Tag Archives: #UgandaChristianUniversity

A crowd under Ojok's exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year

‘Choose to see the good in the bad thing’

COVID-19, Students, , , , , , , , , , ,


A crowd under Ojok's exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year
A crowd under Ojok’s exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year

By Maxy Magella Abenaitwe

For most Ugandans, the COVID-19 lockdown has been a financially painful time of watch and see. The presidential speeches have been a wave of hope whose flap never settles. Lives have come to a standstill.

For a few, however, it has been a time of growth and development.

Denish Ojok, a second-year Social Work student at Uganda Christian University (UCU), is among those few. Being alone since childhood presented him many challenges to sail through storms at their worst. The lockdown with the inability to attend UCU classes was yet another to overcome. For Denish, of Gulu, the answers came through food, fitness and market deliveries with a bit of radio inspiration on the side.

Income from his Rock of Ages fitness club helped pay his tuition. When the club was shut down through government orders, he moved workouts online. Clients subscribed at a daily fee of 80 cents (Shs.3000), accessing exercise through such platforms as Go to Meeting and Facebook.

Ojok preparing a traditional dish for delivery
Ojok preparing a traditional dish for delivery

Realizing this wasn’t enough, he thought about how his other skills could be used. Ojok, who is good at boiling a cow hooves, started making door-step deliveries of a much-prized dish known as Mulokoni. Most days, this brought Ojok a minimum of $9 profit.

Ojok’s third idea related to helping people obtain food when they weren’t allowed to travel. With the suspension of public and private means of transport but allowance of motorcycle deliveries, he took orders and made deliveries of sugar, rice and other market goods. Business was so good that he was able to employ a handful of youth to help him.

This voice of hope – one that resonates with biblical scripture – has been echoed by Ojok on Rupiny FM radio. His encouraging words on youth radio talk shows are about growth during a pandemic, thinking “beyond the nose” in a positive way to overcome circumstances, and continuing good sanitation habits after the COVID-19 virus is controlled. Such habits as handwashing will solve other problems such as diarrhea, he said.

“Exercise financial discipline, spend less and learn to cope with any condition that comes your way,” the 24-year-old student entrepreneur said. “Choose to see the good in the bad thing. Stay positive.”

Despite the great work progress, Ojok is dissatisfied with the fact that a large portion of his potential clients are unable to access his services due lack of communications through smart phones and the Internet. This is a circumstance he is working to resolve.

Much as the lockdown has kept him away from people who inspire his spiritual journey, Ojok has disciplined himself to read and understand scriptures. Before he does anything he prays, as inspired by his UCU lecturer, Peter Nareba, who begins every lecture with prayer.

Ojok plans to maintain his online business after the lockdown. He believes post lockdown will be an era of innovations since it was a shock that left the world with so much to learn, think about and take action.

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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

Virus Lockdown: Foot journey in search of toothpaste

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Central Uganda Namanve Train Station Market Day during COVID lockdown

By Douglas Olum

On a bright sunny Thursday afternoon in Mukono and on an aging, handcrafted papyrus couch under shade within our compound, I hear the cries and fight of playing children, including mine. They are just outside a wire fence, near a tomato garden and some buildings just a few meters from ours.

I wasn’t with them. It wasn’t because I didn’t care or because of concern regarding Ugandan social distance COVID-19 safety guidelines.  I listened to the voices of children without engaging because I was nursing joints, leg muscle and toe pains that would not allow me stretch out and walk easily. I was recovering from a six-hour on-foot journey to and from Mukono to Lugogo in Kampala to buy a tube of Colgate Pro Gum Health toothpaste.

Olum Douglas writing his story on phone at his home in Mukono

I walked the approximately 23km (14 miles) each way because the country’s pandemic orders have shut down public transportation.  No bodas.  No taxis. No private cars, which I don’t have anyway. Our first order was issued March 24.  It was extended twice – on April 22 and May 18.

