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The members of Nkumba Presbyterian Church started Nkumba Christian Children's Home in 2005, and the UORF has been there from the start. Nkumba has 35 children living in the Home's dormitories and 15 children living in foster homes with guardians. Kids at Nkumba take their meals from a new kitchen built this spring and eat in their new dining room completed this summer. The children attend Nkumba Christian Primary School and May Secondary School or Nkumba University. Most of the children that have found a home at Nkumba are from the local trading centers and fishing villages. To spread their mission, the leadership at Nkumba has reached out to sister churches in some of the more desperate areas of Uganda. All in all, Nkumba Christian Children's Home has children from four of the five major tribal groups in the area. These wonderful kids are living, growing, excelling, and loving each other as brother and sister in this new family. | | |
In Kampala, the largest city in Uganda, there are thousands of kids living on the streets. In response, Light the World Church began Mercy Ministries with the mission to take kids off the streets and provide them with shelter, food and the hopes of an education. Currently there are three homes housing over sixty children and young adults. Mercy Ministries, homes are located in the village of Nansana, which is about 5k from Kampala, Uganda. Founder Wilson Begembe brought about the vision for Mercy Ministries through personal experience. Wilson lost both of his parents to Aids when he was a young boy and was forced to live in on the streets of Kampala, he slept in toilets with his younger brother and ate from the garbage. Wilson and his brother were rescued by a loving family and then were given a home and education. Now it is Wilson\'s passion to provide that same hope to the thousands of children who are living on the streets. | | |
Started in 1968 by a lay pastor in the Anglican Church, Bweya has survived the Idi Amin regime, the freedom wars and the last couple of decades of questionable governance. With enormous courage and dedication this now aged pastor has cared for innumerable children. Bweya is rich in land and infrastructure but lacks operating capital. They were in desperate need and in June, 2007 requested funding from us. Currently we are providing food to supplement the meager rations they were surviving on. We have shipped school supplies, clothes and shoes for the children on our current container. Funds were raised here to provide beds and mattresses for the children. We are doing due diligence trying to determine if they are responsible partners and they are learning how to deal with our Ugandan board having always dealt in the past with western organizations.
62 children are cared for at Bweya, 48 in the residential center and 14 in foster homes. 51 children are in primary school, 2 in university and the rest in high school. We are moving slowly for now and hope to clarify and solidify our relationship, following our March trip we have decided to move the high school aged children into our sponsorship program so we can move them into a Christian school.
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Zzana Presbyterian Church has been our partner from the very start of this ministry, identifying partner churches, providing healthcare for our children at their clinic and providing accounting for the funds we forward to Uganda. Now we have partnered with them to expand the children’s program at their church to care for the many orphans in this poor community. All of the children in the Zzana program are living in foster home situations with UORF paying for all the school costs, healthcare and 2 meals each day. Currently children that we have not been able to place in a foster care home have been put in the residential program at Nkumba Christian Children’s Home. We are now considering opening a residential home at Zzana, Nkumba is simply full and we like to keep children in the community they are from. As usual money is our biggest constraint but God has always provided for this growing ministry and we continue seek His will for the future at Zzana. | | |
Kyananjula is bush Africa, only a few huts in the middle of nowhere. Its only claim to fame is its proximity to the main crossroads of East Africa. When Aids came out of the jungle of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kyananjula was directly in it’s path. No healthcare, no education, traditional rituals, slaughtering bush meat and poverty driven prostitution has left this society ravaged by HIV/Aids, 235 of the 350 students in the church’s school are orphaned. We have partnered with Kyananjula Presbyterian Church to care for 100-orphaned children, approximately 75% are living in foster homes, and the rest live at a rented home adjacent to the church. This home has been made possible by the generosity of Bethel Christian Reformed Church that has committed to partner with Kyananjula Presbyterian and sponsor the entire program through their mission fund. It is a model that is working exceptionally well and we would like to duplicate it at several locations where churches are waiting for partners from the US. Is your church ready to change an entire village? |
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