Proserpine Café owner Joanne Klose has returned from a sensational trip to Uganda and she cannot wait to tell the Whitsunday community about the trip.
Joanne travelled to Uganda with 29 others with Mission Abundance to support two charities in Uganda, Kyampisi Childcare Ministries (KCM) and Bridge Christian Ministries (BCM).
Mission Abundance is helping these charities by building a new rehabilitation centre, giving over a thousand people access to free health care, and supplying clean drinking water.
Joanne also asked the Whitsunday community if they could donate bathing suits to give to Ugandan children and was thrilled by the response enabling her to make some very special in-person deliveries.
Joanne Klose in Uganda, Photo supplied
Joanne Klose, owner of Little Vintage Café in Proserpine has recently returned from her trip to Uganda, and what a journey!
Joanne is a member of Mission Abundance and they support two charities in Uganda - Kyampisi Childcare Ministries (KCM) and Bridge Christian Ministries (BCM).
Of the hundreds of members, 30 of them were able to visit Uganda and volunteer their time to make a difference in the remote communities of Kyampisi and Nateete.
Before her departure Joanne reached out to the local community and invited people to donate bathers so she could bring them over for Kyampisi children to wear.
Hoping for 50 sets of togs, the Whitsunday community more than delivered – the donations over double what she had anticipated – enabling her to take 108 bathers over to Uganda.
Joanne had previously visited the Ugandan children’s rehabilitation centre in 2023 and witnessed first-hand how they care for children who have had traumatic experiences.
As part of their rehabilitation the children swim and enjoy time in the on-site pool.
“The kids would go in the pool in groups, they would get out and have to hand their bathers over to the next group and so on,” explained Joanne.
“This inspired me to want to give them some more bathing suits so they could all go in the pool together!”
Joanne and the other volunteers also worked on the rehabilitation centre while she was there, once complete it will be the largest children’s rehabilitation centre in East Africa.
On both visits to Kyampisi, Joanne has worked on the build team but this visit, constructing the rehab centre is not all she did.
While in Uganda, she was also proud to be part of the community medical camp day.
This is the third medical camp that has been set up over the years and this year, incredibly, they were able to treat 1305 people in 11 hours.
The medical camp day is kindly funded by the 30 members that are selected to go.
The new rehab centre and medical day is all a part of the same project and since the charity organisations have started supporting them, they have built a medical clinic, church, boarding rooms and schoolrooms.
Joanne has been lucky enough to go to Uganda for two years in a row and before the charity arrived the community of Nateete were drinking sewerage water. This meant there was lots of sickness and some children sadly died.
In 2023 they supplied Nateete with clean drinking water and Joanne says seeing the Nateete community welcome them back has been unbelievable.
“When we went there in 2023 we walked down Nateete and they did not want us there, you could see it,” Joanne said.
"We had armed guards with us as we walked down, and it felt really eerie. You could tell that to them, we were just the group of white people taking photos.
“This year, just from having that clean water, they were waving at us and giving us massive hugs.
“The hugs and the love they give you, it is so heartwarming. It really is, I don't know another way to explain, it's amazing.”
You can get involved and help children in need at missionabundance.org, sponsorship of a child is $100 a month and Joanne has plans to place a child sponsorship wall in her Proserpine Café.
Joanne Klose back at her Proserpine Café after a successful charity trip to Uganda, Photo credit: Daniel Heggie
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