Truth is, this was not the first I time walked that distance. Many times before the lockdown and with lack of funds – the 8,000 UGX for a boda ride and 3,000 UGX for a taxi – I have walked to Kampala for shopping and for study at the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Kampala Campus. I also remember one occasion when I walked a longer distance from Munyonyo in the Southern part of Kampala and back home after I had gone to interview an American source for a story.

This latest trip, the journey was more tiresome because my body had been in hibernation for close to two months during the lockdown, which had been ordered for a total of 63 days with the latest ending date of Monday, May 25.  Private cars were to be permitted and some shops opened on Tuesday, May 26, with public transport allowed on June 4, when the announcement about when schools will re-open is expected.

Foot travel during the lockdown is more stressful because of a 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. curfew.  Our President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni directed a ban on all forms of travel between those hours, except for trucks transporting food to the market. The week before, I narrowly escaped arrest because I was walking home at 7:17 p.m.

While my primary purpose of this trek was toothpaste, I also needed to meet with a journalist friend whom I had not seen for eight weeks. My friend and I had agreed to meet at the Lugogo branch of Café Javas to share experiences and brainstorm on post-lockdown story ideas. Besides, I was curious about how Ugandans outside my locality were treating the lockdown.

I had donned a sky-blue surgical mask. I was given two of them by a medical worker during the UCU Health Awareness week in February. But since then, I had only used one. And with its elastic strap coined around my ears and walking alone, I believed my health was protected.

During my long trek, here is some of what I saw:

  • Walking along a dusty road before I joined the tarmacked Jinja Road highway, I was puzzled at how boda-boda riders carried passengers when the Government banned them.
  • When I left the dusty road and took to the railway, I came across a Market Day at the Namanve Train Station. Traders in all tribes of items: clothes, shoes, jewelry, fresh cassava, maize, sweet potatoes, fish and so many others were crowded and not “social distancing” both along the walk-paths by the railway lines and the market area itself.
  • Youthful men were gathered under tree shades, conversing in loud voices without face masks on; women and girls without facial coverings were walking in groups, picking and trying on the items from one dealer to another. Occasionally, they would pull out a few notes or coins from their handbags and pay for the items they liked before moving on.
  • While locally made facemasks were visibly on sale everywhere, both the traders and their customers paid little attention to owning or wearing them. Those who had them either held the masks in their hands or wore them at their chins. That was, however, contrary to the practice at the supermarket where the workers remind those who put off their masks to put them on and properly.
  • Unlike the dusty road, the highway had several police and military checkpoints. Privately owned cars without the Ministry of Health stickers permitting them to drive during the lockdown, except for trucks, were stopped and impounded at those checkpoints. The Uganda Police Force has said that all impounded vehicles shall only be retrieved after the lockdown. Since the beginning of the lockdown, an unstated number of vehicles and motorcycles have been impounded, including those transporting sick persons and mothers in labor pain to the hospital.

I wondered how much Ugandans would be affected if COVID-19 ravaged our country like it has done in other parts of the world.

After shopping and my meeting, I set out to return to Mukono. Aware that security agencies start implementing curfew at 19:00 hours (7 p.m.), the return journey felt longer because the sun was going down fast. Thanks to my speed and resilience, and with the overpriced toothpaste in hand, I got home 3 minutes before the curfew time. Amidst the painful toes, muscles and joints, I know that my family’s oral health was sorted for a month or so before I may need a trip to Lugogo again. Maybe then I won’t need to walk to purchase it.

(Douglas Olum is a regular contributor for UCU Partners, which is sponsoring him for his master’s degree in strategic communications at 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

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The Bartels family

2020 Global 5K participants from USA, Canada, Nigeria, Uganda

Faculty, Scholarship, Sports, Students, UCU Alumni, , , , , , , , ,


The Bartels family
The Bartels family

By Patty Huston-Holm

“If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.”

