Wake Forest Couple Starts Nonprofit to Help Ugandan Kids

Wake Forest, N.C. — A 9-year-old African girl's horrific story led a Wake Forest doctor and his wife halfway around the world, and Dirk and Paige Hamp have started a crusade to help others in Uganda.

The couple's journey began after a friend e-mailed them about a 9-year-old Ugandan girl who was attacked during a land dispute.

"Sledge hammers and machetes were used to attack Jane and her family. Jane sustained serious wounds to her legs and her cranium. She was left for dead,” Paige Hamp said.

Jane's mother and sister were killed. Her father had died a year earlier from AIDS.

"There is no way that I could have closed that e-mail and gone to sleep that night and said, 'Well, that isn't my problem,'" Paige Hamp said.

Five months later, the Wake Forest couple was in Uganda. They saw that Jane's village had no electricity and no running water.

"They had a kind of an outhouse that was kind of a hole in the ground, and that's it," said Dirk Hamp, a pediatrician in Wake Forest.

While in Uganda, he said, he diagnosed several cases of AIDS and malaria while holding health clinics.

The Hamps adopted Jane and brought her home to Wake Forest.

Today, Jane has indoor plumbing and a lot more – four brothers and sisters – as well as a new mother and father committed to helping others in her native land.

"There are many, many stories like hers in Uganda and lots of kids that need help," Dirk Hamp said.

But the couple said they couldn't adopt Jane without adopting her country. So, they founded the non-profit group, Embrace Uganda, which has a mission to raise money and awareness in hopes of improving life in Uganda.

Jane's school was one of the first to get involved. Students at Trinity Academy of Raleigh plan to hold several fundraisers for the cause.

"Just $2,000 can build a house in Uganda," one student said.

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Kudos to WRAL for finding positive examples of the human race self-sacrificing for the betterment of mankind. Its hard to listen to the news these days and hear anything positive about our community, our schools, or citizens and their actions. Thank you WRAL for not only finding this example that is giving a 9 year old girl great prospects for a better life but also for reporting how a local school is not focused on needing money for overcrowding, better facilities, and higher teacher pay raises but rather is looking inward at what it can do to improve this community and the world around us.

Mike Preston

mike23456
October 5, 2007 10:39 a.m.

I'm sorry, but shouldn't the important thing be that SOMEONE was helped at all? Who cares where the individual was from? We are all the same inside.

ddcdancer4ever
October 4, 2007 10:51 p.m.

Help our own HERE first.

rahowa_2
October 4, 2007 10:21 p.m.

to Hondaman:

1) Yes, there are thousands of children right here in the USA who are in dire need. How many of them have *you* helped?

2) You make a lot of statements about "those people". It sounds like you don't consider them "real" humans, like "us people" are. But we Markins had better get used to the idea that the world is shrinking and the oceans no longer insulate us from the rest of the world and its problems. "Us people" includes all of us who are passengers on the Spaceship Earth. Even you. Even me.

3) Finally (and trivially) where do you get off talking about taking care of our own when your screen name brags about your Japanese car? Don't you care about all those USA auto workers?

hrraatth
October 4, 2007 9:13 p.m.

This inspirational story is simply about a young girl named Jane who was in need of quick medical attention and a loving home. Yes, she lived in Uganda. Not even looking, the Hamps were simply led to this little girl in need who happened to live in Uganda. A seed was planted in their hearts as they learned about this little girl who happened to live in Uganda. The seed sprouted to fully love this little girl, Jane, which naturally developed a love for her hometown in Uganda as well. Simply - There is no wrong with this picture! We can plant one seed at a time, care and see it sprout....or we can pull one petal off at a time and see it die. The Hamps are loving a little girl from Uganda, now their daughter in the U.S. and making a difference in one life. Love is what this story is about and offers an opportunity for others to embrace and share in their journey to make a positive difference in other children's lives in Jane's little town of Uganda.