Tag Archives: Mukono

Cherop Lillian selling fruits

Family roots + UCU applied learning = graduation

COVID-19, News, UCU Alumni, , , , , , ,


Cherop Lillian selling fruits
Cherop Lillian selling fruits

By Collin Wambete

In addition to sickness and death, the COVID-19 pandemic reaped loss of employment and gaps in education around the world. Youth in Uganda have been discouraged and even more hard pressed to make money, including acquisition of funds to go to school.

Amidst the storm, Cherop Lillian found an answer to her personal situation. That answer – potatoes with an occasional onion, fruit and other edibles – enabled her to graduate on 18th December 2020 with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and Entrepreneurship at Uganda Christian University (UCU) with financial security.

She brought Irish potatoes from her home in Kapchorwa District, which is roughly 266 kilometers (165 miles) away from the UCU campus Mukono District.  Starting in February 2020, she set up a retail business 50 meters (164 feet) away from UCU’s main gate. First, raw potatoes, onions and fried potatoes were sold. Ready-to-eat, fresh fruits followed.

Cherop Lillian at her December 2020 graduation from UCU
Cherop Lillian at her December 2020 graduation from UCU

For Lillian, the lockdown that started in March and the subsequent loss of customers posed a threat to the survival of her business. She’d make fries from potatoes and sell to the students that were on campus. Her target market predominantly being students, the lockdown threw a wrench in her plans.

Who would she sell to? With transportation being shut down for 32 days, what would she sell?

She cut down her usual trade of six-to-seven 100kg (220 pounds) bags of potatoes to two bags. For most of 2020, no one was around to buy ready-to-eat fries. Lockdown measures eventually eased up and UCU, under Standard Operating Procedure guidance from the Ministry of Health, was permitted to let finalists return to campus and complete their studies. These final-year student customers returned on October 15th when UCU re-opened.

Food was the obvious product for sale.  History told her so. The earliest business venture she can remember is selling vegetables on her veranda. On holidays, she fried cassava chips in senior six and senior four.

“It is a must for everybody to eat food, so this is a viable business.” She said.

Logistics was part of the survival. Since her produce comes from Kapchorwa, her business depends on the stability of crop prices there. Transport costs shooting up all over the country due to curfew and new road restrictions was an added obstacle. 

 “I spend 75,000 Uganda shillings ($20.50) to transport five bags of Irish potatoes and this is too high for me,” she said. “I wish I could buy my own van; it could be much cheaper.” 

Lillian’s business survived. On January 1, 2021, it was stationed 100 meters (328 feet) from the main UCU gate. Most days, she was at her stall by 7 a.m. She employed five staff. In addition to potatoes, sometimes they sell homemade passion juice. 

“At my age (24) I am trying as much as possible to find my destiny, and the mistakes I make today become very big lessons to me especially in business,” she said. “I do not ask for money from people and my parents are glad that as a girl child, I am independent and able to cater for my basic needs”

She advised fellow youth to venture into business, have self-drive, and aim at growing business instead of focusing on profits at the beginning. These skills, she acknowledged, were largely learned in her program of study at UCU.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org

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The Chancellor, The Most Rev. Steven Samuel Kazimba Mugalu, and the Vice Chancellor, Assoc. Prof. Aaron Mushengyezi during the recession

UCU holds first-ever virtual graduation

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By John Semakula

In the midst of the first-ever virtual graduation ceremony of Uganda Christian University (UCU) on December 18, 2020, there was hope.

One of the First Class students permitted to attend the December graduation in person
One of the First Class students permitted to attend the December graduation in person

The hope was in the 1,810 students – most of them not physically present – getting diplomas and degrees and in the announcement of infrastructural development projects to be implemented, starting in 2021. On this Friday and from the Mukono campus, there was optimism about the institution’s outlook and boosting its revenue.

UCU Vice-Chancellor, Assoc. Prof. Aaron Mushengyezi, unveiled the projects, which are part of a fundraising drive started in late September, during the 21st graduation ceremony as the university enters its 23rd year.

“The first project, which will potentially unlock $10 million worth of infrastructure development, involves construction of a shopping Centre, a three-star hotel, and four blocks of residential halls for 1,000 rooms on the main campus,” Mushengyezi said.

The second project involves the beautification and infrastructure improvement intended to make UCU Main Campus one of the most attractive in East Africa. In 2015, Christianuniverstiesonline.org ranked UCU as among the 50 most beautiful Christian campuses globally.

Mushengyezi said that the University Council has already approved a portion of the projects, which will be implemented in collaboration with private sector partners.

The infrastructure project at the Mukono/main campus includes improvements to the Bishop Tucker Gate; a business centre with a food court; a parking lot; a students’ digital lounge and UCU Information Center. UCU also will construct walkways; install solar lights on the roads within and outside the University; and connect digital screens in buildings for real-time display of time e-tables and e-notices.

The Vice-Chancellor said that UCU also has embarked on a fundraising drive for the construction of the Ordinands Apartment for ordinands and clergy who study at UCU.

Mushengyezi thanked the UCU Chancellor and Church of Uganda Archbishop, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu, for his support for projects and appealed to friends of Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology to provide added assistance.

“All dioceses, organizations and individuals will be listed on a Hall of Fame in the building when it’s completed,” he said. “This will be our priority project for UCU Sunday over the next few years. We thank churches and individuals that have donated funds, and we look forward to contributions from the dioceses from UCU Sunday collections.”

He revealed that Prof. Stephen Noll, the first UCU Vice-Chancellor, had offered to buy a new clock for Bishop Tucker Building and that procurement is also ongoing.

Mushengyezi later took the guests through some of the achievements the different faculties at UCU have posted in the recent past. They included:

  • $17,335 grant Bishop Tucker School received via Overseas Council Australia to refurbish the department of theology at Mbale University College Campus;
  • School of Dentistry donation (mobilized by the USA-based UCU Partners) worth thousands of dollars through Midmark Corporation in form of dental equipment that included dental suits/chairs; and
  • UCU School of Business skills development facility grant through the Private Sector Foundation funded by the World Bank to pioneer a birding course that will strengthen the Bachelor of Hospitality and Tourism program.

The 1,810 students graduating with diplomas and degrees on Friday came from disciplines that include: Theology; Social Work and Social Administration; Public Administration and Management; Law; Environment and Disaster Management; Education; and Development Studies and Public Administration.

The ceremony started with the commissioning service for graduands graced by Archbishop Kaziimba at 10 a.m. Only 80 students, selected for their high academic standing, attended the event physically while others followed it on UCU digital platforms that streamed live. A total of 42 students garnered first class degrees in different disciplines, but with the Faculty of Social Sciences posting the biggest number at 24.

Kaziimba asked the graduands to emulate Jesus on servant leadership. He said: “With servant leadership, there is no need to ask for a seat because we are called not to sit and be served, but to stand and serve others.”

Regarding the forthcoming general elections in Uganda, the Archbishop urged the graduands to exercise Christian influence.

“This is a very important civil duty and I encourage each one of you to vote, and to encourage your peers to also vote,” he said. “As graduates, you have been equipped to think and to analyze issues. Please apply those skills in deciding whom you will vote for. It’s your generation that will help Uganda move to another level in its national development, one that moves peacefully beyond tribalism and overcomes corruption.”

The Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, who was the guest of honor at the ceremony, urged graduands to remain calm during the ongoing campaign period, to love their country and to honor peoples’ political convictions.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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UCU Nursing student Nankya Brenda Diana visits a village family

Community visits reinforce practical side of Ugandan health care

COVID-19, Faculty of Public Health, Nursing and Midwifery, Students, UCU School of Medicine, , , , , , , , , ,


UCU Nursing student Nankya Brenda Diana visits a village family
UCU Nursing student Nankya Brenda Diana visits a village family

By Patty Huston-Holm

Four plastic cups of passion juice. Several crumbling, miniature queen cakes. Bananas. Two melting strawberry and vanilla ice cream cones – a relatively new treat on the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Mukono campus. Laughter.

For 15 of the university’s year-four nursing students, that’s how the ride in a burgundy and white bus in central Uganda’s scorching heat started.