The African proverb was the essence for the first few years of the Global 5K, a five-kilometer (3.1 miles) walk/run/social engagement activity sponsored by the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Partners non-profit organization. Abby Bartels, who lived for 10 years on the University campus and raised three children there with her husband, Mark, is the founder.

The year was 2015 and a time when many organizations were jumping on a 5K fund-raising bandwagon. For UCU Partners, it was less about raising money and more about building a relationship base among alumni of the Uganda Studies Program (USP), a one-semester, UCU learning experience for students enrolled in Christian universities, mostly in the United States. Mark Bartels, executive director for UCU Partners, started USP on the UCU Mukono campus. UCU Partners values USP alumni because they are a unique set of donors who have lived and studied at UCU.

“The event was actually better than expected because it strengthened connections not just with American students but with Honor’s College students and staff,” Abby, now living in Pennsylvania, said. “In addition to a time for remembering and re-connecting about a cultural, Christ-centered experience, it became an opportunity to raise money for Ugandan students in need.”

According to Ashton Davey, UCU Partners fundraising coordinator and facilitator for the 2020 Global 5K, nearly 200 people participated this year. Despite the hiccup of having an event on April 4 in the midst of worldwide COVID-19 lockdowns, more than $3,000 was generated, mostly by participant purchases of the event’s green T-shirt.  The funds will supplement tuition for 12 needy students at UCU.

“Many participants found the Global 5K to be good motivation to get out of the house and simultaneously support a great cause,” Ashton said. “The event’s flexibility allowed people to participate alone from wherever they live, which allowed them to adhere to social distancing guidelines.”

So what was it like engaging in an event during an unprecedented worldwide pandemic?  From Canada, Nigeria and Uganda, and nearly half of the 50 USA states, here is a sample of thoughts compiled from virtual interviews.

  • Atimango Innocent (Minna, Nigeria) – former UCU Honors College student who previously benefited from the scholarship assistance and was once a USP staff member; now engaged with The Navigators, two-year discipleship training program
Innocent, running in Nigeria
Innocent, running in Nigeria

In the midst of focusing on Mathew 28: 19-20 and its message about “making disciples of all nations,” Innocent and a friend, Drew Uduimoh, did 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) for the Global 5K. She has done it every year except for maybe one when the event didn’t get off the ground. For 2020 and while Nigeria reported more than 800 virus cases, she jogged around the town where she lives with no lockdown restrictions.

“I feel personal about it since I was one of the students who benefited directly from the funding,” she said of the Global 5K. “But I also find it a time to do reflections on people and on the Lord.”

  • Mikaela Hummel (Pakenham, Ontario, Canada) – USP student in 2019, while studying at Houghton (NY) College, where she receives her undergraduate degree in May; preparing to begin studies for a Masters of Science degree in physiotherapy
Mikaela, at right, with her family in Canada
Mikaela, at right, with her family in Canada

On the day of the Global 5K, it was 10 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) in Pakenham, Ontario, where Mikaela participated in the event with her mom, dad, sister and dog. She wore long sleeves under her green shirt and her traditional African kitenge-design shorts. The area where they ran was a bit quieter than usual as COVID-19 restrictions had most stores closed and gatherings limited to five people or less.

“The experience in Uganda helped me to pause and think about what is really important in life,” she said. “The Global 5K is a time to reflect on that again. The pandemic puts the brakes on even stronger, reminding us to trust God.”

  • Erin Neilson (Gallup, New Mexico) – USP student in 2006 while majoring in music at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa.; now raising two children and serving on a church music team with her husband, Phil, a middle school English teacher and also a 2006 USP student and USP program assistant 2008-2009
USP alumni, Erin and Phil, and family in New Mexico
USP alumni, Erin and Phil, and family in New Mexico

On the date of the 5K Zoom discussion on April 20, New Mexico had more than 2,000 confirmed cases of cornonavirus. Sixteen days earlier, the Neilson family of four, living in a small town near part of the Navajo Nation, did 5 kilometers.  A special highlight was that Christiana, age 5, made the entire distance on her own. Caleb, a toddler, was carried.

