We are seeking to help our partner St. Theresa Catholic Parish in Achilet, Uganda sing joyously to our Lord on Christmas eve! The parish electric keyboard is now silent (dead) and their drums worn out with 20 years of use. We are seeking to raise $2,000 to help them acquire new musical instruments and accessories before Christmas.
The Fr. Joseph Becket Othieno is the pastor supported by Fr. Paul Okoth and newly assigned Fr. Patrick Masuti. The parish has over 20,000 members including children. It is located in a very rural part of Eastern Uganda, Tororo Diocese. The church holds about 900 members at once. They are waiting with joyful expectations for a special Christmas gift and miracle this year for their parish. Could you help them join the heavenly Chorus and ring out even more joyously their Christmas Masses?
We are thrilled to provide for our Christmas dinner program once again to struggling families, children, elderly and disabled individuals in Uganda. Our goal is to raise Christmas dinners for 60 families and two children’s Christmas parties. A gift of $25 buys meat, rice, Matoke or potatoes, vegetables, Christmas cake, and sodas for a family of four. (See photos below.)
We connect with families through our partners Children’s Community Care, the Xaverians, YOUFRA Youth Centre Lira, YOUFRA Disabilities group Soroti, YOUFRA Youth Centre Tororo, St Joseph College, and the John Paul II Justice & Peace Youth Leaders Network.
Dear Benefactors, Thank you for your generous hearts and hands!
As we celebrate Thanksgiving with our families we are so very grateful to you for your support of the Catholic missionaries and families in Uganda! We have been blessed to accomplish many projects because of your generosity. By God’s grace, together this year alone we have:
built a chicken coop to help feed 16 children and staff at the YOUFRA Youth Center in Lira
completely remodeled the classroom building at St Joseph College, including a new roof getting a 140 students back to school
initiated the renovations of the outdoor bathrooms at the YOUFRA Youth Center
provided 6 scholarships for St Joseph College students in Padhola, Tororo
provided 3 scholarships for Ocer Campion Jesuit College in Gulu
provided 1 scholarship for the LSOSF (A-levels)
provided 2 scholarships for Children’s Community Care for 1 disabled student (diploma) & 1 sibling (a-levels)
provided 4 scholarships for YOUFRA to help 3 girls get back on track with education after having children (2 were suicidal) and 1 for the YOUFRA Youth Centre Director to start her Master’s in counseling
provided 2 scholarships for individual families A-levels and Diploma in Laboratory Technology
provided partial scholarships with boarding assistance and personal requirements for 13 children living at the YOUFRA Youth Center in Lira
assisted many families with health crises (hep C, malaria, h.pylori, hemorrhoids, and more)
May you all be richly blessed for your love and mercy! Laura, Founder
Thanks to American Martyrs Catholic Church in Manhattan Beach, two generous individual givers, and UK partner FOAG we were able to raise $22,000 to renovate the main classroom building at St Joseph College in Tororo, Uganda. The roof had been blown off during Holy Week this year leaving the classrooms unusable. The school scrambled to create four make shift classrooms to finish the first term, then go a second whole term while construction was underway. We reached out to our partners and friends for help and the response was great!
With the funds we were able to redesign and build a fresh the roof structure to make it more durable for the long-haul. We extending the roof out to include a proper verandah with much needed space in the raining seasons. We replaced all the rotted wooden doors and windows with new metal and class ones. We re-poured the foundation, reconfigured the classroom layouts, wired the building for lights and technology, added ceiling boards, re-plastered the walls inside and out, finished the floors, and painted the whole building. When possible students were able to learn and get involved in some of the construction too! The building looks fresh and fabulous!Students, teacher, parents and community members are thrilled to have the revitalized space!
Thank you to all our generous donors for making this project possible! The school is back to operating fully and students are actively preparing for end of year national exams.
Mary at St Benedict High SchoolJohn Mary (top center) at Ocer Campion Jesuit College
Ocer Campion Jesuit College in Gulu district has 600 plus students with one-third students on scholarship. St Joseph College, a Franciscan high school in Tororo district has 150 students with nearly all students on partial or full scholarship. Most of their parents are farmers struggling to eke out a livelihood and unable to pay for education. The government fails to provide options if you don’t live within walking distance of a school, which most of these students do not. We are seeking to support 12 students (3 @Ocer Campion + 9 @St Joseph). Currently we have raised funds for only 6 students. Will you help us reach our goal of 6 more students?
