WATCH: The BC woman who used banana bread to build an orphanage now needs help filling it up. Linda Aylesworth has the story.
Two people from opposite ends of the world are building homes for children by baking banana bread.
Five years ago, Global News shared the story of 69-year-old Barb Giraud, who partnered up with a 24-year-old man named Edwin from Uganda. Together, they started the non-profit organization “Jaaja Barb’s Home of Angels” to help orphaned children in some of the poorest places in the world.
“Children without family feel bad when they are called ‘orphans.’” Giraud explains.
According to UNICEF, Uganda has a population of 37 million people. One out of three is an orphaned child, and the annual number of deaths during childbirth is 435 per 100,000. Women die because of various complications during and following childbirth, leaving these children without parents, and some of them with HIV/AIDS.
READ MORE: More plans for the orphanage that banana bread built
“We felt that there must be a way to help children that are suffering…whether these children are sick or living in garbage dumps, we wanted to give them a home.”
Giraud started baking four loaves of banana bread a day back in 2010. After nine months, she made 1,500. Today, they have baked approximately 9,000 loaves.
Even after completing the building in Jinja, Uganda, Giraud continued to sell banana bread, collecting enough donations to fund the creation of a second building.
But what they need to fill the additional beds is sponsors, 35 of them.
“We have 16 children right now, they have sponsors,” said Giraud. “But we have 35 more children to bring in and we can’t bring them in unless we have sponsors.”
Find out how to donate or get more information about Jaaja Barb’s Home of Angels.
-With files from Linda Aylesworth
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