Loosely called a “community visit,” this weekly trek supplements learning that takes place in classrooms and laboratories on the campus. The trips into remote villages enable students to see the practical side of health care in their final months before graduation. In years one, two and three, the book, lecture and Internet knowledge have been complemented with real-world experiences in hospitals and health centers.

Previous real-world experiences have included conversations with traditional healers and professionals dealing with mental illness and observing circumcision and critical care of accident and HIV/AIDS victims.

On this sunny, February 2020 pre-COVID-lockdown day, the student nurses and Elizabeth Nagudi Situma, UCU head of nursing in the School of Medicine, travel on bumpy, dirt-rutted roads 45 minutes away from the main campus. They serve and learn in village of Nakoba – an area too remote to be found on a map. With guidance by Situma, students listen, observe, record and advise two residences each at various locations within an approximate one-mile radius.

“I think it was more than worms,” student Nankya Brenda Diana said about one child’s protruding abdominal area. “When you push on the stomach, it feels like an organ or something out of place.”

Normally, she said, a child’s extended belly means intestinal worms. They contract them from uncooked food, walking barefooted among cattle feces or eating dirty mangoes. In her kit, she has mebendazole, a drug that she can provide to eliminate worms. The better resolution is prevention through proper sanitary practices. This time, however, Brenda is not so sure that the stomachs of a two-year-old and her four-year-old brother are filled with worms. She puts her suspicions in her report.

The mother, Helen, has six children, including two sets of twins. Giving birth to more than one child at a time is a much-esteemed blessing in Ugandan culture. In addition to discussion of hygiene related to chickens that roam freely in the family’s cooking and sleeping areas, a rudely constructed rain water pipe and lack of dedicated space for the household’s bathroom habits, Brenda is ready today to discuss family planning.  Steven, the husband and father, is there to get advice, too.

Brenda, wearing a backpack and holding a clipboard, talks to the family in their Luganda mother tongue.  Helen sits on a single stool, nursing the baby, as Steven and their other children, barefooted in torn and dirty clothes, lean against trees near their humble home. Across an unpaved, dirt road are more than 20 gravesites, signified by a few stones but mostly by rounded mounds of dirt.

Roughly a half mile away, John Damasen Ntwari has his second weekly meeting with Niyonsaba, a mother of seven who, along with her husband, escaped here from Burundi ethnic disputes in 2015.  They are Tutsi who fear death still today from the richer, more powerful Hutu. In broken English, she explains that they want to go back someday. But the time is not yet right.

John Damasen Ntwari, president of the UCU Nursing Class of 2020, visits with a family in a remote village near Mukono.
John Damasen Ntwari, president of the UCU Nursing Class of 2020, visits with a family in a remote village near Mukono.

“I am very happy to see John,” she says.  She shares that her family is better off than most with two children enrolled in school.  While her young daughter smiles broadly, Niyonsaba says her problems with allergies and a weak heart seem less than John’s last visit and the daughter has healed nicely from a vaginal repair.

John, who is president of the nursing class, scribbles notes as walking to his second site. There, 15-year-old Nabaweesi Zakiah emerges. As when John previously visited, she’s alone.  Again, in clear English, she says her mother is away “just one day to visit a friend.” When she returns with school fees, Zakiah can return to school.

Situma emerges and deepens the questioning about what the girl eats, if she is alone, if she is afraid at night, and if anyone hurts her. She praises the surroundings that include a vanilla plant and trees plentiful with bananas and jackfruit. Zakiah carries a large knife to a tree, cuts down some matooke and carries it back to her small living quarters.  A dog, kitten and chicken with babies scatter.

“It’s hard to know,” John said. “I’ve asked that her mom be here today, but she still isn’t. Maybe next time.”

For most of the UCU student nurses, including Brenda and John, the desire to work in health care stems from a young age when encountering a void in medical attention for a family member. In addition to this motivation, there is a government promise of a paid job for at least one year after graduation. They are placed around the country with a 750,000 UGX ($200) a month salary for 12 months.

Seat backs filled with ready-to-eat avocados. Fingers dipped into large, freshly opened shells of sweet jackfruit. Some laughter, but mostly vocalized thoughts about the conditions, causes and remedies for health maladies. That’s how a February six-hour day – but not professional careers – concluded.

“Ultimately, I want to work in cancer care,” John said.  “But I’m prepared for anything.”

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

Christopher Mogal Muchwa narrates his story at Sts. Phillip and Andrew's Cathedral in Mukono

UCU Law student creates COVID-19 awareness application

COVID-19, Faculty of Engineering, Design & Technology, Students, UCU School of Law, , , , , , , ,


Christopher Mogal Muchwa narrates his story at Sts. Phillip and Andrew's Cathedral in Mukono
Christopher Mogal Muchwa narrates his story at Sts. Phillip and Andrew’s Cathedral in Mukono

(NOTE: On May 4, Uganda President Museveni announced a 14-day extension of the lockdown measures.  Adjustments from the previous order include that some businesses are allowed to operate and all persons must wear face coverings in public places. The ban on personal and public transport, as well as the curfew of 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. remain in effect at least through the middle of May. On May 7, there were 98 identified cases of the coronavirus in Uganda.)

By Douglas Olum

When Christopher Mogal Muchwa first heard about the COVID-19 outbreak in China from his Chinese friend, and the subsequent lockdown in Wuhan, the very city his friend lives in, he never thought the same would reach Uganda.  And he certainly never thought he would delve into technology related to the virus.

“My Chinese friend told me that they were not allowed to move out,” Muchwa recalled. “And if they wanted to take evening walks, they would only walk through the corridors and stairs of their apartment buildings, then return to their rooms.”

That, Muchwa thought months ago,“was impossible” for the country of Uganda.

But on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, when Uganda’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, directed the closure of schools and banned all forms of social gatherings including church and political rallies, Muchwa realized he was wrong.

A third-year student of Bachelor of Laws at Uganda Christian University (UCU), an orphan and only child to his late parents, Muchwa did not rush to his home in Lira, northern Uganda, like other students did when the university was officially closed on Friday, March 20. Instead, he went to live with a friend to his late mother, Mary Achoma, who resides in Mukono.

“I did not see the need to return to Lira because I would be all by myself, “ Muchwa said.

He started preparing for the UCU planned take-home examinations but the Government of Uganda stopped these. Muchwa found himself with time to think more about the world pandemic, particularly as it related to Uganda. In a traditional attorney/lawyer way of thinking, he wondered what was true and what was false; he wondered if others could use some help in sorting out the facts.

That’s when he got the idea for developing a free access mobile application to help share authentic information about COVID-19 among Ugandans.

“I knew that all the [Government] Ministries had websites, but most people do not visit those,” Muchwa said. “And many times they rely on social media information which may not be true. Someone can screen shoot a tweet by a Government official and edit the information, causing unnecessary panic among the public.”

Prior to the lockdown, Uganda already suffered from COVID-19 fake news. In late February, there emerged an allegation that two Chinese factory workers living in Seeta (Mukono) had tested positive with the Coronavirus, and that they had been put into isolation by the Ministry of Health. The Ministry denied that claim. Other rumors persisted.

Muchwa saw African IT specialists with his idea, but seeking funds to develop a more accessible, honest information tool.  While they waited, Muchwa moved ahead with his “COVID Guide.”

Screenshot of the COVID Guide application
Screenshot of the COVID Guide application

The application uses specific words, or “commands,” to derive and give replies to the user. Some of the command key words include: Ministry of Health (MoH), World Health Organization (WHO) and the names of all 134 districts of Uganda. It contains incorporated links to the Uganda’s Ministry of Health and World Health Organization websites which help one easily get up-to-date information about new cases, total number of infections in the country, quarantine centres, recoveries, risk groups, among other relevant information.

Other features of the COVID Guide are emergency helplines for the ministry and district COVID-19 taskforce.  Typing in the name of a district, even without Internet connection, brings the contact of the Resident District Commission of that district and his/her deputy. One can also use the same app to order a product from the market, especially Kampala markets, direct the dealer to put in on a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) and receive it from home.

Muchwa admits that in addition to his passion for law, he is an “IT geek.”  He is self taught, learning  a little from a cousin who is an IT specialist but also from YouTube videos.

