Dear friend,

Greetings from Uganda.
We would like to appreciate you for your support through prayers and for those that have gone an extra mile in sending in food support to our people. On a commendable note, the Uganda government has done a remarkable job in restraining the mass spread of the virus within Uganda compared to our neighboring countries as well as treating the patients. Of the 61 confirmed covid-19 cases, 38 patients by yesterday had been declared free and discharged from the hospitals.

However, the restraint measures have come with the extra cost of extending the lock down for three more weeks up to the 5th of May. This means, with all government offices and public places closed down except for essential service providers, the effects of the total lock down are heavily affecting us.

One example of the pain and suffering experienced in the families is a news report yesterday on a man who hung himself due to lack of what to feed his immediate family and also another report on single mothers who took themselves to police stations with their children, demanding to be arrested knowing that once imprisoned, they will at least be fed on prison meals. The police and human rights organizations are continuously reporting of a high increase in domestic violence and crime rate as individuals are struggling to find what to feed their own through such unfortunate means.

The government’s initiative to intervene with food distributions that had brought smiles on a number of faces of the highly vulnerable families has been slowed down with reported cases of miss-appropriation and poor quality of food supplies to the office of the Prime Minister.

Such a snap-shot narrative, only reflects what’s generally happening within our nation and more especially within our immediate community where we serve. As the growing need for a basic meal unfortunately keeps growing, it is therefore with your partnership with us to support and feed families with a basic meal for the next 2 lock down weeks.

Your friend,
Michael Daniels Ssekandi
Team leader, Afaayo Africa Ministries

Reaching out to the needy with food packs

Through friends of Afaayo Africa Ministries in our “Raise a meal” campaign, we have reached out to 287 individuals from 50 families through week one of the total lockdown. We provided them with Posho, Beans, Sugar, Salt, G/nuts and Bars of soap. Through this exercise we got an opportunity to visit with a church member called Sarah Muyama (in the above picture) a single Mom of 7 children, abandoned by her husband who happens to be the father of the 7 children. Alongside these children is a Jjjaja (grandma to the children) that she takes care of. Sarah’s income was formerly from hand washing people’s clothes and working in people’s gardens to sustain her family but now under quarantine, this is no longer possible. She had spent days without food for the family and our visit to her was a miracle from heaven. The smile on Sarah’s face and her children brought tears of joy in my heart as I constantly observed her rejoice to the Lord.

For the next two weeks of our lock down, we still encourage you to help us reach such families with a message of hope to them through food distributions. Be reminded that it takes $30.00 to feed a family and hence a total of $60.00 per family for the next lock down period remaining.

May the good Lord bless you as you consider supporting to feed one more family.

Jajja (granny) overwhelmed with joy.

As we continued on with the food distributions in the communities, we met an abandoned elderly lady totally left by her relatives for the world to determine her fate, hunger ridden on her on-ground bed, with no sign of a meal for the past days. As we were motioned by the on-lookers that there was a person within a tiny house on the street, we called out but no one responded until we showed our way inside. Suddenly the old jajja (granny) came out crawling as she struggled to catch her breathe and noticed that we had packages of food with us. When she realized the food pack was all hers, she beamed with a smile of hope and our fulfillment was when we handed her the food supplies package, enough to sustain her through another week.

Just like that sweet Jajja, there are several other elderly people in our community that are struggling for their last meals, and the cameras are only focused on the COVID-19 patients in hospitals and the big figures in the government. This is where you and I are called upon to be used by God to rescue them. May the Lord continue to work through you as we partner for this cause.