“We had been hoping to hike with friends, but due to social distancing requirements, we ended up with time just as a family,” Erin said.  Fourteen years after our USP experience I am reminded of the value Ugandans place on presence and am trying to live that daily with my children.”

  • Laura Sollenberger (Gainesville, Florida) – USP student in 2018 while majoring in exercise science at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa.; now finishing her Penn State University bachelor’s degree in nursing through on-line classes while living back home with her parents
Global 5K Zoom with Laura (in Florida)
Global 5K Zoom with Laura (in Florida)

For Laura, her career move from occupational therapy to nursing was stimulated by a 150-hour internship at the Church of Uganda hospital (Mukono), where she realized the intimate and critical role of health care workers at a patient’s side. COVID-19 has reinforced that decision with some frustration that she can’t be on the front line now; she graduates in December.

Laura’s UCU experience in 2018 was “life-changing with deeper connections to friends and God, clearer purpose, better understanding of systemic injustices, and the challenge of learning from new cultural perspectives,” she said.

Laura planned to re-connect with 10 of those friends by participating in the Global 5K and making rolex afterwards in Lancaster, Pa. Instead, she is sheltered with family in her home state of Florida. Her mom and dad did the 5K with her.

“We did a Zoom afterwards,” she said of her USP friends. She added, “I will definitely go back to Uganda someday.”

  • Molho Bernard (Kilowoza/Mukono District, Uganda) – 2018 UCU graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Education, working with the Honors College and USP up to February 2020 when Ugandan universities closed due to COVID restrictions while pursuing a Masters of Education in Planning and Administration.
Bernard and young friend, Matthew
Bernard and young friend, Matthew

On April 4, Bernard engaged in his second Global 5K by walking around his compound – different than the previous year when there were more people and it occurred on the campus.  His “informal” companion during his warm-up with push ups and laps around the compound was a two-year-old named Mathew who lives in the same area and “loves coming to my room to watch me do some art work.” The 5K has special meaning to Bernard as he was once a recipient of the money raised through the event.

“In 2018, my family was going through a financial breakdown, and I was afraid of getting a dead semester,” he said. “Through the proceeds of 5K through UCU Partners, I was able to have my tuition and graduation fees cleared.”

Bernard continues to appreciate the Christian and academic standards at UCU. The environment has enabled him to “know Christ more, and I have grown up more in loving, trusting and obeying Him.”

Ashton, who splits her time between Uganda and Kansas, said it was “heartwarming” to see social media posts of people supporting Uganda Christian University in the 5K green T-shirts – from those  “running in rural villages in Uganda and families hiking to wave across the state border at each other to USP alumni organizing a Zoom call to reflect on the lessons they learned in Uganda.”

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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. For more information or with ideas for the 2021 Global 5K, contact Ashton at ashton@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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Teenager Jada Nicole Just engages in Uganda schooling remotely from her South Carolina, USA, home

BEFORE COVID-19: African American teen experiences Uganda

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


 

Teenager Jada Nicole Just engages in Uganda schooling remotely from her South Carolina, USA, home
Teenager Jada Nicole Just engages in Uganda schooling remotely from her South Carolina, USA, home

(This is the second of two stories UCU Partners is featuring about American teens living in Uganda.)

By Douglas Olum and Patty Huston-Holm

At 1 a.m. on a Tuesday, 14-year-old Jada Nicole Just climbs out of her Charleston, S.C., bed to begin school – on-line and facilitated from Uganda, Africa, where it’s seven hours later. From her laptop, she takes her first class focused on the Bible and beamed out from Heritage International School, Kampala, where the time is 8 a.m.  Except for COVID-19, Jada would be there with new friends from around the world.