Prior to building this app, Muchwa built the Law Library app sui-genris, through which law students access learning materials, including some books. He also built a hostel-booking app through which UCU students can check hostels around the university and book them even from a far. He built a website for the UCU Law Society and Bobics app, for a fast food business outside the university.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org

Paul Mukhana, left, is a member of Mary’s “family,” helping others in time of need

‘COVID is bringing me a new way to minister’

COVID-19, Faculty, , , , , , , , , ,


Paul Mukhana, left, is a member of Mary’s “family,” helping others in time of need
Paul Mukhana, left, is a member of Mary’s “family,” helping others in time of need

By Mary Chowenhill

On a typical, sunny Ugandan day and in front of what most call the Thelma building but is soon to become the Uganda Christian University (UCU) business incubator on the Mukono campus, seven students and I got the news. They were telling me about their incubators – also known as business startups – related to piggeries, organic fertilizer, crocheted baby clothing and more. As their economics and entrepreneurship lecturer, I offered advice.

Then, we got the news of the lockdown, and everything changed.

Mary Chowenhill, left, before Ugandan distancing and lockdown guidelines
Mary Chowenhill, left, before Ugandan distancing and lockdown guidelines

I think that day was March 30.  But like most people living in the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, the exact date then and even the day of the week now escape me. I knew the coronavirus was spreading, including in my state of Florida in the USA.  Yet, I didn’t see it coming to Uganda or my small apartment where I have lived on the UCU campus for the past four years.

Within days, I watched thousands of university students, including mine, as well as half of the Americans living and working at UCU, pack up and leave.  Having recently sold my house in Florida and suffering from asthma, I felt it healthier for me to stay out of airplanes and remain here.

UCU offices are less than half full as Ugandan employees were ordered home and into isolation.

To the best of my knowledge while writing this on April 30, 2020, the deadly virus still isn’t here on the mile-long campus and in our houses, in my garden or on my patio. In fact, as I write, only 89 cases have been identified out of 39,000 tests administered in this country. It’s hardly in Uganda at all.

But the threat and precautionary measures are. And in Uganda, there are penalties for disobedience of such government regulations on social distancing, curfews, and taking public transportation. In addition to consequences of no income for people unable to go to work, there are government fines and imprisonment for disobedience.

In preparation for the inability to leave the campus, I immediately purchased 1.5 million shillings ($395 American) of food – something that the average Ugandan is not able to do. I divided beans, rice, posha, and sugar into various portions. My friend and gardener, Paul Mukhana, delivered these to many in greater need than me – a family with new twin babies, an elderly woman walking with a cane, among others.

Food purchased to help neighbors
Food purchased to help neighbors

When this ran out – and it did – I sent Paul to the market to get more.  He went to buy posha and other items for me and another customer.  Under Ugandan COVID guidelines, Paul was permitted to use his boda-boda (motorcycle) to pick up food.  But due to some misunderstanding and while he was inside the market, the local police confiscated his transportation.  Like many others who had their vehicles taken, he was required to pay 700,000 schillings ($184) to get it back legally or 200,000 shillings ($52) under the table.

It took two weeks, including prayer and a lesson about what Jesus thinks regarding bribery, to get Paul’s boda back.

The Christian love and human kindness of Ugandans, woven with the acceptance of a country fraught with bribes, is ever present in the COVID environment.

What has changed most is that my frenetic schedule of teaching economics and entrepreneurship and children’s Sunday school has ceased.  It has been replaced with solitude and church on my patio and from the computer with six children and eight adults. After our most recent “service,” we moved and sat six feet apart under a tree, discussing the meaning of loving each other as depicted in 1 John 4:7-12.

A neighbor named Ebenezer, age two and a half, wraps his arms around my knees. He doesn’t understand why he can’t cuddle on my lap.

While the campus is quiet, there are places we can’t walk because a few international students still living here violated the distancing rule.

Depression from change and isolation contributes to the lack of motivation to accomplish tasks I was never quite able to get around to but could now. Yet, COVID is bringing me to a new way to minister.

I have always had people who are not students as part of my Ugandan family.  But recently with students sent home, I am seeing more and more staff coming to my door. Some want to harvest greens from my garden. Some want a prayer. Most need a listener. Many need money for children’s school fees when that education returns.

It is an opportune time to teach people to fish.  Not a hand out but a hand up. It’s what I’m trained to do.

One worker cleans out bat feces – 7 sacks full – from between the ceiling and roof of three apartments, including mine.  I hire a man to fix my patio.  Grateful for the work, he writes “Hebrews 13” in one section and ”Praise God, Jesus Lives” on the cement in another.

God is allowing my brain to be relaxed while I see deeper how people are hurting.  Yesterday, I read Job 19. I know my redeemer lives. Is this easy?  No.  But it’s necessary. He will see us through.

Mary Chowenhill, a teacher in South Sudan until the war caused her evacuation, is a sponsored educator and missionary with the Society of Anglican of Missionaries and Senders (SAMS) and sponsors a student through UCU Partners. She hails from Jacksonville, Florida.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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Sarah Lagot Odwong, UCU graduate and USAID employee

COVID-19: Panic buying, added work from home, trusting God

COVID-19, UCU Alumni, , , , , , , , , , , ,


Sarah Lagot Odwong, UCU graduate and USAID employee
Sarah Lagot Odwong, UCU graduate and USAID employee

By Sarah Lagot Odwong

March 21st, 2020. 11:32 p.m. Uganda had its first identified case of COVID-19.

My mind buzzed with a thousand thoughts. Only weeks earlier, my siblings and I – with our own bills to pay – had emptied our savings to complete a large part of the construction work for my mother’s house. Because her life had been wrought with difficulty, it was always our dream to give her a place of rest.

There is no good time to be dirt poor, but having a bank account blinking red when a government shutdown is inevitable is the worst of times. Sleep eluded me.

I arose early on March 22. On my way to work, I noticed the unusual flurry of activity on the Kampala roads. The traffic was horrendous. Pedestrians trudged in silence on the pavements with swift gaits and downcast faces. The boda-bodas (motorcyclists) rode dangerously, swerving and wedging through the small crevices within the disorganized flow of traffic. It was a dystopian sight. I got into work in a pensive mood. I did not have much time to settle at my desk as a staff meeting was hurriedly called.

We sat hunched on white rickety plastic chairs in the parking yard. The chairs were spaced out from each other. Some staff wore masks. Others nervously tinkered with their phones.

Our boss announced, in part:

“As you all know, the first positive case of COVID-19 was confirmed last night. The grapevine alleges that the country will be in some sort of lock down. It will probably be announced later tonight when the President makes his address. I suggest that we share work plans with line managers and get all the resources we need to work from home…You will have your salaries in your bank accounts by this afternoon…”

At least some positive news. I got a notification from my bank at 1 p.m. that my account had been credited.

I picked up my bag, scampered to the car and drove to the nearest supermarket. I passed by the bank ATM at the premises, withdrew some cash and sauntered into the store. Inside, the panic buying had already ensued. There was a mad dash by shoppers. The queues stretched for miles. Shoppers’ trolleys were loaded with toilet paper, kitchen towels, soap, wipes and other hygiene products. Others heaped vegetables, milk, bread, cartons of beer, meat and liquor.

Only one big bag of rice remained. I grabbed it. I proceeded to pick up other dry rations, hygiene products and joined the snaking lines to pay prices that had increased tremendously in a matter of hours. Little bottles of sanitizer that were affordable a week earlier now cost almost ten times more. I bought just one.

Like anticipated, President Yoweri Museveni announced a lockdown of the country for an initial 14 days. After the two weeks lapsed, 21 additional days were added.

While fortunate to still have a job, my workload increased with hours extending from early morning to late at night. Not only do I have a full-time job, I also support the crisis communications for the epidemic response.

Before the outbreak, I was living out of suitcases, on the road for days and sometimes weeks at a time, working long hours. Now at home, my workload has ramped up even more. I jealously read texts in group chats from my girlfriends who suddenly find themselves with bursts of free time. They are learning new languages on Duolingo, learning to sew and evidently having an extended holiday off work.

