Phiona Kateme is a student at Trinity College in Nabbingo, Uganda. She often goes by Phiona Blau, taking the last name of her sponsor family who have been supporting her for more than seven years. “My sponsors really show me love,” Phiona says.

Phiona is from a chain of islands called the Buvuma Islands located off the northern shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda. The islands' population is very poor compared to other parts of Uganda. There is no electricity or running water. Government funds earmarked for the island residents often don’t reach their intended beneficiaries.

Phiona Kateme

Life on the island before coming to Nkokonjeru and becoming part of the CARITAS For Children Catholic child sponsorship program was very difficult for Phiona. Through CARITAS For Children she was able to be connected with her loving sponsors, and their relationship flourished through letter writing and Skype visits. She is hoping to accept her sponsors’ invitation to visit them in the states, but after obtaining her passport now has to apply for a visa as one of the many hurdles required for a young girl in Uganda to travel into the United States.

Phiona’s dreams for the future are of helping others, perhaps to become a doctor, to help people as she has been helped. Of this mission she says: “I know the pain they go through when they do not have hope.”

When you sponsor a child you can make a difference for a girl like Phiona. Help us celebrate International Women’s Day by sponsoring a girl, like Phiona, to receive love, hope, and an education so that she can become one of the incredible women leading the fight for a better world for women and girls all around the globe.

Click here for video of Phiona telling her story.