It was an unexpected trip, I should say a surprise mission trip. A brother from Australia offered to pay for my trip, a year started on the right foot I should say.
This time Ivan and myself had the privilege and honour to serve more than 2000 families from Karamoja-Uganda with clean water, food, clothes and other strictly necessities for people to live. It’s one thing to know about suffering and it’s another thing to suffer. These wonderful people from Karamoja are living day by day struggling to get the necessities they need. Most of them are eating just one meal a day, or sometimes nothing. When you’re there and see how skinny they are you feel like you are on a different planet. They have no choice, they can’t go anywhere, they are suffering and they are dying. Seeing all of this you can’t keep your eyes dry because the eyes are the window of your heart. Yet they are human beings like us, but sad to say many of us are closing our eyes, but our heart is condemning us.
We had a great time being among them, seeing the children happy and full of joy even though they have nothing. When we gave them candy, cookies or clothes they were very excited. I watched a little boy, maybe 5 years old, he was holding a cookie in his little hands and eating very slowly with small bites, prolonging the happiness of having a cookie, maybe the first time in his life. I watched a little girl get excited to receive her first dress, and another child overjoyed to receive a toy for the first time in his life. A mother receiving a bag of 5 kg posho (corn flour), holding the bag like it was the most precious gift she had ever received, joyful and grateful because her children won’t go to sleep on an empty stomach again.
We visited their manyatas (little houses) built by the women. You can’t imagine how they live unless you’re there. Inside of those small “houses” 2 x 2 meters, sometimes 7-8 people sleep inside, they have their bed made by cow skin directly on the floor, 3 stones which they represent the stove, few things hanging from the ceiling, mosquitos, and smell among other bugs.
On the bright side I could say we saw improvement among them. We thought them how to save beans and plant them, we also sponsored children to be able to attend school.
We started this ministry in 2016, since then we were able to provide 63 Boreholes(water wells), tons of food, clothes, soap etc in the region of Karamoja, almost in all 8 districts. Yet we and other organizations did so much for this tribe, but still need more. We need people with a big heart to live among them to teach them how they can come out of this inexcusable poverty. We need funds to buy land to build a vocational school, teach them many skills, and help them do agriculture. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few”.( Matthew 9:37)Don’t you want to be someone who makes a difference?
God bless everyone who are part of this mission in Karamoja!