Not me. I spend my days hunched at a desk in the living room with my pajamas on and my hair tied in a headscarf. I am writing, attending endless Zoom and Skype meetings, and tending to incessant phone calls.

What I have found hardest is the physical distance and inability to see family – both in Uganda and elsewhere. No travel on roads or in the air. We created a family chat group on WhatsApp, which helps my coping. Seeing videos of my nieces and nephews doing hilarious things, the new baby attempting to walk and other family milestones, I am reminded that there is hope after this plague blows over. And it will.

What precious time I have away from my computer, I am reminded to prioritize the things that really matter. Family, faith, friendships, love and personal development.  We waste time chasing the wind, like the writer of Ecclesiastes opines. The “busy” job, the career growth, and monetary gain. All of it is meaningless.

What this pandemic has shown is that when it is stripped down, life makes meaning with just the simple things. Healthy thriving relationships with God, family, friends and the people who love and support you. They will always be a constant. All the other material contraptions we chase fade away. This epiphany has made me change gear.

In what I hope are the final days of this lockdown, I have a different attitude and mindset. Going forth, I aim to structure my work to fit within regular hours. I aim to find more time to check on the people I love.

I am determined to create extra time to pursue my passion projects. I wrote a book during my undergraduate studies that I need to publish this year. I have autobiography projects that I must complete. I have a consulting business to grow. I have a PhD proposal to write. There are friends and family to check on. I have series of sermons to watch.

I have seen the Lord’s handiwork amidst this chaos. He has been faithful. There is no day I have slept hungry. I have a roof over my head. My utility bills are paid. I still have a job. When I feel overwhelmed, I remember that the creator of the universe knew me before I was formed in my mother’s womb. He had the foresight that I would go through this calamity. And he promised to help me weather it.

(Sarah Lagot Odwong is a graduate of Mass Communication from Uganda Christian University and received her Master’s degree in Humanitarianism and Conflict Response from The University of Manchester, England. She currently works for USAID’s Better Outcomes for Children and Youth Activity as the Communications Director.)

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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Madonna waiting for her dad to come home from work

‘I can’t hug her the minute I get home’

COVID-19, UCU Alumni, , , , , , , , , , ,


Madonna waiting for her dad to come home from work
Madonna waiting for her dad to come home from work

By Constantine Odongo
Emmanuella Madonna is three years old. Every weekday, after taking her after-school nap, the kindergarten pupil engages her friends in the neighbourhood in games, such as dodge ball and hide-and-seek.

That was before mid-March 2020 and COVID-19.

On March 18, she got an abrupt, indefinite school holiday after the Ugandan government announced a closure of schools and a ban on work, unless it was an essential service. The ban was to enforce the health guideline of social distancing and staying home to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has become a pandemic. Madonna now spends more time with her mother at home and keeps wondering why I, her father, cannot stay home with them.

Emmanuella Madonna studying from home
Emmanuella Madonna studying from home

As an employee of Uganda’s New Vision newspaper (i.e. news jobs are considered essential), it means I’m gone much of the day and conceivably more exposed to the potentially deadly virus.

Madonna doesn’t get that. She doesn’t understand why I can’t hug her the minute I get home between 6:45 and 7 p.m.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni on March 30, 2020, announced a two-week stay-home order and capped it with a 11.5-hour curfew from 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. The order and the curfew were then extended by another three weeks.

Since, most times, the normal working hours at my office are not enough for me to accomplish my tasks, I often work up to the 11th hour.  My workplace, being a media house, is open 24 hours. But, nowadays, the newsroom is almost empty, save for security personnel, especially past 6 p.m. People abandon office early, in order to get home and beat the curfew time of 7 p.m.

It usually takes me up to 25 minutes to cover the 14km (8.5 miles) distance from my office located in the capital of Uganda, Kampala, to home in Kawempe, a city suburb. I spend close to half of that time at roadblocks, trying to explain to security why my media movement permit sticker is on the dashboard and not on the car screen.  Some motorists had lost their outside car stickers to thieves, who would pluck them off cars and sell them in the black market in Kampala, sometimes as high as one million shillings (about $280).

As I arrive home after work and oftentimes after the routine security interrogation, I see Madonna run to arms she can’t yet embrace – until I am cleansed of possible contamination to her and others in my family. I watch a fight brewing between Madonna and her nanny, who is seven times her age, but understands her job to keep a daughter from her dad in the world of COVID fear. I always ensure I bathe as soon as I arrive home, before getting into contact with anything or anyone, so that I do not become a conduit for the coronavirus.

Every morning, if Madonnna wakes up before I set off for work, she tries her luck in convincing me not to go to work that day. When President Museveni banned public and private cars from the roads on March 30, I carried my computer home and set up myself to work there. However, an unstable Internet network, an unfavorable work station and distractions by children hindered my ability to work.

Madonna’s sibling, Morgan, will be making one year on May 5. Throughout the day, I arbitrated disputes between her and Morgan. April 1 was day two of my full operation from home. We were both at our workstations, Madonna’s about two metres (6 feet) away from mine. When I stepped away from the room to receive a phone call, Madonna removed a keyboard key.

Madonna’s grandmother, a lady she was named after, lives and teaches in a primary school in Tororo district, located 220 kilometers (136.5 miles), east of Kampala. One-and-a-half weeks before the lockdown, schools were closed. Initially, teachers saw joy in the holiday. But it was short lived as they experienced more than one negative aspect of the lockdown.

Constantine Odongo
Constantine Odongo

The weekend after schools had been closed, as one example, Madonna’s grandmother attended a funeral in Tororo, without knowing that she and some friends were going against the guidelines of the Ministry of Health – that only close family members bury the dead due to social distancing. There were water points for the mourners to wash their hands before getting to the funeral, but not many even understood why the water and soap had been provided.

Such stories justify why the Government enlisted the services of the security forces to enforce the observance of the lockdown guidelines. I remind myself of this each time I am stopped. Life as we know it has changed for Madonna and me. With God’s guidance and understanding, we will appreciate the fruits of the difference and get through it.

(Constantine Odongo is a deputy chief sub-editor for New Vision. He received an MA degree in Journalism and Media Studies from Uganda Christian University.)

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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Journalists Paddy Nsobya of Bukedde newspaper, Samuel Sanya of New Vision and John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University in an April 20 meeting to strategize for the post COVID-19 period in Mukono District, Uganda. (Courtesy photo from Samuel Sanya)

Coronavirus pandemic has reshaped me into a better person

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Journalists Paddy Nsobya of Bukedde newspaper, Samuel Sanya of New Vision and John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University in an April 20 meeting to strategize for the post COVID-19 period in Mukono District, Uganda. (Courtesy photo from Samuel Sanya)
Journalists Paddy Nsobya of Bukedde newspaper, Samuel Sanya of New Vision and John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University in an April 20 meeting to strategize for the post COVID-19 period in Mukono District, Uganda. (Courtesy photo from Samuel Sanya)

By John Semakula

When governments in Europe and the United States came up with altruistic measures to help their citizens during the Coronavirus lockdown, in Uganda, we were left to fend for ourselves.

Despite the fact that the majority of Ugandans live hand to mouth and expected help from government during the lockdown, a selected few received food items. Many communities, including mine, were forced to mobilise ourselves to help the most vulnerable like the elderly, the poor and children in child-headed families. This experience has reshaped my personality and worldview.

For a video showing food distribution in Uganda, click here

Before the lockdown, I did not care much about community. If I had food on my table, I was mindless about the needy in the community; someone always did that job anyway.

John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University
John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University

However, the lockdown has molded me into a better person. I have learned to share with others and be keen about what goes on in my community. When the government of Uganda declared a partial lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 17, I plunged into thoughts about how my family would go through it. I stay with seven relatives in Mukono town, central Uganda.

Although I am a salaried employee at Uganda Christian University, the lockdown was abrupt and yet the situation required that I should help close family members whose incomes were affected by the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. Some of them operated casual businesses that had to close.

However, as I was still lost in thought, wondering what to do, I received a call from my father in the village offering us food from his garden. This has turned out to be our lifeline. Whenever we run out of food, I send a motorist to collect from my dad.