“We literally had days to pack up and get back to the States,” her mom, Ladavia, said of the coronavirus exit she did with Jada and two younger daughters in March 2020.

South Carolina 14-year-old Jada in Uganda
South Carolina 14-year-old Jada in Uganda

The night before the flight out from Entebbe was bittersweet as Jada had a goodbye sleepover with Heritage school friends from Finland, Kenya and Uganda. She was excited to return home to her life in South Carolina and to her friends, her dad and her dog there, but had grown to love much about Uganda. Experiences with African food, wildlife and even getting around chaotic streets are opportunities that few American teenagers receive or are even bold enough to try.

In the summer of 2019, Jada, then age 13, left South Carolina for her first trip to Africa. Her mom received a Fulbright opportunity to teach and lead pharmacy-related projects through Uganda Christian University’s School of Medicine. With anxious uncertainty, the girls went along. They made Uganda home and were comfortably settled in their school when they learned they needed to leave. With almost six months left, Ladavia’s Fulbright was suspended by a U.S. Embassy directive, forcing their exit from Uganda.

Jada is still processing her time in Uganda. She recalls her first long trip – nearly 7,500 miles over two days – to East Africa.  She had never before been overseas.

There was a stop in Brussels, which was her first time in Europe. Next, there was a landing in the dark at the Entebbe airport, followed by a car trip with a flat tire and two hours to fix it in darkness before arriving at a small Ntinda apartment in northeastern Kampala with no water pressure for showers. While exhausted, sleep did not come easily as there was a first encounter with nighttime Uganda mosquitoes. The sometimes-malaria-carrying insects were surprisingly smaller but nevertheless more frightening than the ones in South Carolina.

Daylight revealed disorganized traffic jams with motorcycles over dusty roads, cars and taxis with seemingly no driver guidelines, women carrying bananas in baskets on their heads, cows and goats without enclosures, skinny wandering dogs and dirty pelicans eating from piles of trash.  While observing these stark contrasts to the landscape and more-orderly life in Charleston, Jada and her family discovered there also were American-like places such as Café Javas with cheeseburgers and salads and Acacia Mall with its ice cream, book stores and a movie theatre.

Trips to the zoo allowed an up-close look at ostriches and zebras. Game parks enabled the family to see lions, primates, giraffes and hippos in their natural habitat. There was a chase by Uganda’s national bird, the Crested Crane, and a frightening but unforgettable, nighttime trip across the Nile while hippos moved dangerously close by their tiny boat.  Monkeys of different species roamed the trees seemingly everywhere.

“Sometimes, we picked jack fruit from a tree in our compound,” Jada recalled.  “We didn’t need to ask permission. It was just there, very sweet and good.”  Other regular foods were beans, rice, samosas and an egg-like treat called rolex.

Despite the time difference, the teenager kept in touch with Charleston friends via social media when there was a connection and electricity.  Uganda power outages sometimes necessitated earlier bedtimes and subsequent earlier wake times to finish homework before school each day.

The weather in Kampala was surprisingly similar to that in South Carolina except that despite Uganda’s location on the equator, the air was cooler. The friendliness of the Uganda culture was another pleasant surprise.

“People here don’t take offense when you stare at them; they smile back a lot,” she said. “And for the first time as an African American, I was living in a culture where everybody looked like me.  They just didn’t speak like me.”

Uganda has many tribal languages with the most common around the capital city being Luganda.

After getting over the nervousness that comes with starting high school in another country, Jada feels very prepared as she approaches her sophomore year in the United States. She’s become particularly fond of French, a language that is taught at Heritage beginning in kindergarten. But her favorite subject there was Physics. She has also grown in appreciation of her home in the United States.

“Although we can’t travel much now because of virus restrictions, I value that we have roads with no pot holes, and I’m not so picky about what I eat here,” she said.

Will she go back to Uganda?

“Not soon,” Jada said.  “But, yes, I want to go back some day.”

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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.