We also support girls to get back to school after an unplanned pregnancy in which they are forced to leave school, even if the child came from rape. We have FOURfemale students that we sponsors currently who are young mothers. This includes cost of feeding the young child and supporting the grandmother, great grandmother, or auntie that is caring for the child in their absence. The cost is $250 per term for fees, boarding, personal requirements, and food for the child. Will you help one of our young mothers?
In addition, we support the Little Sisters of St Francis to complete their A-level courses (post high school), which ensures they have an opportunity to study for a Bachelor’s at University. Without educating the young Sisters, the religious cannot lead the way to helping others grow and be healthy. Will you help Sr. Mary Jackline take another step in her educational journey?
Without your generous support these youth would be growing up without an education. Catholic education is key to helping children become fully who God desires them to be and leading families out of poverty. Only $50 per month, or $200 per term, or $600 for the year helps ensure one more youth is able to reach his or her dreams. You can make a transformative difference in their lives and that of their families. Collectively, we bring a brighter and more faith filled future to all in Uganda. Will you help one of these students reach their dreams?
St. Joseph College Students
For our younger students in Lira attending public primary day school (see photo below) there are still many personal requirements that are out of reach for the parents including school uniforms, sturdy shoes, socks, books, paper, pencils, pens and markers, and rulers. We also provide these 12 children with boarding and three meals a day at the YOUFRA Youth Centre in Lira town. We are seeking $100 per term for each child. Their parents are former abductees whose lives and education was interrupted when they were captured and dragged into the bush, forced to fight for and support the Lord’s Resistance Army.
While the conflict has been over for 17 years, the parents have yet to recover fully emotionally, educationally, socially, and especially financially. Through the Young Franciscan (YOUFRA) Centre we are working diligently to help the parents redeem and reclaim their hopes and dreams for families and a good future. The Centre offers counseling, spiritual development, and livelihood training for these parents. As well, the Centre staff is working diligently to ensure their children have access to quality education.
Will you give something today to help these children have a good future? Will you help right an injustice done to their parents?
During holy week this year a big storm blew through Tororo Uganda and took the roof off St. Joseph College’s main classroom building. Leaving students and teachers quite alarmed and exposed. They are currently renting a hall at a guest house near the campus to make up for the lost classroom. St. Joseph College is already busting at the seam with 140 students from Senior 1 through Senior 4 and a P7 class. The missing roof has exasperated the problem and the exposed walls and building to more damage.
We are stepping in to help raise $20,000 to replace the full roof and other necessary renovations to the foundation, walls, windows, and doors. Will you join us to help these youth stay in school getting a good catholic education?
Thank you American Martyrs parish and FOAG for stepping in to help! Construction of the new roof begins this week. We are still seeking funds to help replace the windows and doors, paint, and provide much needed solar power for the school. Join hands with us and donate today!
YOUFRA Youth Centre in Lira provides support to former abductees–men and women, in the Lord’s Resistance Army and their children. They under went severe mental and physical hardships while in captivity. 17 years later they are still suffering from lack of education and employment opportunities, mental traumas, and stigmas in the community. Tragically these stigmas are also being passed down to the next generation. The Little Sister of St Fancis through the Young Franciscans of Uganda (YOUFRA) are working to help heal and reconcile the families. One key strategy is providing economic opportunities for the former abductees and educational opportunities for their children.
The Youth Centre is home or boarding to about 15 different children plus a few mothers and staff. To help improve diets and sustainability of the center we want to help them convert this old cow shed (see photos above) into a chicken house. The free range chickens will be more protected from cats and birds and they will be able to acquire laying chickens too. Both eggs and meat will compliment the vegetables and onions from the garden and their main crops (beans & corn), which will greatly improve their health. We are seeking $650 for the chicken house renovation and start-up.
As well, we are seeking $550 for the children for mattresses, sheets, blankets, socks, under wear, soccer balls, jump ropes, puzzles, pack backs and a nice Christmas dinner. Plus extra clothes and shoes for Obed, the boy by himself in photo below, is 12 years old. He was brought to the center when he was 6 years old and left to be cared for by Sr Margaret, LSOSF. Besides a school uniform he possesses only the long sleeve shirt and trousers he is wearing, and one other t-shirt and shorts. He needs basically anything and everything—fleece/sweater, trousers, shirts, shorts, tennis shoes, flipflops/sandals, personal care products, and reading materials.
