Hope is what Morgan and Dave Hansow started with and hope sustains them.

Almost a year ago, the Montrose couple and their now 3-year-old son, Asher, moved to Jinja in southeastern Uganda for six months for work with Light Gives Heat, a nonprofit African aid organization they founded.

Their future in Africa was then uncertain. They did not know where they would live, who they would meet or how safe and healthy they would be. But they had a mission and a whole lot of faith. The Hansows wanted to help Ugandans help themselves, they said.

“We don’t have any interest in going over there and giving just money or pretending like we have all the answers,” Dave said in a June 2007 interview with The Daily Sentinel, weeks before his family moved to Uganda.

The family returned to Montrose in November and although their original enterprise projects for Light Gives Heat changed, the organization successfully started SUUBI (hope).

It is a brand of handmade necklaces made by 65 women in the Acholi tribe living in Walukuba, Uganda. Suubi means “hope” in the Lugandan language.

Light Gives Heat purchases the SUUBI necklaces weekly from the Acholi women to sell in the United States.

The money from the sales allows Light Gives Heat to buy more necklaces and cover the cost of Web sites, packaging, marketing and other operations.

The Acholi women use the consistent income SUUBI provides to meet their families’ needs for things such as food, school fees and medical costs, Dave said. SUUBI also offers reading and English classes to the women.

The multi-colored necklaces are made from rolled paper cut from magazines and posters. The rolled beads are lacquered and hung up in the women’s homes to dry. It takes about three days to make one necklace, but the women can make 100 at a time, Dave said.

Often the women work on the necklaces sitting in a circle with their friends.

“They know how to live life,” Morgan said about the women. “They’re so joyful. They love to dance and sing. They know how to just love ... They even say, ‘help us to help the poor.’ They’re the poor.”

Dave went back to Uganda in mid-March to begin working on a documentary about the women, most of whom are widows and some support eight or more children, he said after returning to Montrose about a week ago.

The Acholi tribe was forced to move from its homeland in northern Uganda because of the rebel violence.

Many of the women have family members who were brutally murdered or suffer from AIDs, Dave said.

“It’s hard to come back to America when you know the happiest and most joyful people have next to nothing,” Morgan said.

Adjusting to life back in Montrose has been difficult for the Hansows.

Morgan said they feel lonely. In Uganda, they had people living with them and volunteers and neighbors around all the time.

People are more independent in America and stay in their houses more, she said.

A big change in the Hansows’ routine is the addition of a baby girl they adopted from the Amani Baby Cottage in Jinja.

Jadyn Suubi, now 18-month-old, is strong-willed and lively, Morgan said.

Jadyn has the personality of a future great leader, she said.

“I felt like there were a lot of people just praying for us,” Morgan said about the difficult adoption process.

The couple are optimistic about the future of Light Gives Heat, because “hope is always a choice,” a motto of SUUBI and Light Gives Heat.

A few of the organization’s goals are to sign a contract to sell the necklaces in a large retail store and to continue telling the stories of the women who make the necklaces, the Hansows said.

Light Gives Heat plans to increase its number of volunteers living in Uganda from six to 15 by this summer and possibly branch out to other regions, Morgan said.

Most of all, the couple said they want to change people’s hearts and worldview.

Dave has given presentations to Fruita 8/9 students about “their potential to make a difference through their talents, creativity and choices,” Morgan said.

“And really, that’s what it is all about,” she wrote in an e-mail.

“Opening our eyes here in America to the plight of peoples all over the world and allowing ourselves to be impacted, inspired by them and then acting in whatever way that may be.”

For information, to read the volunteer blogs and to watch video from Uganda, go to www.lightgivesheat.org and www.suubiafrica.org.

•

E-mail Samantha Stiles at sstiles@gjds.com.

How to help Light Gives Heat and SUUBI
• The unique SUUBI (hope) necklaces for both men and women are sold in 20 stores nationwide and online at www.suubiafrica.org. To buy SUUBI products locally, go to Pollux or Country Elegance Florist in Grand Junction and Gigi Ann’s Marketplace in Montrose.
• Donate through the Web sites www.lightgivesheat.org and www.suubiafrica.org.
• Donate by mail to Light Gives Heat, 236 S. Third St. No. 257, Montrose CO 81401. Or contact the nonprofit through e-mail at lightgivesheat@gmail.com.
• Keep an eye out for information on a July benefit concert for Light Gives Heat.
• Spread the word about Light Gives Heat.
Dave and Morgan Hansow are grateful for the help they have received from local people. “It’s really blown our minds, all the phone calls and e-mails we get,” Morgan said.