Crossgar man is changing lives in Uganda

Crossgar man is changing lives in Uganda

25 July 2018

I FIRST heard about Karamoja, a region located in the north east of Uganda, after receiving a photo from a Ugandan medical officer back in 2015. It showed an extremely skinny mother burying her young child because there was no food or water for them in the area.

Chat with any citizen outside of the area and they will tell you it is one of the most difficult areas to live in the country. Over the years the region has experienced extreme hardships; prolonged famine and drought, hostility between the army and the locals, and conflicts with the bordering tribes of Kenya. Life has been against them, on all angles.

I have been back and forth from Northern Ireland to Uganda since 2013, primarily helping in a rural community in the Nakasongola district. Through the Down Battalion Boys’ Brigade and Fields of Life, countless lives have been saved and their situations improved by investing, teaching and developing skills to promote self-sustainability. I had the privilege of teaching ICT for four months at Bethel Royal High School, a high school located 20 kilometers from the main town. 

During these past five years I made valuable friendships and gained much experience, learning more from my Ugandan friends than I could ever teach them. Three of them — Lukooya Kenneth, Sekisenyi Phillip and Baseke Moses — all had the same dream of going to university. However, when you grow up in the ‘jungle’ where the average salary is less than £1 a day, it’s an almost impossible task to pay for the approximate £1,000 a year cost of university fees and upkeep.

To help them achieve their goal I purchased a plot of land in the town of Nakasongola, on which we built a shop. All profits made have been going towards their university costs. They have completed their first year with good grades and awaiting the start of year two in August.

Another close friend of mine, Jingo Disan, has been pivotal in the decisions leading to our journey to help the people of Karamoja. After completing a diploma in carpentry, he struggled finding a job near home. He informed me he was travelling with a friend to work with the Chinese in building the new roads. Little did he know that he would travel on a bus for 13 hours before reaching the destination he knew nothing about. In the searing heat he worked seven days a week driving the Chinese workers to and from their place of work, while earning less than £1.20 a day. He endured this for eight months.

One evening, he explained to me about the environment and the desperate situations some of the rural villagers have to live with on a daily basis; scorching sun so strong that it cracks the earth, months without a of rain, no crops to grow, no animals to keep. They have nothing. They are even desperate enough to cook rats so that they can have some form of meat.

I wondered what could be done to help these people. I requested that Jingo speak with someone in the community and find a family that needed urgent help, so we could at least provide a bit of hope to a few individuals. He was directed to a mother and her son, located 20 kilometres from the main town of Moroto. They had went for six days without eating before Jingo arrived. I sent £40, which was able to buy an animal project  — sheep — food for a full month and some soap.

Jingo was surprised when he took these items to the mother, finding her lying on the hard, dry ground outside her house made of sticks. When she was given the items, the expression on her face did not change; a lifeless gaze with no emotion. He returned with more items the next month, but again she held the same look of hopelessness.

It wasn’t until the third month that she began to change, showing gratitude through her smile. The community officer translated her words — they speak Karamajong whereas Jingo speaks Luganda — and informed us that she had no hope in life and she never expected her situation to change.

She feared that Jingo, who came with gifts, was going to either kidnap her or her son. She could not comprehend why she was receiving something for free, with nothing expected of her in return. Myself and Jingo were humbled to bring hope to a place where there was no hope. Our faith is what leads us to such actions, knowing that because we have received, we also have to give.

I had to visit the area to see what could be done for these people. I booked a flight and held a coffee morning to tell people about my plans to visit this new area of Uganda.

Over £2,000 was donated by friends, family, work colleagues and the good folk of Raffrey Presbyterian Church, of which I am a member. After a long discussion with Jingo we decided to use this money to support a further three families, providing cows and sheep for animal projects, mattresses, floor mats, solar lights, food, soap and books and pens for the local school.

I returned to Uganda at the beginning of June, staying for a couple of days at the shop to prepare for the journey north-east and detailing out the specifics of what we would buy. On the Monday we ventured off at 9am, stopping in Kampala for a couple of hours to buy some items there.