This kindness from my father has helped not only my siblings and me but also some of my neighbors. My siblings and I had to share the little we get from dad and the meager monetary resources I had saved up before the lockdown. My father has taught me an invaluable lesson in adulthood and I had to reciprocate his kindness.

I have also seen hundreds of other Ugandans donate food, cash and other critical items to the coronavirus national taskforce that was set up by the government to receive financial and food aid from members of the public for distribution to the most vulnerable. This was uncommon before the outbreak of the pandemic. I have discovered that Ugandans are a good people and that if we had been helping one another before, we would have been a better society.

I have also had to help several of my neighbors who need small cash handouts to feed and support their families in other ways during the lockdown.

On Tuesday April 14, a father of six including a pair of twins came to me at 8 p.m. to ask for a loan of $6. He said, “…if you do not help me out today, my family will go without food for the next three days…” I was forced to surrender part of my week’s small budget to him.

Within less than a week, on April 19, another neighbor, who had a patient at a nearby hospital, also asked me for a favor of sh40, 000 ($12) to transfer him for specialised treatment to another facility. I gave it to him out of sympathy. Before the Coronavirus pandemic, he worked in Kame Valley Market in Mukono town and like other traders, the lockdown has rendered him helpless.

Although markets are allowed to operate, only those trading in food items are allowed to work, the rest of traders like my neighbor, have to close.  That is how my life has changed during the lockdown. But I thank God who has been merciful to my family because we are still alive when thousands of others around the world have succumbed to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, since the University where I work shut down on March 17, I have been operating from home, preparing for the reopening and the next semester. I am also going through students’ research proposals and internship reports. In addition, I am taking this time to come up with and bounce off different COVID-19 related research ideas with colleagues; hopefully we will have a research paper at the end of the year.

I see light at the end of the tunnel.

But the Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown have taught me a lot of lessons in life that will remain fresh on my memory until death. I have never seen people the world-over suffer and die at this rate. I also have learned that in Africa we survive by the mercy of God. I will continue to exalt Him as the most supreme.

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John Semakula is the supervisor of The Standard newspaper under the Faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication at Uganda Christian University (UCU).  He is a UCU graduate of Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and Masters of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies.  

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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‘Just as the Lord was with the exiles in Babylon, He is with us also’

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Rev. Jessica Hughes, from the state of Virginia in the USA, decided to remain on the University campus. These are some of her “neighbors” outside her apartment in Mukono, Uganda.
Rev. Jessica Hughes, from the state of Virginia in the USA, decided to remain on the University campus. These are some of her “neighbors” outside her apartment in Mukono, Uganda.

By Rev. Jessica Hughes

Jeremiah 29:7: “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

While I am neither an Israelite nor am I in exile, Jeremiah’s exhortation to pray for the place where you live is sound counsel that I think still applies today. As a missionary who has worked at Uganda Christian University (UCU) for almost eight years, I have long prayed for the peace and prosperity of Kampala and Mukono.

And then COVID-19 happened, and the US State Department issued a Global Level 4 Advisory – Do Not Travel (and come home if you are abroad unless you are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period). This immediately raises one challenge for any missionary or expatriate: Do you stay where you are, or do you go home?

I quickly decided that it was much easier for me to stay here, especially since I had no idea when I would be able to re-enter Uganda when the crisis had passed (without the mandatory 14-day quarantine expanded later to another three weeks). I have friends who have stayed, and I have friends who have returned home. Regardless of their choice, I am grateful that they were able to reach wherever they wanted to be safely.

One of the things for which I am grateful is that Uganda is a model for how to handle epidemics. The government reacted quickly, even though many of these decisions have caused a bit of havoc.

On March 18, Uganda announced that schools and churches would close on March 20 for 32 days. This meant that the students had to hurry and get home, and we had to hurry and try to finish the semester. I am so proud of my students; they finished their assignments as quickly as they could while packing and leaving early.

The airport and other borders were closed on March 22 for a minimum of 32 days to people, but cargo still transits, thankfully. Pharmacies, banks and all stores except for those that sell food were closed. All public transportation was shut down, and initially, private vehicles could carry three people, but then all driving was banned except for health transportation. People in Kampala were jogging in hordes on major roads, so then exercising outdoors in public was banned, though exercise in one’s yard is allowed. There is a curfew from 7 p.m.-6:30 a.m., and you will be arrested if you are caught even walking home from work.

In the midst of all this, I am grateful for so much:

  • The Ministry of Health. They are handling the pandemic as well as can be expected. Uganda has long been a standard for how to manage epidemics, and COVID-19 is no exception. They have worked well with various communication outlets to be sure that the message of staying home and preventing the spread of the virus is prominent; one cannot make a phone call without a few seconds of a message being played before the call is actually placed. There are many challenges, of course, but I am grateful for how they have taken the lead.
  • Uganda Christian University’s leadership. I often note that I live in an idyllic bubble on campus, with Internet, water, and security, and that is true. But I am most grateful that the University was very quick to make plans to allow lecturers to end the semester online and for exams to be converted to take-home exams. Though the latter was ultimately halted by the government, I am grateful that the University has been making use of online tools for education, was prepared to shift to take-home exams that would be submitted online (with allowances being made for students without easy internet access), but also that the students were so invested in their education that the overwhelming majority of them were very disappointed in the government’s decision disallowing take-home exams.
  • The church’s response. Much like in the US and the rest of the world, churches immediately went online. The Archbishop of the Province of the Church of Uganda has been publishing daily devotions, as well as leading two services on Sundays from home. The UCU Chaplaincy also immediately went online, as did many of my Theology students, so much so that scrolling through Facebook on a Sunday was very likely to cause the web page to hang with all the Facebook Lives that were playing.
  • For my mission society’s leadership. They have been proactive in checking on us, seeing what we need and where we need to be, and ensuring that we are well.

Most of all, I am grateful that my people, on both my continents, are safe. I’ve been able to talk with a number of my students, as well as friends and family, and all are well.

Yes, this pandemic is trying, difficult, and challenging. But just as the Lord was with the exiles in Babylon, He is with us also.

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Rev. Jessica Hughes is a lecturer in the UCU Bishop Tucker School of Theology and Divinity. She hails from the state of Virginia.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

Frank Obonyo holds Keren, his daughter, who he features in the article. Other family members are the writer’s wife, Cathryn, and children, Adonai and Ezekiel.

COVID-19: Ugandan father makes good out of the season

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Frank Obonyo holds Keren, his daughter, who he features in the article. Other family members are the writer’s wife, Cathryn, and children, Adonai and Ezekiel.
Frank Obonyo holds Keren, his daughter, who he features in the article. Other family members are the writer’s wife, Cathryn, and children, Adonai and Ezekiel.

By Frank Obonyo

Keren: Daddy, why does Coronavirus have many names?

Me: Which ones?

Keren: Corona, COVID-19, Coronavirus…

Keren, age 3, is my youngest of three children. We – my wife, Cathryn, and our children Adonai, age 9, Ezekiel, 6, and Keren – live in Kirowoza, Mukono, Uganda.  As I write this on Easter in April 2020, the deadly virus has not reached our village. But word about it has, including to a three-year-old.

Children ask questions. Lots of awesome questions. If deeply thought about, their intricate inquiries make a lot of sense. They wonder why things are the way they are.

Our three-year-old is excessively talkative and inquisitive. I recall one such time when she asked: “Does Jesus have a house in my stomach?” We previously told her that Jesus lives in us. Instead of figuratively about the spirit of Christ, our youngest took this literally.

It was during an evening walk with Keren that the COVID questions came. When I later went to bed and recollected what happened in the day, Keren’s question made actual sense. To think about it, COVID-19 is like a maze.

Multiple names are part of the maze as we weave through additional questions related to isolation, lifestyle changes, overall confusion and then how what is taking place now relates to other experiences that we have had.

Africans are connected to nature. It feeds us and shelters us but we also link it to natural occurrences. Locusts –those swarming, tropical grasshoppers – eat up vegetation including crops, leaving people in terrible famine. A child born during a locust invasion is called “Obonyo,”which is part of my name and my identity. The naming of this child, or me, is symbolic. It reminds the community about the dreadful disaster.