We have the opportunity to bring renewed hope to these children and their families as we begin a new liturgical year and a new calendar year. Might you be willing to be a Magi to these children bringing your wisdom, prayers, and treasures?
Thank you Everyone for all that you have given this year, your words of encouragement, financial donations, and prayers have be invaluable to help people persevere in faith. We have been a light in the darkness for the missionaries and families in Uganda during a second challenging year.
With your help education for a few was continued! Schools were opened on a limited basis in March of 2021, but then tragically closed down again in June and remained so through to the end of the year. The small minority that had access to laptops or mobile phones managed to stay connected learning from home. The majority were left to the whims of the season leading to a ballooning of teenage pregnancies in the country. While all life is a gift this will bring added to challenges to the families and communities. We did manage to help two students graduate–Mercy completed her O levels and hopes to attend university and study law in the new year as funds may be raised. Her mother is a widow and the conditions of the last two years have been harsh on the family of four. Mark completed his 0-level exams and hopes to continue with A-levels for the next two years, and eventually on to university. Leah and JohnMary (S1) kept up remotely with Ocer Campion Jesuit College. A small group of students through a village school model were able to continue with Eastside High School and St Joseph College run by the Little Sister’s of Saint Francis and Young Franciscans (YOUFRA).
Specifically, thank you to all those who contributed to our health fund this year. With your help we supported Sr Margaret, George, and a few others to cover their COVID-19 treatments. We hosted a virtual baby shower to support Sharon & Walter (photos below) with their new baby, which helped cover extra medical expense when she needed to have a C-section. We stepped in for little Raphael who was born premature to Simon Peter and Josephine (photos below) spending a week in ICU. We helped Joseph out with the cost of surgery and treatments for his daughter Stella who was born with spina bifida. We have also contributed to the health needs of several other families with special needs children who are members of Children’s Community Care. We continued to support Gloria through her physical therapy and subsequent leg and hip surgeries.
New baby Raphael born premature, followed by parents and godparents at Baptism.
Health Fund 2021 Photos
Help us support more families with health crises by giving today!
A big thank you to all those that supported kickstarting anew the YOUFRAYouth Center in Lira. They were able to take 32 youth through a 12-week counseling program. The Bakery wood fire oven was repaired and fired up, and product testing ensued. In early November full production and sales was begun. On the 4th Sunday of Advent they were able to have an event bringing 70+ young adults, YOUFRA members and former child soldiers together to celebrate Christmas songs, showcase the bakery items, and gather needs for 2022 programing efforts.
In Tororo, the YOUFRA Youth Center initiated an AgroProduce shopto buy from local farming families, many of which are among the YOUFRA young adults, then sell in larger bulk to the surrounding community, traders, and businesses, such as hotels. Proceeds are intended to help with the development of Eastside High School and St Joseph College. Parents can barely pay school fees sufficient to cover operating expenses thus the extra funds raised through this social enterprise help to upgrade the school facilities.
Thanks to a dear friend and veteran, we were able to help the Xaverians and Catholic Boy Scouts buy tents and some kitchen equipment for Chiro Camp. Located on beautiful Lake Victoria in Uganda Chiro Camp is a training center to offer youth a wide range of skills development from communication, team building, self discipline to first aid, tent set-up, care of the environment and more.
Former Head Teacher at Ocer Campion Jesuit College, Fr. John Chachu, passed away on July 22 at 59 years old. His loss was a devastating shock to the OCJC community, as he had been involved with the college for several years, and was well established in the college community. Fr. Chachu was a Jesuit priest originally ordained in Sudan in 1988, later sent to Ocer Campion Jesuit College in 2014. Under his leadership, enrollment at the college had risen from just over 600 students to over 700.
Upon the news of his death, many in the OCJC community began to raise money to bring his body back to Gulu so he could be buried there. The community truly loved him, so much so that, when news spread that only 20 people could attend his burial due to Covid restrictions, a cause went up to request that his burial be open to the entire community. Parents, students, and teachers alike wanted to be able to attend, and after some discussion, the burial ceremony was opened, and 700 people attended (double the projected 250 mourners).