We boarded the bus for Moroto at 7pm, expecting to reach before 8am the next morning. However, TIA (This Is Africa) and we travelled for 20 hours only to reach 30km from the main town. The driver refused to take us any further as the main bridge into Moroto had collapsed. As it was the only way into the town, we had to find a way to cross. 

We hired and loaded up three boda-bodas  — motorcycles — and made it to the river, then realising why the bus would not pass. The torrential rainfall during the previous three days was enough to cause the water levels to rise so much that the extreme force of the river washed the bridge away.

We stood at the edge and watched two of the locals attempt to make their way across on foot. With confidence  — and sheer stupidity — we prepared ourselves by rolling up the trousers and taking off our sandals, ready to walk barefoot across the treacherous 30-metre stretch.

The ground below us was an uneven as you would expect after a bridge had crumbled. With cautious footsteps we trudged to the other side. It wasn’t until we spoke to the locals gathered that we learned of some who had died trying to cross, both by foot and being swept away in their vehicles.

We paid a few of the locals to carry across the boda-bodas and all our equipment and we finished our journey to the lodge in the centre of town. Before we slept we prayed for no rain, so we could help the people we had set out for.

The next morning, we travelled to the rural community of Achere, one hour outside the main town. As we ventured from the main tarmac road on to the dirt paths we had to jump off and walk alongside the boda-bodas due to the muddy conditions. We were met by many of the locals, with a few of them very eager to take a piece of clothing from the bags we were carrying. With £100 we were able to purchase 130 pieces of clothing for all ages. You would be hard pushed to buy two football shirts for the same price back home.

As we reached the village we were shocked by how they were clothed, or rather, lacked in clothing. Some wearing only a T-shirt; some only trousers. Giving out the clothes we brought proved more difficult than expected. We tried to arrange them into grouped of men, women and children, but their desperation to receive anything overwhelmed us. We gave out as best as we could, along with the bars of soap — a true luxury for them.

We had taken additional support for four families — blankets, mattresses, bed sheets, floor mats, mosquito nets, pots and pans, utensils, solar lights, food and animal projects. Each received one cow and one sheep, which over time can generate a enough of an income for them to live off.

Kennie spoke to everyone about John 14 — Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We gathered all the English-speaking locals and gave them a bible, explaining that they have a responsibility to tell to everyone of the lasting hope in the words contained, rather than putting their hope in things that don’t last.

Finally, we stopped off at the school and gave 100 books and 100 pens. The teachers seemed well educated. However, because of the conditions many students had not made it for class — or perhaps most had made it for our arrival. We then walked back to the main road and travelled to the lodge. The sky was threatening rain, so we packed up our belongings and journeyed back to Nakasongola, exhausted both physically and mentally.

The next morning Moses walked into town and heard on the news about Moroto. The UN had sent four truckloads of food and emergency supplies to the town the previous evening but had to turn back because the water levels had risen too much. If we had waited for the later bus returning home, we would have been stranded in Moroto. More information can be read here https://ugandaradionetwork.com/story/moroto-passengers-stranded-as-floods-wash-away-bridge.

Since returning to Northern Ireland I have been receiving regular updates from the village. The torrential rains have continued and many are now sleeping in flowing water. Dysentery is becoming a huge problem. The rains are expected to end next week, which will be followed by strong sunshine. Any goodness that the rain provided to the environment will be scorched within a few weeks.

We had some money remaining and decided to use it to support these families with food for four months to follow. Thankfully we had made good relations with two of the community workers, both of whom we can trust to get the food and items delivered. They have been sending photos showing the items beside the families to prove their honesty.

Flint Studios supported me from 2015-2017, with generous donations and the money from our in-house pool games (20p per game) and charity tuck shop being donated to projects in Nakasongola, Uganda.

If you would like to support these families, you can do so by using the following link: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/moroto. For only £300 a house can be built to protect one of the families from these severe elements, refuge from the searing heat and stopping the rain from flowing through as they sleep.