The Northern Uganda Luo speaking group refers to the insect invasion as “bonyo.” The Luo are one of East Africa’s largest ethnic groups.

In this season, Coronavirus seems to have touched the climate as well. Our weather is either dry or wet, and April is a rainy month. However, the sun is now baking green leaves bone-dry, sprinkling our heads with grayish dust and we have no option but to survive this life indoors, behind closed shutters. It is the government’s “distancing” and “sheltering” orders (expanded for another three weeks from the two-week curfew that ended April 14).

What is more exceptional is that the desert locusts swarmed Uganda just a few months ago. The two tragedies seemed to have agreed to attack us one after another. These somewhat haphazard observations may give a fair idea of what our country is like.

Life, I must admit, is ugly for us as it must seem to others around the world in this COVID-19 pandemic environment. We are accustomed to routine. Wake up, get to work, come back home, sleep.

This has changed. It is now bedroom to living room, kitchen to compound; that is the cycle. We miss out on social life, working together and even as a community, mourning the death of someone. In Uganda, life is about meeting friends, extended family, workmates. Men, for example, reserve Saturday and Sunday to watch English premier league games, children have school assignments, and mothers go shopping. We go out to church together.

We now hear and live two words: Stay home.

I admire Keren and her two brothers for how they adapt.  They remind me of Jesus’ teachings about humility. He said that we should humble ourselves like little children if we are to enter the Kingdom of God. If we are to live happily, we ought to live like children. And not worry.

My children do not worry about the bills, the next meal. If they have parents around them, food and accommodation, they have it all. They go forward, no matter what. There is very little fear. Children do not worry about the virus or a lockdown. They are focused on being themselves; they have an insatiable curiosity. It is not about missing the old life. It is about onward and upward. Children adapt quickly, and perhaps that is why they live happier lives. My children wake up, play, eat, and are happy to see us around.

The truth is, for adults accustomed to routines outside of parenting, spending more time with children can get complicated and chaotic. Lots of laundry, playing the role of a judge, answering why COVID-19 has many names…

I am using this season break from work and post-graduate studies to help my children improve in their reading skills and understand who they are in God. I read with them the adventures of Mr. Hare. This folklore revolves around the cunning Mr. Hare, who, though in small stature, employs his wisdom and tricks to outmaneuver bigger opponents and always takes the prize home. The stories are packed with humor and life lessons. We also study the Bible; April is the month of the book of Ephesians.

I am making good out of the season, as there will be others.

Frank Obonyo is a Communications Officer at Uganda Christian University(UCU), an MA graduate in literature from UCU and an MA Digital Journalism fellow at the Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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Olum Douglas playing a horse puzzle game at home

My experience with the COVID-19 outbreak in Uganda

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Olum Douglas playing a horse puzzle game at home
Olum Douglas playing a horse puzzle game at home

By Douglas Olum

I wish COVID-19 had consulted me before breaking out in Uganda. At the time it came, I was at a near zero financial balance. As the virus label moved from an epidemic to, by late January 2020, a pandemic, I knew this meant worldwide and my country was likely not to be untouched. With a wife and two children to provide for, I worried about how I would save my family from starvation should our Government order a lockdown to keep us from working and traveling to the store.

When? I didn’t know.

I had spent the whole of February attending lectures for my MA program at Uganda Christian University. Within that time, I had not contributed any stories for the Uganda Partners organization, which is my main source of finances. My car selling business also had gone down since December 2019, when I made a commission on the last sale. I had spent weeks since the beginning of March, trekking between Kampala and Mukono, trying to revive the business. I had a few cars at hand for sale, with a few promises from prospective customers but none was materializing.

On Saturday, March 21, Uganda announced in her first case of the coronavirus infection. The victim was a 36-year-old businessman who had returned from a three-day trip to Dubai in the United Arabs Emirates.

I anticipated very tough times ahead if the numbers of identified cases increased. I thought that if I could just sell one car for a dealer, I would use the money to transport my wife and children from our apartment in Mukono to my village of Gulu in the far north. Personally, I couldn’t go because I had periodical course assignments to do and submit until late June. I knew that going to the village – far away from electricity and Internet access – would hinder my studies. Besides, I still felt we might avoid being swept deeper into the pandemic.

My confidence was rooted as far back as the year 2000 when Ebola first hit northern Uganda. Christ the King Demonstration Primary School, where I studied back then, was among the first institutions to be affected. One of our teachers contracted the virus disease and succumbed to it within the first four days. The Government moved to close schools only after his death. But none of us was ever infected.

My home 20 years ago was located near Lacor Hospital, a private hospital in Gulu that handled most of the Ebola cases. Many of our neighbors worked there to take care of the victims. Our market and public transports remained functional. We interacted without being distanced and without negative consequences. Thinking of that earlier survival time that was not as life changing as the COVID-19 restrictions, I was not discouraged.

Even when I had heard of death cases in China, Italy and Spain, I had the impression that the COVID-19 infection was not as dangerous as the Ebola that took a life in less than 72 hours.

Olum Douglas in his mask, walking in Mukono Town during the lockdown
Olum Douglas in his mask, walking in Mukono Town during the lockdown

When a Norwegian newspaper/magazine journalism friend asked me to accompany her in collecting data for a story she wanted to do about the COVID-19 situation in Uganda, I didn’t hesitate even though we planned to work in the business hubs in Kampala. We were supposed to carry out the survey on a Monday. But a cough and cold hit her, necessitating postponement. While I was a bit anxious, she assured me that her condition was not the coronavirus because she had largely been at home, with very minimal trips to buy groceries and no contact with any person who had just entered or returned to the country. We re-scheduled our work for the next day, Tuesday, March 24th.

As I travelled to Kampala that hot, sunny day, I learned of eight new cases of confirmed infections. March 24 was my last trip to the city – at least for a while. That night, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni announced a ban on all public transport means, with private means limited to carrying not more than two passengers. The ban eventually was extended for everything except for trucks transporting food.

At this point, the virus threat became a reality. Most people were wearing facemasks. Hand-washing containers were at all entries and exits of markets, large buildings, taxi parks and supermarkets. Shop owners and operators were sanitizing the hands of their customers. Unlike the usually welcoming market environment, the traders themselves were barring those who resisted hand washing.

Money to feed my family was uppermost in my mind. With a slight headache and enough shillings for a few days of family meals, I headed back to Mukono. But fear grew with the headache pain as I understood this to be one symptom of the COVID-19 infection.  The anxiety lessened when my temperature taken at the UCU gate registered a normal 97 degrees Fahrenheit.

Douglas and his children, Daphine and Victor, feeding their chicken during the lockdown
Douglas and his children, Daphine and Victor, feeding their chicken during the lockdown

While financially crippling, the government curfew since March 24 has meant more family time – singing, playing, teaching and learning with my children. And while I didn’t have access to computers on the locked-down campus, I was able to complete some long-overdue writing assignments on a phone donated to me by an American last year. Many times, I did the work just outside the UCU gate where the university wifi was weak but reaching.

At 53 infections and zero deaths as I write this on Easter Sunday, I remain optimistic that Uganda may escape the huge numbers experienced by much of the rest of the world.

How deep, when and where else will COVID-19 strike? I don’t know.  But surrounded by my wife and children, I’m watching.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

A roller compacts soil on Agape Rise Road, below the Bishop Tucker Building.

UCU works to say goodbye to dust, mud on main campus

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A roller compacts soil on Agape Rise Road, below the Bishop Tucker Building.
A roller compacts soil on Agape Rise Road, below the Bishop Tucker Building.

By Douglas Olum

It is a rainy Monday morning in central Uganda’s Mukono district. Resident and non-resident students are making their way to sit for end-of-semester exams at Uganda Christian University. At one of the gates, an off-campus student carries her shoes in her hand as she tiptoes through the mud. Others walk in mud-soaked shoes, sliding and leaping off the road to a safer haven on the grass leading to a gate.

Ivan Tsebeni, a second-year Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication student and member of the Guild Parliament representing the Faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication, says some of his peers missed classes in the previous weeks because of the mud.

