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16 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday May 26, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com HELPING OUT: Oakville resident Marg Bartlett journeyed to Uganda to visit her Plan Canada foster child, eight-year-old Margaret Nabunjo (centre, re-plaid shirt) pictured here with her grandmother and neighbourhood friends. Meeting Margaret For Marg Bartlett, sponsoring a foster child wasn't enough Margaret's mother Rosemary would write letters about Margaret's progress, but recently letters written by Margaret herself, now eight-years-old, At a time when it is far too easy to turn a blind have begun to arrive. eye and a deaf ear to the suffering of those on the The letters, written in English, only consist of a other side of the world an Oakville woman has few short sentences. done the unthinkable. In one letter, Margaret thanks Bartlett for payNot only has she sponsored a poverty-stricken ing so that she can go to school and invites child in Africa, but she has traveled at her own Bartlett to her upcoming birthday party. expense to visit that child and her family. While the money Bartlett provided was clearly This continent crossing odyssey has been five helping Margaret's situation, Bartlett felt she years in the making beginning could do more and that the best when Cedar Grove residents "I wanted to meet her when way to do this was in person. Marg Bartlett and her husband she was old enough. The "I wanted to meet her when Sandy Currie decided to spon- more you can connect and she was old enough," said sor a three-year-old Ugandan help out the better, even by Bartlett. "The more you can girl name Margaret Nabunjo. connect and help out the better, giving them balls to play A poster featuring a quote by even by giving them balls to baseball great Jackie Robinson, with, that's huge to them." play with, that's huge to them." prominently hung in an In March, Bartlett began her upstairs room of Bartlett and Marg Bartlett adventure taking a 15-hour Currie's home, provides visitors flight from Washington to with an explanation as to why. Johannesburg, South Africa and "A life is not important except in the impact it another four-hour flight to Entebbe in Uganda. has on other lives," the poster reads. Bartlett had a difficult first day in Uganda get"That's kind of my philosophy," said Bartlett. ting stopped at a police checkpoint and browbeatOne place in desperate need of people who en by a particularly stern officer over some picpractice such a philosophy is Uganda. tures he had seen her take of a group of women "The living conditions, the sanitation, they carrying stacks of firewood on their heads. need a lot of help. We take water for granted, but Luckily, Bartlett's driver spoke up and informed over there there's no running water in a lot of the officer that she was there to help Ugandan chilplaces," said Bartlett. dren. After hearing this the officer grudgingly let "All of the parents have to pay school fees, even Bartlett off with a warning. for the youngest children to go to school and they The fact that Bartlett was not in Canada anyhave no money." more truly struck home when she reached the Through Plan Canada, formerly the Foster offices of Plan Uganda, Plan Canada's counterpart, Parents Plan, Bartlett and Currie sent money, in the Ugandan capital of Kampala and was told by which served to pay the school fees of their spon- officials there the officer's probable motivation for sored child, as well as provide for a number of pulling her over. other necessities. "When they heard the story they said, `Oh, he The effects of the education their child is was looking for money. You were supposed to offer See Foster page 17 receiving is beginning to show as initially OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF By David Lea