Just over a year ago, in the small village of Nabweye, Uganda, one out of four children died from drinking non-potable water. Died. From water. That all changed when Marie-Antoinette Boot, a stay-at-home-mom from a suburban town in Connecticut decided she wanted to do something special for her 50th birthday. Her version of “special” wasn’t going on a luxury cruise or having a spa vacation—it was about making a tangible difference in the lives of villagers who had so few resources, they were referred to as “the forgotten people” by their fellow countrymen. It was about connecting with a remote, deprived community 7,000 miles away in sub-Saharan Africa. It was about using first-world resources to help those who faced life-and-death on a daily basis in a third world country.
THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE tells the story of one woman who brought water, school supplies, seeds, and hope to an entire village and how that village in turn, brought a profound sense of joy and purpose to that woman.
Inspired by the village’s dramatic progress, Marie-Antoinette undertook another challenge—to build a small medical center so that the villagers of Nabweye wouldn’t die for lack of basic medical care and supplies; so that pregnant women would no longer deliver their babies at the side of the road in the middle of the night when they couldn’t make it to the overwhelmed and understaffed regional medical center. So she came back to her community in lush, sleepy Connecticut and spread the word. In two-and-a-half months she had raised enough money to build a brand new medical center.
The villagers refer to her fondly as KaiKha, or “kind woman,” and now Marie-Antoinette’s goal is to inspire other parents, kids, and communities across the country to do what she did—help bring water, supplies, and basic medical care to those who have been forgotten.
Now the villagers of Nabweye can obtain much-needed medical care. Pregnant women no longer fear dying at the side of the road during childbirth. Now they can deliver their babies in a modern medical facility with electricity, running water, and trained medical professionals. People with malaria, typhoid, and other diseases can get treatment. And for the first time in their lives the people of Nabweye can get access to medical care in their own village.
THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE documents one woman’s mission to use modern technology to create a bridge between two very different communities, on two vastly different continents. What she discovers is that it is compassion that unites us all.
