History of Transformed for Life
I, (Abigail Tracy, founder of Transformed for Life) moved to Uganda in 2008 as a full-time missionary under Global Training Network. I came to Uganda to serve under a local non-profit serving in the slums of Kampala. I had fundraised money before moving to Uganda for African Hearts to be able to purchase land and construct a home for street children. I came to Uganda to minister to street children and help start up the children’s home under African Hearts. After just one day on the streets, the Director of African Hearts, Lutaaya asked if I would run the street program. Although I had no money to care for the overwhelming physical needs of the children I said yes. Two days later, God financially provided the seed money to use to purchase food and simple medicine for these children through my twin brother, Luke. For the next 10 years, God faithfully provided for all that we needed to run this street outreach program!
Over the 10 years that we ran our street outreach programs, we always endeavored to run these programs in and under a local church located in the slum. In 2009, shortly after beginning our street outreach program in Kivulu slum, Nelson Kyasoka, the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church where we were running our street outreach programs requested if he could donate a facility the church owned in the slums to provide a home for the street children sleeping on the dirt floor of his church. He asked if I would be willing to feed, educate, oversee, and care for the needs of the street children, (basically, he was asking me to start another children’s home!) Although I had not raised any money to run a second children’s home, after prayer and reflection, I felt that God was calling me to say yes and take on the responsibility. After saying yes, God provided money for the food, clothing, and beds that we needed for the home. It was a simple facility in a crowded slum, but to the group of wild street children we took off of the streets- it was the first and best home that they had ever known.
Pastor Kyasoka recommended two house uncles to help care for the children and one of them was a godly man named David who was already ministering to street children in the slums. Pastor Nelson asked David to come and minister to our street children and David immediately said yes. David quickly became a strong, wise, reliable, and godly coworker and father figure to many fatherless children.
A year after the home opened, Pastor Nelson asked to meet with David and I. He kindly requested if we could move our children’s home and register as our own non-profit as he needed his facility back for other church activities. It was another big leap of faith. David found a home to rent in the suburbs of Kampala and we registered our own non-profit. We chose the name “A Perfect Injustice”- stressing the fact that street children and abused children are a perfect example of injustice and that as Christians we are called to respond to injustice (Isaiah 58:6-9).
At around this time, a church in North Carolina, Providence called us to ask if they could construct for us children’s homes in the village so that we could have a place for our big family to call our own. We purchased 22 acres of land and they constructed two beautiful children’s homes for our big family! We hired a cook, house parents, and a house grandparent for each home and made these children’s homes a safe and loving place for our dear kids.
Together, David and with two other professional Ugandan social workers that we hired to work with us, we continued to conduct home tracing, family counseling, and resettlement of children from our children’s homes back to their biological families. After a couple of years, all but three of the children in our homes were able to be resettled back with their families where we continued to support them.
After ten years of providing emergency-based care to street children in the capital city of Kampala, we began to see many different non-profits coming in to work with the same group of street children. There were so many non-profits working with these kids that these groups began to argue over children. Often more than one organization would want the same child to come into their homes or organizations would argue over which day of the week and time they would be able to run their programs. While we were happy to see street children provided with the resources that they so desperately needed, we began to become concerned that street children were coming to the streets because they saw it as the only solution to get out of a neglectful or abusive home and/or to get help from a non-profit to receive an education as there was no assistance being offered by non-profits to children in rural communities. We noticed that even though street children were reached out to by non-profits on the streets, just a short period of time on the streets due to the extraordinary levels of violence, sexual perversions, abuse, drugs, gambling, and other addictions created lifelong wounds on street children, wounds that would take a lifetime of struggling to overcome.
We were working with vulnerable children who had been hurt in their family of origin and then traumatized further by the extreme abuse, violence and exploitation of the streets. We felt God leading us to get to the source of the problem and to be strategic to help support children in their home villages before they, “fell through the cracks” and ran to the streets in search of a better life. Therefore, A Perfect Injustice (API) decided to move from programs based on an “emergency response” for traumatized children to prevention and protection.
We moved from the capital city, Kampala to Kibaale District, a remote village in Western Uganda to work with entire communities: fathers, mothers, children, families, local leaders, police and churches to protect and help vulnerable children before they fell through the cracks.
API purchased land in a remote village in Kibaale District where we began a variety of programs to shine a light for Christ, tell people about Christ, empower vulnerable families and to help children before they fell through the cracks.
Mark 16:15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
Christ has always been at the very center of all that we do. Only God can unconditionally love and transform a heart, only God can offer salvation, and only God can give us hope. Each and every one of our programs centers around this truth and includes a component of either evangelism or spiritual training and discipleship.