Fr. Chachu came from a family of 6 children, and was one of two surviving members; he and one of his sisters. He had been raised in Sudan in a faithful family. In Gulu, he was the only Jesuit priest there that spoke the local language, a skill he was very proud of, noting that he was “very much in this place.” He embraced Gulu as his home, and felt very connected to the community. Likewise, the community loved him. Many students paid homage to Fr. Chachu at his burial, and others sent messages and stories to the school. The students at OCJC truly saw him as family. At his burial, one of his students, Susan Akera, noted “he was a father to many of us who were orphaned.” Another student expressed, “we will miss our father, our parent.”
In an unreleased interview, Fr. Chachu spoke lovingly about the community. One of his biggest concerns was that many prospective students could not afford to attend OCJC, but even some who could not pay were still welcomed into the program. Fr. Chachu cared deeply for the situation of those children in Gulu, commenting, “they literally have nothing, and as a school now, we cannot… send them away.” According to many in the community, Fr. Chahcu was a stern, disciplinary teacher at OCJC, yet even so, he was loved and widely known to have loved everyone. He kept close contact with the families, even outside of school, and was very encouraging to all of his students. His student Susan Akera described him as “the most forgiving priest I have ever come across. He would quarrel on us and within minutes he would start making jokes to us.” Another student agreed, stating, “He created a social environment that was equal for us all irrespective of who you are.”
The OCJC families and staff will sorely miss Fr. Chachu, and his contributions to the community will not soon be forgotten. Fr. Chahu was known for truly loving his students and for being a well rounded, disciplinary role model to the children at OCJC. It is with great sorrow that the OCJC families and teachers say farewell to Fr. Chachu. May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Uganda first participated in the Olympics in 1956 with a three-person team. Now, over sixty years later, Uganda has a team of twenty-five athletes participating in Tokyo in rowing, swimming, boxing, and athletics. This years Olympics is unconventional due to Covid, but that hasn’t stopped Uganda’s athletes from putting their best forward. At the opening of the games, Bwogi Shadiri and Namutebi Kirabo represented the country as flagbearers, and returned to carry their flag at the closing of the Olympic games on Sunday, August 8. Shadiri is a boxer in the games, having taken up the sport in 2009 with his father’s encouragement. Kirabo is participating as a swimmer for the country. She won the World Junior Championships in 2019.
This year, Uganda’s team made history winning four medals, the most ever in a single Olympics for the country. Uganda won their last medal (gold) in 2012 Olympics in London. This is the first time since the Munich games in 1972 that the country has won more than two medals in any single Olympics.
Joshua Cheptegei ran a fabulous race to win gold in the Men’s 5,000m beating out Mohamed Ahmed (Canada) and Paul Chelimo (USA). In the 10,000m Cheptegei claimed the silver medal in a close finish behind Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega. His teammate Jacob Kiplimo took the bronze medal. Joshua’s story is one of redemption. He participated in the 2017 World Cross Country Championship, which took place in Uganda, and placed a disappointing 30th. Just five months later Joshua would go on take the silver in London during the 2017 World Championships. And now he holds two Olympic medals with a bright future ahead in sport.
Jacob Kiplimo has been greatly influenced by his older brothers, who were also runners. Jacob developed a passion for the sport and aims to one day break a record for the 10000 meter. Both men are from Kapchorwa, Uganda, and were inspired by their families to pursue the sport. Today, they have become Olympians holding medals for Uganda.
Chemutai Peruth ran an incredible race taking gold in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase final (9.01.45), beating out the veteran American runner Courtney Frerichs (silver) and Kenya’s Hyvin Kiyeng (bronze). She became the first Ugandan female to ever win a gold medal! Winnie Nanayondo participated in the Women’s 1500m placing 7th only 6 seconds from the gold medal time, which was an Olympic record. And Kathleen Grace Noble made it to the semi-finals of the women’s 5000m single scull event. All in all, it was a fantastic showing for the Ugandan team hopefully inspiring the next generation of young athletes in the country!
Wondering how you can help children in Uganda achieve their dreams? Support the poor rural children in Tororo, Uganda by offering prayers, donating today, or sharing this story with others. Perhaps you will be supporting Uganda’s next Olympian!
