 as we journey to take your health back. We are coming to you live from downtown Honolulu from the studios of ThinkTekhavai, which hosts about 45 different diverse and colorful shows monthly. Today, our topic of discussion will be on building Ohana in Uganda. From despair to hope, no longer orphans but sons and daughters. We will be talking about rescuing frightened, abandoned children, providing their basic needs and watching them grow into healthy, well-rounded young people with dreams of a future. What I would like you to take away from today's discussion is the idea that if we can do it, you can do it. It's less about our ability and more about our availability. Today, we are very honored to welcome Chuck and Nancy Reed back home to Hawaii. They are the founders of King's Kids Africa. So Chuck and Nancy, I've known you for a while, and we are kind of like travel buddies and I know we have yet to venture together to Uganda. So just tell me, how did this all get started, this King's Kids Africa in Uganda? Well, as we approach the end of our careers, we are hungry for something of purpose, something for God's kingdom. So the first step, we took a trip to Uganda. While we were there, you couldn't help but be amazed at the hundreds of children that surrounded us. They just were all over and there was nobody there to watch them. No parents caring about them. And we found out that it's because they were all orphans. So as orphans, they just wandered around not knowing who was going to take care of them. And we saw this a couple of years in a row. And when we left there, we thought, somebody's going to have to do something about this. Wow. You know, there are so many countries in Africa and around the world with all kinds of needs. Why did you choose to have King's Kids Africa land in Uganda to start? Well when we first started seeing the needs there, it kind of grew on our heart for a couple of years. And we decided because maybe we were the ones that could do something, we decided to start our nonprofit King's Kids Africa to help these orphaned children. And so what have you done to accomplish, how did you accomplish King's Kids Africa? When we first started out, we just wanted to meet the physical needs of the children and to help them know their Heavenly Father. We like to say that we provide homes for love and physical care, schools for education to help lift them out of poverty, churches for spiritual development, and then finally community for social integration. Wow. We wanted them to have the love of a home and what it was like to be cared for. Amazing, because a lot of the kids, the Kiki that you're working with, they're coming off the street and like our dear friend Mully who roams the streets looking for these Kiki, is that pretty much what you do or do you get them, do they get referred to you by the people of the community? That's perhaps the most challenging part of our ministry. Our pastors who we work through in the local churches in Uganda, they most know most of the families in the villages and we've hired a social worker there and so together the social worker and the pastors go door to door and find the children who most desperate and vulnerable. The hard part is that sometimes they have to say yes to one and no to the other and that's just gut-wrenching. Yeah, that's not a good thing. So you talk about finding or building homes for them. How is that done? You're actually building homes, is it from scratch? How do you do that? How do you build a home in Uganda? Well, we've come alongside the Presbyteria of East Africa and we find the pastors who really have a heart for the children and orphans of Uganda and they're doing all they can but they just need a helping hand. So we come alongside those churches and build small duplexes with five boys and a mom on one side and five girls and a mom on the other side and along with the homes we build a separate kitchen and latrine. So we decide that it's more about the children and their needs than it is about the brick and mortar and we bring in a village widow woman to help become the mother of these children. So she's the one who cares for them in their duplex. Wow. So in Hawaii we have a system like that. It's called Hanai and so where the mama or like you Chuck or you Nancy could be a Hanai mother or grandmother or auntie. So you're unofficially adopted these children and you become an unofficial mommy and daddy. So in our system we call it Hanai and so you're bringing that system to Uganda. I think that's incredible. You're building Ohana and you're forming the you know the Hanai relationship. But now again back to that question there are so many keiki on the street and you know like maybe two brothers or two sisters siblings but you can't take them all. So how is it determined who gets to go home with the new Hanai family. Well because the case worker that we've hired works with the local pastor. They know the village people they know the children that are in most need. So they go around and they see which ones are left behind some that are totally abandoned some that have nobody some that are abused and even actually the villagers will come to them and say please take this one this one's being abused please take this one. No child is taken away from a home often times an elderly grandparent who cannot provide for a child that had been dropped off to her or him asks please will you take this one. Well that's a tough call you're you're you're actually becoming the foster agency that will create a new family for them and is that what you're doing you're just creating families creating Ohana's as you go along that must be such a powerful feeling for all of you and what you're doing there in Uganda. Well it actually is a new family actually it's a large family because these 10 children in this king's kids home actually become part of the pastor's family so the pastor themselves he and his wife might have three or four children but then there's 10 more children they have 14 children and they really are the mommy and daddy to those children being that role model for them so even as far as walking the children to school in the morning they've got a large family and they're thrilled with it because they do have a heart for the orphans. And do you actually provide means like food and clothing for the family throughout the course of the year I mean that's like a family overnight normally when you're pregnant and you have a you're expecting a child you have nine months to