Uganda
Chris, one of our trustees, recently visited Namayingo at the North-East corner of Lake Victoria in Uganda to visit “Abundant Favour Christian Ministries International”. This organisation works with 700 orphans. The founder, Agnes Auma was abandoned by her own parents when she was only two years old. Agnes grew up living on the streets, not wearing any clothes until she was five years old. Despite her bad start in life, she succeeded in education, obtaining a university diploma. Today she is married to Pastor Robert with whom she has four children. In addition, they have adopted 35 orphans who live with them in their rented five roomed home.
One of the great problems in Uganda is alcohol addiction. A very strong gin called Waragi is distilled from molasses in almost every home; often being triple distilled to reach 96% proof. This is transported locally by children who are given a small bottle of the gin to sip on their journey, causing them to become addicted at an early age. This, along with drugs and widespread gambling frequently leads to extreme poverty.
Additionally, there is widespread polygamy. It is common for men to partner with several women and father many children; sometimes when they have lost all their money gambling, they use their women as bets. Infectious diseases, such as diarrhoea, malaria, syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases are a common cause of death. Children suffer and die from common childhood illnesses because of lack of simple remedies, and those with complicated disease are neglected and abandoned due to lack of money, being seen as a burden on the family. This is
particularly the case if they are HIV/AIDS positive.
In this context, Abundant Favour provides support for over 700 children who are orphaned, abused, abandoned, neglected and handicapped, especially those suffering from HIV/AIDS and other diseases and also those who are being used for the worst forms of child labour. The
ministry has built 5 schools and churches in different zones of the community to provide education, care and support for these children, most of whom currently just live feral on the streets, caring for each other, sleeping outside 5 to a single mat with no family. The immediate vision of Abundant Favour Ministries is to build a dormitory to house 122 male and female teenagers in separate wings, thus providing a home as well as reducing the risk of childhood pregnancies and early marriages. Land for this has already been purchased.
Jacob’s Well Appeal has agreed to finance the building of these dormitories. We would like to raise more money to build a kitchen (£3550), toilets (£2650) and to drill a borehole (£7600). Currently the water comes from a local pond. If you would like to donate to this project please use the reference Uganda.
During this visit the issue of addiction was addressed with over 500 people attending sessions on a recovery program based on the widely used “Twelve Steps Program”. This program is relevant for alcohol, drugs and gambling addictions. Attendees included addicts, spouses, teachers and pastors as well as a large number of children and young people. Supporting literature was provided and nine recovery groups were established.