“The problem is that you dress smartly from your room, but when you get to campus, one may think you are from the garden because of the mud,” Tsebeni said. “Some students cannot stand that.”

Mukono has a tropical climate with significant rainfall even during the driest month. In December 2019, Mukono was experiencing an unusually high amount of rainfall. According to climate-data.org, this area experiences roughly 50 inches a year.

UCU’s Kids Care Centre Road in the campus “tech park” area is freshly tarmacked.
UCU’s Kids Care Centre Road in the campus “tech park” area is freshly tarmacked.

To better serve students and faculty in both dry and dusty and wet and muddy weather, UCU is doing what it can inside its gates. The university is in the second phase of tarmacking of roads within the Mukono campus. The roads under construction are: Agape Road, Bethany Rise, Words of Hope Road, Kids Care Centre Road, and the Bishop Tucker Parking Yard.

The other areas being upgraded include the new Commercial Area, near the Janani Luwum Dining Hall, which is being excavated and the Words of Hope Parking Yard, which is set for tarmacking.

This phase two, 1.5-kilometer (just under 1 mile) road construction, which is estimated to cost shillings 1.7 billion shillings (about $460,000), is being done by Stirling Civil Engineering Ltd, a Uganda-based company, the same company which constructed the first phase.

In a recent interview, the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration who is also the Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Development and External Relations, David Mugawe, said the project was being subsidized by the development fund collections from students every semester. Students pay a sum of shillings 50,000 (about $13.5) per student, per semester as a development fee, alongside other functional fees.

Remmy Allan Mbulaka, the Guild Minister of Health who is also a member of Parliament representing the UCU School of Medicine, commended the university for acting against the dust and mud.

“I am happy that the university is doing this,” he said. “It should cover the entire campus so that dusts are reduced.”

In April 2017, the first phase of the roads construction covered 1.5 kilometers out of an estimated 3 kilometers (1.8 miles). The Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, said that the project had been delayed due to the prohibitive cost of road construction.

“There is dust when it is sunny and dry as well as mud when it is raining,” the Vice Chancellor said. “But once we start [the construction], it will give us the commitment to continue working on the roads and ensure that UCU stands up to its quality as a university.”

The roads upgrade is part of the 2012-2018 UCU Strategic Plan, which also formed part of the University Master Plan. The second phase is planned for completion over four months – by February 2020.

Even with the muddy and dusty roads, Uganda Christian University has over the years, been ranked among the most beautiful universities in Africa because of its compound dotted with trees, modern architectural classroom blocks, library, halls of residence, lush green areas and the historical Bishop Tucker building.

A 2017 ranking by Christianuniversitiesonline.org placed UCU as the most beautiful Christian University in Africa. Another ranking by www.timeshighereducation.com in 2018 also placed UCU in the 9th position among top 10 most beautiful universities in Africa.

It is hoped among many staff and students that the completion of the roads construction will not only save them from the dust and mud, but also enhance the image of the university internationally.

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Rev. Amos Kirmera and his wife, Florence, receive prayers from UCU’s vice chancellor and priests during an Aug. 25 church service on the Mukono, Uganda. The family has been chosen to serve a minimum of two years in Massachusetts. (UCU Partners photo)

Uganda Christian University Assistant Chaplain Goes into American mission field

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Rev. Amos Kirmera and his wife, Florence, receive prayers from UCU’s vice chancellor and priests during an Aug. 25 church service in the Mukono, Uganda. The family has been chosen to serve a minimum of two years in Massachusetts. (UCU Partners photo)
Rev. Amos Kirmera and his wife, Florence, receive prayers from UCU’s vice chancellor and priests during an Aug. 25 church service on the Mukono, Uganda. The family has been chosen to serve a minimum of two years in Massachusetts. (UCU Partners photo)

By Patty Huston-Holm

Rev. Amos Kimera is aware of how alcohol, technology, materialism and peer pressure get in the way of a life fully committed to Christ. He’s seen that in his 36 years of growing up and working in Uganda. He also knows such temptations are greater in developed countries.

In early September, when moving with his family to the United States, Rev. Amos hopes to play a small role in turning that around. The Uganda Christian University (UCU) assistant chaplain has accepted an offer to study at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and to be a pastor at a Ugandan church in the Boston, MA area.

On a Monday afternoon and after fighting traffic in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala and helping eight students from Germany settle in for a semester on the UCU Mukono campus, he reflected on the decision that was three years in the making. In addition to offers on the American side, he had the blessings of Archbishop of Uganda the Most Rt. Rev. Stanley Ntagali and UCU Vice Chancellor Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi.

Mostly, however, the New Testament Matthew Chapter 9 stories of Jesus’ healing drive Rev. Amos.  He recalled a visit to Boston and one youth healing opportunity that was missed.

“An 18-year-old from Uganda had everything going for him with offers for college and more,” Rev. Amos recalled. “Yet, he felt pressure and felt not good enough.  He committed suicide.”

UCU Vice Chancellor Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, right, sends off a member of the UCU chaplaincy. The family was scheduled to leave Uganda on Sept. 3. (UCU Partners photo)
UCU Vice Chancellor Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, right, sends off a member of the UCU chaplaincy. The family was scheduled to leave Uganda on Sept. 3. (UCU Partners photo)

In partnership with his wife, Florence, Rev. Amos has not just counseled youth about their self worth and positive lifestyle changes, but has walked alongside of them. Sometimes, it is listening, laughing, watching a movie –not judging while demonstrating a lifestyle devoid of alcohol and other destructive behavior.  Often, God is not mentioned at all.

“My wife is the biggest supporter of my ministry,” he said. “We have had young people at our house, telling us they are a ‘waste.’ My wife tells them that others may define them that way, but that is not who they are.”

While working on a master’s degree in urban ministry leadership and serving at St. Peter’s Anglican Church of Uganda in Massachusetts, Rev. Amos anticipates his work will be with youth ages 2 to 20.  Florence will volunteer at the church while focusing on the care of their two children, Makaila Mwebaza Nakalema (5 years) and Moriah Mirembe Kisakye Nassuna (11 months). With husband and wife from the central Ugandan region – she from Mukono and he from Mityana and Luweero – they plan to reinforce the Luganda language and tribal customs at home while introducing their children to a new culture in the United States.

In previous visits to Germany (where he forged a relationship between UCU and an international university), the United Kingdom, South Africa, Indonesia, Norway, Poland, Italy, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and the USA, Rev. Amos has become keenly aware how wealth pulls people away from the Christian faith.

“When you have everything, you don’t need God,” he said.  “My fridge is full, I have a car. Life is fast. Where is God, and why do I need Him?”

The unintended consequence of modern technology, particularly for youth, is the distraction from a faith-based walk. Rev. Amos’ strategy is not to fight modern media, but to join them. With his first degree from UCU in mass communications and a post-graduate degree in divinity, he is seeking solutions on how “robots” can make the church stronger.

“Church leaders need to learn how to use these tools so we’re not left behind,” he said. “Children are struggling between modern ways and the Truth. We need to be smart to overcome world views and remind youth that God is in control.”

Leaving UCU is bittersweet for the assistant chaplain. He will miss the students.  Likewise, Amos and Florence will miss their family members who live in Uganda. Florence’s mom has been a constant babysitter. And a Boston winter with bitter-cold snow and driving a car on a different side of the road will be among cultural adjustments.

But Rev. Amos thinks about Matthew 9:38 and Jesus’ message to his disciples about the plentiful harvest with few workers; he knows he is being sent into that harvest field.

“God is sending me into this mission as He always has,” he said.

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To support UCU students, staff, programs and facilities, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.

Inspecting the double-decker plastic composter after installation (UCU Partners photo)

University waste management project boosts agriculture, health among local community

Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, , , ,


Inspecting the double-decker plastic composter after installation (UCU Partners photo)
Inspecting the double-decker plastic composter after installation (UCU Partners photo)

By Douglas Olum

“A deteriorating urban environment is the enemy of sustainable development. Protecting the environment is not an alternative to economic growth—it is a precondition of efficient, economic development.”

