contacted by Shaban Lutaaya, who grew up in a slum in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. He wrote to me because he had no organization and no bank account, but was working hard to help these children who looked a lot like he did at their age. He took me along the food distribution effort that he did twice a week for about 50 kids. I thought it would be good to invite Cathy to meet Shaban. I was busy passing out food, not an easy job because some of the bigger kids were really hungry and did not want to wait till the little ones were fed. Only after the boys vanished into the streets did I learn that Cathy had ‘interviewed’ every boy to learn how many were ready to attend school. She had 14 names. And Cathy, who is quite connected in Uganda, knew of schools that would take them. So, you and the Bill Cook Foundation provided school fees for those 14. Twelve attend a boarding school outside Kampala while two older boys attended a Muslim boarding school in the city.
Shaban Lutaaya and a few of the boys at Hope for the Voiceless.
Cathy worked with Shaban to create Hope for the Voiceless, helping with everything from establishing a bank account to creating the structure for the organization. And Cathy got the Bill Cook Foundation to provide grants for educating the children she brought from Juba. I visited Bero, a boy born with deformed legs whom Cathy had found on the streets. She told me that everyone agreed that he would never walk. Well, those people may know science, but they did not know Bero. He would watch children playing, and he so wanted to play that he largely willed himself to walk. Often that meant walking a few steps and falling and getting right up and a few more steps and falling and getting up and…. For Bero and a few others, the Bill Cook Foundation pledged to support them in as much education as they could get and use.
The determined Bero with Bill.
Cathy also wrote me about an elementary school in a slum that desperately needed toilets. So, how do I get money for toilets, I wondered? This was not in my fundraising plans. But, my 17-year-old grandson Gabriel Quintero asked if I had a project that the National Honor Society of West Irondequoit High School in suburban Rochester, NY could fundraise for. A light bulb went on! I told him about the need for toilets but asked whether the NHS would buy into it. They did. Their gift, combined with some general funds from the Bill Cook Foundation, made it possible to provide for the building of toilets, which also are used by nearby residents. I took Gabriel to Kampala, and he and I had the great honor of dedicating toilets.
Toilets in Kampala, Uganda—funded by a high school in Irondequoit, NY, and the Bill Cook Foundation.
Shaban has also expanded his work. He is active in feeding children and some adults during the Covid pandemic. He asked the Bill Cook Foundation to fund that project, and we do. I was also able to obtain about 1,000 books for Hope for the Voiceless, so that there was some instruction that goes on during time when schools are shut. The Foundation is working with the Good Steward Global Initiative, a charity founded by Mark Cotham in Houston. I learned of Mark’s work to collect books and ship them to places without books from his brother, who had been on a tour I had led. The Bill Cook Foundation had bought a shipment of 15,000 books to be distributed in Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan. The 1,000 books that went to Hope for the Voiceless are of priceless importance.
Needless to say, COVID-19 has interrupted all of our work, but it takes more than a pandemic to stop Cathy and Shaban and the children they serve. The two oldest boys, the ones in the Muslim high school, help Shaban in the slum by delivering food.
Joon Yang of Raise Uganda Now, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Bill Cook Foundation.
Uganda’s problems have been affected not only by the pandemic but by a violent election that predictably favored Yoweri Museveni. Museveni has been in power since 1986, and the international community has agreed that it was not a fair election. And Shaban had serious medical problems that involved expensive surgery. A member of our Board of Advisors, Joon Yang, who is president of his own 501(c)3 charity in Uganda, RUN (www.raiseugandanow.org), which our Foundation supports, decided to do an online fundraiser for Shaban and raised more than enough to pay for his surgery.
Cathy’s work continues with our help and with major support from Brandon Stanton, bestselling author of Humans of New York and more recently Humans. Shaban’s work continues and expands; the Bill Cook Foundation is the link between the two of them. One of our next projects will be buying equipment so some children in Kampala’s slums will be able to play soccer. The Bill Cook Foundation has experience with soccer in Uganda. Joon Yang’s RUN has a soccer program that we fund—the Bill Football Club. We provided uniforms and shoes and basic equipment. The only requirement to belong is to agree to stay in school. And we pay the school fees for all of the kids on our team who need help.
The Bill Football Club in Uganda.
The Bill Cook Foundation is a weaver—we take initially unrelated elements and find ways to weave them together for the good of all. Think of the pieces. The Bill Cook Foundation and all of its donors, Cathy, CCC, Mary, the individuals and organizations that made Mary’s miraculous recovery possible including World of Children and Coaniquem in Chile, Shaban Lutaaya, Hope for the Voiceless, National Honor Society of West Irondequoit High School, Good Steward Global Initiative, Raise Uganda now, Humans of New York, and several other individuals and organizations.
This is what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.
Thank you for your support,
Bill Cook
Beautiful Mary, having received life-changing surgery for her burns. Thank you, supporters of the Bill Cook Foundation, dozens of others, including the World of Children and Coaniquem in Chile.
Bill Cook and Cathy Groenendijk: Weavers.