prepare in this situation maybe sometimes two children might come in at a time and you're really not really prepared for it so how is that done well fortunately we're surrounded with a great board of directors and a circle of family and friends who pray for the children write letters to the children and provide financial support without them we couldn't possibly do that but yes through the you know through sponsors who care for our children we are able to provide food for the children and clothing and medical supplies and nurturing them back to health because oftentimes the children when we get them they're of ill health and it takes three to six months of medical care to get them back to a healthy condition well so the local they provide the food that we money is sent to them they buy the food make sure the children have their needs met and so it's that local church that is doing that and even the congregation comes and brings gifts to the children as as a love offering to them to help a regular community it is it is the whole community is involved in this and and the people watching this aren't seeing this as something that talking Nancy are doing or the kings kids is doing the local villagers are watching this scene wow look what that church is doing for those orphan children right and you know what are some of the conditions that the children come to you and they're not you know i mean i i i don't know i don't even know want to see any pictures but if you do have them that'd be great but what are some of the conditions that those children come to you with well one of that abnormal things is that goes wrong is malaria of course it's a big problem and so having fresh water for them certainly helps with that they're not having to scrounge around in a mosquito infested area trying to find water so we make sure that each house has a well that's functioning properly that they get fresh water so they have the fresh water they have a clean house to live in they have beds for the first time in their lives and their mosquito nets over their beds so it's making malaria be out of the option that's a big help of course the fresh food is as well but in addition to the physical needs and conditions they come in it's the emotional side that half these children that we get they've lost both their mother and father to AIDS and some other family member an extended family member tries to raise the children but often they have many children that they're home or they're too elderly to care for them and then the other half the children have been abandoned or abused by their families and those are the most heart-wrenching stories but wow that must be the hardest part i mean the joy is that you find them and you find and you place them into a ohana and you're giving them all the love and nurturing they need but the initial part of that journey it is heart-wrenching i'm sure just finding them and deciding who gets to go home with their new found family and who doesn't so that's why i think the need for more and more volunteers slash donors that we could actually build more homes and provide for these children off the street so that they can be you know just like our keiki right is that what the goal is is to try and help as many as we can so you know feeding all these keiki all these children of the street how how is that done i mean are there farms or how do you provide all that food for all those keikis and families well life in rural rural Uganda is difficult and what we're coming alongside the local churches and trying to coach them in sustainability farming to increase crop production and sowing yeah so if they can make something and get money from it then they're able to buy more food for the children and help support them so these little children can pack away a lot of food and it's not so often that they get meat but when we go there we make sure there's a banquet for these children that there's a big party for them and the villagers and they're also happy and they clean their plates there's not a speck of food left on those plates these children are amazing they they are so happy to have this good food wow and so you mentioned that they have chicken and they have some meat products how readily available is that to get to the families well they buy that um i think monthly and it's stored in the kitchen that um we make for them now you can't think of a kitchen like we think of a kitchen it's just a store room concrete floor and where they cook is off a concrete floor with some coals they use coal and so they're using a lot of rice there's rice and there are fruits and many of the fruits as in Hawaii we were surprised the first time to see that the climate was much like here with the same fruits grown so they have those fruits and a lot of the pastors are it's a farming area where very very rural there's no electricity or anything and so it's a very rural area where our homes are spread out in about probably about 15 20 miles away from each other these homes aren't all together and um so they're farmers so they raise they do that they grow crops and they raise cattle and so it's easy to get to there are chickens all around just like there are here in Hawaii as well so free range grass um grain fried chickens that i that taste like chicken is that correct right right yeah you know so i was studying Uganda and i noticed that the food the produce is very lush you know i i so i guess water is not an issue and they have water so that they can grow this lush produce is that correct uh water is available in the rainy seasons if there's droughts though they'll struggle for survival um but we do that is one of the most important things in sustaining the the health of the children is fresh water so we make sure that all of our homes have fresh water immediately they're through deep water wells available nearby which they can use as irrigation to and they're encouraged to grow gardens and and to grow their own food right there on the church property if there's space well that's a big issue right there if they've got water they've got life right i mean running water is a key to life and if they've got that happening then that's amazing for them so they're being blessed and then you come along along with a community the awareness of the situation and i don't want to call it a problem but it's the situation that we need to address and if by all means we have the means to take and help take care of the problem with them then that's what we're going to do