Why have I chosen to do what I am doing?
The first 2 weeks- Visiting ministries that I worked with during my first two trips. I visited Ruth Mother Care school, helped with Smile Charity
Uganda's children's work at Family Believers Church in the Nabulagala community and taught Bible class at Wakisa Ministries home for pregnant girls.
I chose to use the first few weeks to do that in order to catch up with friends and children that I have created a relationship with and see
how these ministries have developed.
Working with Yimba Uganda and Raising Teenagers-
Last year whilst working with the young women staying at Wakisa Ministries for the duration of their pregnancies, I got to know some of the girls and their stories personally. I learnt that many of the situations that the girls found themselves in could have been prevented through better
social education to keep girls in school, teach them about relationships and God's plan for them and personal safety. Therefore, I wanted to work with a ministry that aimed to teach girls these things and give them skills that can help them to provide for themselves.
Raising Teenagers works with teenagers in schools around Kampala to support their transition into adulthood, with a particular focus on ending child marriage, keeping girls in school and teaching about menstrual hygiene to ensure that they do this. They do this through Girls Matters Clubs in schools which run at lunch time and after school to teach girls to increase their self esteem and confidence, safety tips, the importance of education and give out reusable menstrual hygiene packs in order to help them to stay in school.
Whilst Raising Teenagers is run by a Christian and has a distinctly Christian ethos and I can share my faith with the girls, it is not specifically missional or faith based. There are currently no Christian based organisations that work specifically with teenage girls in the same way as Raising
Teenagers do and I would like to learn from the work they do to see the potential of setting up a specifically Christian organisation with a similar set up in the future.
Yimba Uganda is a Christian charity working to equip Ugandan youth with sustainable income generating skills and support their personal development. They currently do this through offering a one year tailoring course to youth in the Makindye area in Kampala. Instead of paying school fees, the students are required to make a certain number of reusable menstrual hygiene packages to be given out to girls in rural areas to help them stay in school.
One of the major challenges that Uganda faces is high youth employment with a very young population. The unemployment rate for those 18-30 years is around 64% and it can be hard for those from low income backgrounds and those who have not completed school to access vocational training.
I wanted to see how Yimba Uganda works with their students to help them to not only become good tailors, but also good business managers and empowered young people. They have just started their third year of classes and many of the students from the first two years of classes are now supporting their families through their small tailoring businesses, for example by supporting their families in paying rent or paying for their children's school fees.
Working with YWAM Hopeland Jinja and Divine Holistic Ministries
I will be staying in Jinja for three weeks working with these two ministries. I enjoyed working with YWAM Hopeland last year working with a variety of different ministries such as a centre for street children, Women of Hope Groups for HIV positive women from local villages, runninng devotionals and worship in Jinja prison and helping at a home for children with disabilities. I am excited to spend more time with friends there made last year.
As I really loved helping with the Women of Hope groups last year, I decided to work with the expansion of that ministry on the other side of town. Fred and Judith were the founders of the groups at Hopeland but they have now expanded it into a seperate ministry that visits different villages everyday. I am excited to see the community at Divine Holistic Ministries and learn more about how they minister to women in rural areas.
Visiting Kapchorwa
Kapchorwa is in the east of Uganda on the border |
I will be visiting my friend Delmark and his family in the Kapchorwa region. I first met Delmark when he came to England as part of a church partnership that my old church had with
their home church in Kutung. I owe a lot to Delmark and Moses because it was them who first talked to me about Uganda and I believe that was when God first started to put Uganda on my
heart. Isn't it amazing that ten years later I'm finally going to visit their home? God's plans are so much better than our own. I will be visiting the projects that Delmark works on
there to prevent Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) there because it is a border region where girls are more vulnerable to it, visiting his church and also hiking up the waterfall Sipi Falls!
Main prayer points:
- Safe travel around, particularly when using boda boda motorbikes and travelling back home at night.
- That God will give me a servant's heart when working with people and that He will use me for His kingdom.
- That I will know God is with me in all circumstances and that He is the one who equips me.
- For me to learn from my local friends and colleagues and have cultural sensitivity.
- For the development of old and new friendships. This is the first time I will be going out without any of the other two girls from my gap year team, and previously that has been important in
talking to them about cultural barriers etc.
Thank you so much for all your prayers- I really appreciate them!
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