Incinerator before installation (UCU Partners photo)
Incinerator before installation (UCU Partners photo)

In respect to this United Nations sustainable development goal, the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Faculty of Science and Technology’s Department of Engineering and Environment has a project focused on waste management. With the assistance of a $3,000 grant from UCU Partners through the university’s Institute for Faith, Learning and Service, the department built a prototype of two composters and an incinerator to help conserve the environment while also boosting agriculture and health in a low-income community in Mukono.

“People knew that they had the wastes, and they were concerned about its possible implications, but they did not know how to manage it,” Kenneth Econi Yikii, a teaching assistant and demonstrator at the department, said during an interview, “But from the time we set up that pilot project, there has been very positive response from the community that people want more of it.”

Rodgers Tayebwa, a lecturer at the department, said the project was conceived after an assessment that revealed the need among the community around the university.

“We realized that a lot of solid wastes were being produced but, while the community could use the wastes for boosting their agricultural output, they were being disposed as unwanted materials,” Tayebwa said.

Under the project, 10 students were selected based on a concept writing competition organized by the department. Their concepts were then merged with ideas from their lecturers to generate the designs for two plastic and metallic composters (double-decker composters), and an incinerator. The design came after a series of processes, including mapping the area, a baseline survey, waste characterization and selection of the pilot households.

At least 40 households were selected for the waste characterization process to determine the kinds of wastes most produced in the area. Bio-degradable wastes (dead organisms, kitchen waste, etc.) were found to be the most, followed by plastics.

At least two composters and an incinerator were installed in Basiima Kikooza village, in the outskirts of Mukono town.  This village was chosen after being identified by local authorities as the most vulnerable to the outbreak of hygiene-related diseases such as cholera because of their poor waste management. About 30 households are now benefitting from the project that has not only improved their health, but also their agricultural yield.

The beneficiaries dispose of their bio-degradable wastes (unwanted material that can rot), and continuously turn them from time to time to ensure oxygen circulation, until they are ready for transfer to the second decker that transforms them into organic manure.  From there, they are collected and spread directly into the farmers’ gardens.

According to Yiiki, the bananas and bean crops in the farmers’ gardens look greener. There are no flies gathering around in large numbers to feast on household wastes like food. Plastics and polythene bags, which do not easily decompose, are sorted and either incinerated or sold out to companies that recycle them. This has increased the household income of the members who sort out and sell recyclable items while reducing the potential breeding space for mosquitoes, which transmit malaria.

When the monitoring team last visited the project site in February, the farmers had already collected manure at least twice from each of the composters since their installation in January.

Tayebwa said the involvement of students has been key for their learning, and was also highly appreciated by the community. He said as they continue to monitor the pilot project, they hope that more funds will be availed for the same project in the future so that they are able to reach out and give back to more members of the community surrounding the university.

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For more of these stories and experiences by and about Uganda Christian University (UCU) programs, students and graduates, visit https://www.ugandapartners.org. If you would like to support UCU, contact Mark Bartels, Executive Director, UCU Partners, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org  or go to https://www.ugandapartners.org/donate/

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Overheated computer

Dust & power surges – two biggest laptop enemies in Uganda

Faculty of Engineering, Design & Technology, , , , , , , , ,


Overheated computer
Overheated computer

(Note: Technology use is growing in East Africa, including in Uganda. But the country’s infrastructure and population understanding of care connected to a personal computer have not kept pace. This story is provided to inform readers both in Africa and the Western world of the all-too-frequent negative consequence of owning a laptop in Uganda.)

 By Patty Huston-Holm

On the morning that I was walking to meet one of the guys who knows more about computers than anyone on the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Mukono campus, I witnessed spoilage.

A male student, talking into his phone that was sandwiched between his right shoulder and ear, accidently dropped his laptop computer (followed by the phone) into the gravel and dust below.

“Sorry,” I said, watching him retrieve both devices from the stony slope along the Science and Technology building. “I hope they aren’t spoiled.”

UCU Director of University ICT Services, Perez M. Matsiko, in his office on the Mukono campus (UCU photo)
UCU Director of University ICT Services, Perez M. Matsiko, in his office on the Mukono campus (UCU photo)

While Americans only refer to children and food as spoiled, spoilage in Uganda means damaged goods, namely electronics. Having worked with UCU students since 2012 and having one of my own Ugandan daughters show up with a fairly new, expensive and ruined Mac Air in 2018, I have heard and seen my share of spoiled computer woes.

The UCU Director of University ICT Services (UIS), Perez M. Matsiko, has seen and heard more.  Despite the sign that clearly states UIS is not a center for computer repairs, students and staff descend on him and other library third-floor information technology geeks with their puzzled looks, begging tactics and broken devices.

UCU’s Mukono campus electrical technician, Simon Kyalahansi (UCU Partners photo)
UCU’s Mukono campus electrical technician, Simon Kyalahansi (UCU Partners photo)

Matsiko and UCU’s electrical technician, Simon Kyalahansi, get it. If students did, too, it would save time, frustration and money. While a computer’s age and careless dropping can certainly impact its performance, much of the malfunction can be avoided.

Five tips to protect computers
Together, UCU’s information technology and electrical experts, offer five tips with added insights on the top two:

  1. Dust – Protect your computer with a cover, and clean it often.
  2. Power stability – Charge technology only in locations where power is stable to avoid power surges and voltage instability. When powering up, use both voltage converters and surge protectors, and avoid plugging too many gadgets into a power strip.
  3. Overloaded Data – Clean out old files, especially entertainment media, to allow more storage space for data that matters.
  4. Temperature – Protect your computer from the cold and heat. It should not get colder than 18 celcius (64 Fahrenheit) or hotter than 30 celcius (86 Fahrenheit).
  5. Food and drink – Spilled beverages and cake crumbs can damage the keyboard and inside components.

Electrical current – ‘hot and dirty, like the roads’
Dust, which Uganda has a lot of, combined with electricity, which Uganda doesn’t have enough of, is the biggest problem, according to Matsiko. Dust gets into the computer motherboard, which holds together the main components of a computer, and can cause overheating and a short circuit.

“The fan starts working hard,” he said. “It tries to cool everything down, but sometimes it can’t. Uganda’s electrical current is hot and dirty like the roads.”

“Dirty energy” is a term applied to power in developing countries like Uganda, according to Simon. Most of the country is hydro-powered by dams in Jinja with anticipation that the government will soon generate more from Isimba and Karuma areas. Roughly 20 percent of Ugandans have access to electricity. Access drops to 10 percent in rural areas.

The cleanest energy such as solar power and wind turbines has not caught up with widespread implementation in Uganda. Dirty, electric power stability is the second largest reason for the country’s personal device breakdowns.

“It’s ‘dirty’ here because of high voltage and lack of regulations,” Simon said. “We have regulations on campus, but not so if you are powering up a device outside our gates. Non-regulated power outlets are likely not surge protected.”

Voltage is the push that causes a charge to move through a wire and into a phone or computer. At 240 volts, the electrical energy capacity in Uganda is higher and hotter than, for instance, in the United States where voltage is regulated at 120 and in Europe, where voltage is 220.

Charge on and not off campus
“Our electrical lines are above the ground and impacted by weather,” Simon explained. “If you live on campus and are charging from here, we have a system that adjusts for that.”

Simon, who has worked at UCU for eight years, explained the basic workings of the Mukono campus power system, identified by wires from and cables surrounding a building near the library. Realizing that “above 240 volts, a computer will burn,” the UCU system is designed to “step down” voltage. Just as with a personal computer, a mainframe motherboard does its work, including a shift to a generator to protect a power surge.

“If the lights go out, the generator kicks in for 36 seconds to give the main system time to adjust,” he said. At that, he added, adjustment is harder if multiple devices are plugged into one power strip.

The motherboard works hardest during the season of strong winds and heavy rain, generally February, April and November. When it’s dry, the equipment battles dirt and dust.

“She is bigger than yours,” Simon said, comparing the UCU motherboard inside the UCU mainframe equipment to one inside a personal computer. “But she still gets dusted and cleaned.”

Like spoiled food that makes us sick or spoiled children whose demands annoy us, it is technology’s insides and how we protect them that really count.

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To support UCU programs related to technology, for student scholarships and more, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button or contact Uganda Christian Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.