as we become more aware of the situations back there in Uganda and we're so really grateful that you do along with a lot of other hearts that follow your guide with King's Kids Africa we're so grateful that you're here and that you're sharing a little bit of heart into that community as we spread the aloha and your aloha in your in your hearts through that part of the world so Chuck and Nancy we are going to take a 60 second break and when we come back we'll learn more about the Kiki in Uganda and what's being done to get them to be just like us grown-ups happy you know thank you all right aloha aloha i'm kisha king host of at the crossroads where we have conversations that are real and relevant we have spoken with community leaders from right here locally in hawaii and all around the world won't you join us on thinktech hawaii.com or on youtube on the think tech hawaii channel our conversations are real relevant and lots of fun i'll see you at the crossroads aloha aloha and welcome my name is mark schclav i am the host of think tech hawaii's law across the sea program every other monday at one o'clock i am here on deck with various guests talking about different topics of the world and the ocean and international law different areas where we all have seen and want to travel to and learn about please join me for my next law across the sea program aloha and welcome back today we are very honored to have chuck and nancy read here back in hawaii with us um as they venture off to yuganda in may what do they do in yuganda well they form the organization called kings kids africa and what does that do kings kids africa simply provides housing and a community around the children of the street and what they're doing is they're finding these kekis and they put them together in a home with a mama and then we here in hawaii call it the hanai system so we're building a family of ohana forever where she is the mama of these children and usually they're orphan children and um or parents are not around so they're pretty much on their own and what kings kids africa has done is put them in a home and giving them love security good nutritious food water and a lot of love and i think that's so key to the success of this program is that there's a lot of aloha in there and um on our next slide chuck we have you shown with the boys and what role do you play in these kids lives chuck well in yuganda i'm called papa chuck and i've always loved being a father when i go to yuganda i i just want to love on the children and add to them an extra measure of joy in their life and so you're a papa chuck i mean how many kekis do you have around you at any given time hundreds hundreds they swarm and they love the attention of the affection and of course we love to have them and give it right back it's not just the children of our house because when we're there it's all the other children in the village that come running to play with papa chuck too right and that's so important i mean nancy we're important too but you know in a kekis life the male role is so critical to have someone that they can love and nurture and be mentored by and that will be what's going to shape that whole community is the love that the men can deliver to these kekis as the men in their lives are not present so you are all yes papa chucks and that's so critical and and chuck i'm sure that you're there also mentoring all the other men of the village so that they can continue on when papa chuck is on the road back in Hawaii or in Nashville that you have raised the men up so that they can mentor those young boys to become men like you are and men with strong beliefs and you know just wisdom that will get them through mentoring the next generations and i think that's what this is all about it's not just about this generation and these keiki but it's about what you're creating to create a better Uganda am i correct absolutely absolutely and we do encourage the men to be involved to help with projects around the house and with teaching the children their bibles verses and and the homework that's a lot of teaching i'm how long when you go there what's your duration of stay usually we stay just two weeks and we long for more and and actually we haven't even said that so far we built six of the homes and we have five more that are committed for 2020 so this is going to be a remarkable year and uh we just can't wait it's not so much about the bricks and mortar it's the lives that are going to be transformed and rescued wow that's exciting and you know i i have to add um that's when i said we gotta do something here in Hawaii and so i said hey come on people of Hawaii let's jump in and be responsible for our house and when i did ask Chuck and Nancy what house number are you on and they said number six so then i said hey can the people of Hawaii be responsible for house number seven and we want to call it the house of aloha and we want to also put a tagline that it's care course hale with care course ohana within and so we're really excited that people of the world of Hawaii will fundraise and be responsible to bring in just more aloha so that we can be a part of this whether we never leave our shores of Hawaii or we do venture off to Uganda we will have a role an active role in this very great venture of both of you and all the people that you have gathered around to be a part of kings kids africa so Nancy i know that you're like a hobbyist a crafter you do everything under the sun you can create a hollow sweat just stones and mud by yourself i know you can do this but what is your exact role there when you go to Uganda well i am mama Nancy and when we arrive children come running when you come with us why you'll see the both children come running towards you just greeting you just joyful happy children so what i do with a bunch of friends all winter is i so close for the children so here they are showing off their new skirts and boys have new shorts the girls have new skirts and new dresses so that's something that i've done through the years so far is helping them that way i'm also there to help teach them i take them games now they're getting older it's strategy games so they have to think a little harder maybe some painting and different crafts that i do with them but we just have so much fun with them and they love to see what we're about to take out of that magic storage box we bring wow and i think even if you just brought a stick and a book or anything out of that magic box it would be