I am joining MCF with the belief that together we can make a difference.

Promise. It's a word that gives an indication of expected excellence. "My child has a promising future" are words that every parent thinks of while watching their child at play or helping them with their school work. But while I was in Uganda this past summer, the word "Promise" changed for me.

Towards the end of my trip, I had the opportunity to visit the home of one of the students of Kengoma Primary School. Her name is Promise. Her home was a rough 15 minute walk from the school. I say "rough" because the terrain in Uganda is hilly and the walk had me out of breath in just 5 minutes. This scrawny child walked fast as I struggled to keep up. She went through bushes, slid down slopes while her interpreter was telling me about her difficult life.

Promise was fatherless. Her father died when she was 5 leaving behind three daughters. Her mother soon abandoned the children as well. Luckily, Promise's maternal grandparents took in these three girls. But the grandparents are old and frail. They have no money and live in a three room mud hut getting by with little help.

Promise comes home every afternoon and takes the goats to the field to graze. She comes back and then collects water from the lake at the base of the hill, a nearly 20 minute walk carrying a bucket of water. She will do this a few times before she settles down to eat. Eat, that is, if there is food. Sometimes, there is none. Her grandmother has tears in her eyes while she tells me this.

Most children in Kengoma Primary school have only one daytime meal and that's the porridge provided by the Mpambara-Cox Foundation. This porridge provides more that just sustenance for their body. It helps their mind concentrate on their studies and gives them an incentive to keep coming back to school.

Project 190 is one of the many programs that MCF has taken on. This program helps in serving the children one mug of nutritious maize porridge every morning for 190 school days.

Help my child "Promise" and other children like her stay in school. Today's porridge is one step closer to a brighter future.