Matthew 25:40-45 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
API has always prioritized living amongst the people that we serve, be the slums or “deep” in the village. We also strive to holistically help the people we serve by meeting all of their needs (spiritual, physical, psychological, emotional, and relational) as well as to work to strengthen the support network of people around them.
Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
We also place a great value on discipleship and walking alongside the people that we serve over time.
Over the 10 years that we ran our street outreach programs, we always endeavored to run these programs in and under a local church located in the slum. In 2009, shortly after beginning our street outreach program in Kivulu slum, Nelson Kyasoka, the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church where we were running our street outreach programs requested if he could donate a facility the church owned in the slums to provide a home for the street children sleeping on the dirt floor of his church. He asked if I would be willing to feed, educate, oversee, and care for the needs of the street children, (basically, he was asking me to start another children’s home!) Although I had not raised any money to run a second children’s home, after prayer and reflection, I felt that God was calling me to say yes and take on the responsibility. After saying yes, God provided money for the food, clothing, and beds that we needed for the home. It was a simple facility in a crowded slum, but to the group of wild street children we took off of the streets- it was the first and best home that they had ever known.
Pastor Kyasoka recommended two house uncles to help care for the children and one of them was a godly man named David who was already ministering to street children in the slums. Pastor Nelson asked David to come and minister to our street children and David immediately said yes. David quickly became a strong, wise, reliable, and godly coworker and father figure to many fatherless children.
A year after the home opened, Pastor Nelson asked to meet with David and I. He kindly requested if we could move our children’s home and register as our own non-profit as he needed his facility back for other church activities. It was another big leap of faith. David found a home to rent in the suburbs of Kampala and we registered our own non-profit. We chose the name “A Perfect Injustice”- stressing the fact that street children and abused children are a perfect example of injustice and that as Christians we are called to respond to injustice (Isaiah 58:6-9).
At around this time, a church in North Carolina, Providence called us to ask if they could construct for us children’s homes in the village so that we could have a place for our big family to call our own. We purchased 22 acres of land and they constructed two beautiful children’s homes for our big family! We hired a cook, house parents, and a house grandparent for each home and made these children’s homes a safe and loving place for our dear kids.
Together, David and with two other professional Ugandan social workers that we hired to work with us, we continued to conduct home tracing, family counseling, and resettlement of children from our children’s homes back to their biological families. After a couple of years, all but three of the children in our homes were able to be resettled back with their families where we continued to support them.
After ten years of providing emergency-based care to street children in the capital city of Kampala, we began to see many different non-profits coming in to work with the same group of street children. There were so many non-profits working with these kids that these groups began to argue over children. Often more than one organization would want the same child to come into their homes or organizations would argue over which day of the week and time they would be able to run their programs. While we were happy to see street children provided with the resources that they so desperately needed, we began to become concerned that street children were coming to the streets because they saw it as the only solution to get out of a neglectful or abusive home and/or to get help from a non-profit to receive an education as there was no assistance being offered by non-profits to children in rural communities. We noticed that even though street children were reached out to by non-profits on the streets, just a short period of time on the streets due to the extraordinary levels of violence, sexual perversions, abuse, drugs, gambling, and other addictions created lifelong wounds on street children, wounds that would take a lifetime of struggling to overcome.
We were working with vulnerable children who had been hurt in their family of origin and then traumatized further by the extreme abuse, violence and exploitation of the streets. We felt God leading us to get to the source of the problem and to be strategic to help support children in their home villages before they, “fell through the cracks” and ran to the streets in search of a better life. Therefore, A Perfect Injustice (API) decided to move from programs based on an “emergency response” for traumatized children to prevention and protection.
We moved from the capital city, Kampala to Kibaale District, a remote village in Western Uganda to work with entire communities: fathers, mothers, children, families, local leaders, police and churches to protect and help vulnerable children before they fell through the cracks.
API purchased land in a remote village in Kibaale District where we began a variety of programs to shine a light for Christ, tell people about Christ, empower vulnerable families and to help children before they fell through the cracks.
Mark 16:15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
Christ has always been at the very center of all that we do. Only God can unconditionally love and transform a heart, only God can offer salvation, and only God can give us hope. Each and every one of our programs centers around this truth and includes a component of either evangelism or spiritual training and discipleship.
Matthew 25:40-45 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
API has always prioritized living amongst the people that we serve, be the slums or “deep” in the village. We also strive to holistically help the people we serve by meeting all of their needs (spiritual, physical, psychological, emotional, and relational) as well as to work to strengthen the support network of people around them.
Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
We also place a great value on discipleship and walking alongside the people that we serve over time.