magic because you know chuck and Nancy when we think about the old days and we were raised and we were growing up we would play for hours with just jacks or just a rope and just jump rope all day and i've seen videos where you all had the villagers come out and you were just jumping rope just like we used to do when we were keiki and i think how valuable is that that even here in Hawaii or many parts of the world our keiki are not being exposed to that and we're missing that part so those kids are so blessed as you bless them and i'm sure it's good for you both it makes you guys younger because you guys get to go back and be kids again doesn't i agree well we get to relive it but what was really funny this year is when we took the jump ropes out usually the children are coming around and all the village kids come to see what we're gonna teach them and they're all practicing jump rope well we were surprised this year at one of the houses when we went that the it was the mamas and the pastor's wife and the helpers the ladies that grabbed the jump ropes and they were jumping in it so it was the whole community was involved in our jump rope day wow and see that's the whole part of it is and you know when you all go there you want to go and help the kids help the kids but you know what you guys are helping not only the adults but you're helping both of you to become younger happier and you know just revert back to the good old days of when we were keiki ourselves and that's so important that we get to do that right instead of anything traditional work when you think of traditional orphan care so often the children are isolated and so as Nancy has talked about you know the children are going into the community and they're acting and the community is coming to interact with the children and so that's so positive healthy for future role modeling oh yes you know i've been to many orphan orphanages in other countries in third world countries and it's exactly that they just are confined i mean of course of the orphanages that i went to were where the keiki were with cerebral palsy focused or or polio orphanages and yes all they do is see four walls in fact they don't even see the four walls some of them are just laying in the beds and seeing the rows 24 hours a day never seen the outside and it's very sad so what we are what you're doing with kings kids africa is you're bringing the world to them and opening their hearts and minds up to dare to dream and dare to you know just be keiki growing up into young respectful adults it's so critical what you're doing you're building a country and it's just commendable i'm excited about that you know i we saw earlier the picture of that house what is what what are the costs like to build a home there in uganda how is that done to build one of our homes costs about 25 000 and that's again one of the homes with 10 children and along with the home is included within that 25 000 is a separate kitchen and latrine and then addition to that so that's 25 000 but we actually budget 30 000 because the other 5000 is for beds kitchenware and then also health care yeah health care to nurture the children back to health when they first arrive well yeah and that medical bill must be quite large because i've seen some of the keiki and um that we can breathe life back into them where they i saw that some are just skin and bone and um to just be able to love and nurture that child into those bubbly happy smiling faces with the big eyes just staring at you i mean i think that's the part that makes it so rewarding when you see the difference that you've done you know in the past three years and uh that i think propels you just to just continue on and i know that you'll never stop is that correct yes and another unique thing about our ministry is that recently we had two children that came down with malaria and we were able to connect them with their sponsors and one of the sponsors was a songwriter and she was over in Europe at the time and they they composed a song and sang it and sent it back to little the lavert who had had malaria and so we have that interaction between the sponsor and the children as well just that love getting them through that part of their lives where in the past i think they may not make it so that's just so amazing you know though and then i know that when you produce these homes it's also working towards sustainability you're teaching them how to sustain on their own and you're not just there doing everything for them but you're teaching them to be you know like-minded citizens of the community and to continue to grow is that correct yes we have we have been working with the pastors in particular who have an agricultural background but initially introducing them to a smart farming program to increase crop production and then Nancy has dynamic sowing ministry as well yeah i see that sowing ministry girl i see that the sowing machines and all the beautiful outfits that you make for them that's incredible i love it i there's a slide that we want to share that shows the women um right there in the seam sowing area i love it and when we go up we got to bring them some hawaiian materials so they get more in their wear right i mean this is just so exciting that we can create and you know maybe what we can do too is we can have like a sister city of course you know like our sister house to hawaii and and then hawaii or the people of the world have more um you know stake at it and and just feel the involvement that we can do through you and what you are doing with the kings kids africa you know um i know our time is coming to an end is there anything that you really in a quick nutshell like to leave with our viewers before we close well you know we just want to say that when the first children first come to us they're just hopeless they have no no nothing on their faces just blank faces blank eyes you're looking into but as time goes on and actually very quickly that changes and these children now we're seeing them step forward and telling us that they have hopes and they have dreams one says they want to be a doctor maybe an attorney a singer or musician and it's so neat for us to see that they can do that heartwarming i just love that that we can make the difference and we can make a change and we will make a change together we will but we need to be wrapping up right now and i'm going to be talking to you more later so for now i'm going to have to say aloha everyone aloha from kings kids africa