ABOUT UGANDA.
Uganda is a country in East Africa roughly the size of the one state in USA. This densely populated country is the youngest in the world, with more than half of its inhabitants below the age of 15. An estimated 3.2 million of these children are orphans.
Uganda became independent from British rule in 1962. Tribal warfare ensued. The Ugandan people were brutalized under the dictatorial regimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin. Finally, in 1986, with the election of H.E Yoweri Museveni Kaguta as President of Uganda up to now, the country entered a period of relative stability and peace.
Just as Uganda was moving toward political stability, the HIV/AIDS epidemic struck. This country was one of the hardest hit and lost almost an entire generation of adults in a few years. The cultural practice of polygamy and the widespread abuse of women contributed to the rapid spread of the disease.
Constant Years of war from neighboring countries of Democratic republic of Congo and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, diseases dealt Uganda severe disadvantages in standards of living, health, education, and prosperity. Most Ugandans continue to suffer from extreme poverty and many refugees stay in the country due to about effects.
Roughly 50% live on less than $1.25 per day.
Only 10% have access to electricity and even less than that have running water.
Most live in mud and wattle huts.
The majority work at subsistence farming, making barely enough to feed their own families.
Child labor is common and many children drop out of school to work or to marry.
57% of children do NOT complete primary school. Less than 30% even enroll in secondary school (begins in grade eight) and only 5% graduate.
Most girls marry by the age of 18 and immediately bear children. Less than half of their births will be attended by skilled medical care, so many will die in childbirth. There are only eight doctors per 100,000 people and most are inaccessible to the average Ugandan.
Uganda also suffers from persistent belief patterns that tolerate child sacrifice, cannibalism, polygamy, female genital mutilation, tribalism, domestic abuse, and the subjugation of women in general.
There are not enough government resources to feed, house, clothe, and educate Uganda’s orphans. The children are left to fend for themselves. The lucky ones have old grannies or sympathetic neighbors who may help. These older relatives and friends are barely able to care for themselves and their own, so their efforts are inadequate to meet the child’s needs. Children without support systems end up on the streets, begging for food, eating out of trash bins, drinking out of stagnant pools, running from dangers, wandering alone – hungry and scared. Almost all forgo education. It is a hopeless plight for most and breeds a cycle of generational poverty.
This nation of children is in desperate need of help. For if you give, you will get! Your gift will return to you in full and overflowing measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more….” Luke 6:38
Our prayer is that you too will be willing to join us and help children in need here in Uganda by supporting us monthly, Advocating with us, sponsoring a child, by donating to the Caring Love Foundation project in Jesus name and sending a message of encouragement and by praying for our ministry.