Rachel Hodge wears traditional African clothes for Karamojong wedding

‘I got a jigger, but I’d go back again’

COVID-19, , , , , , , ,


Rachel Hodge wears traditional African clothes for Karamojong wedding
Rachel Hodge wears traditional African clothes for Karamojong wedding

(NOTE: This story was written prior to the March 2020, virus-forced return home by the Hodge family and other Americans in Uganda. In early April, the Hodges were in quarantine in Iowa before returning to Arizona.)

By Alex Tarema

“What are you making for dinner Momma?” Rachel asks her mother, Crystal Hodge, from the living room. The scent that escapes the kitchen reports rice to her nostrils.

Rachel loves Ugandan rice, mostly its aroma. She loves the famed Ugandan rolex (egg roll) too but hates matooke – the highly popular delicacy in the central Uganda area. She likes her groundnuts prepared roasted and salted but does not enjoy their pasted stew.

The 15-year-old lives on the Uganda Christian University main campus in Mukono where her Fulbright father, David Hodge, has been doing academic work since August of 2019. She hit the ground running, starting her school at the prestigious Acorns International School, Kampala, Uganda.

Rachel reads at her family home on the UCU campus in Mukono, Uganda
Rachel reads at her family home on the UCU campus in Mukono, Uganda

The school is small by her standards but amazing, she says. Unlike Phoenix, Arizona, where she hails, here she can mingle with almost everyone and get to know them better. Her class only has 16 students, and she is the only Caucasian. When she returns to the United States, she will miss her teachers and friends in Uganda.

She hums her school’s anthem all evening.

“I really love music. I love to sing,” she says. “Five other students and I were taken to the studio today to record the school anthem. I sang it so many times that my throat is sore, and I cannot get it out of my head.”

Besides singing in the choir, Rachel auditioned and was accepted to perform in her school’s talent show – an experience she speaks of with a beaming smile. She’s wearing a pair of denim jeans and a checkered top. She occasionally walks around outside their residence called All Nations House while reading, but her favourite spot is a couch in the living room on which she reads herself away.

In order to avoid traffic jams, her driver takes many dusty, bumpy back roads on her hour-long drive to and from school every weekday. This is the most cumbersome part of her day.

“Back home, school is just 10 minutes away, the traffic is never as bad, and the roads are smooth,” she says.

Although temperatures can get up to 47 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) in Phoenix, she manages to stay cool in the car with air conditioning. Here, the driver drives with the windows lowered, allowing dust, heat, and exhaust fumes into the vehicle – part of her Ugandan experience that, she says, “I don’t like very much.”

The dust notwithstanding, Rachel agrees with a certain Ugandan minister who was recently quoted as saying that the bumpy roads add spice to the Ugandan experience. Rather than agonise, she uses her two hours on the road to finish up her homework that is sometimes twice as much as what she was assigned in the United States.

Rachel loves numbers, basically anything complex. Math is her favorite subject, but she has found physics to be quite insightful as well, particularly the class projects and the research.

Away from school, Rachel is a lover of life and nature. She loves rainy nights, and the sound of raindrops on the tin roof. It’s a refreshing change compared to living in the desert of Arizona where they only receive an average of nine inches of rain per year.  She has travelled to northeastern Uganda, attended a traditional wedding in Karamoja tribe sub-region and visited the Kidepo Valley National Park.

“Weddings here are so much different from what you see in the U.S.,” she said. “They dressed me up with beads around my waist and my head and gave me a traditional skirt to wear.”

The beautiful scenery of Kidepo Valley and the sight of giraffes, water buffalo, and zebras was so spectacular that she forgot about the long hours she spent getting to the wedding and the safari.

In Karamoja, Rachel got a jigger in her foot as a souvenir. Thankfully, a neighbor is a nurse and removed it. On a school field trip, Rachel hiked to the Sipi Falls in Eastern Uganda. From her diverse school classmates, Rachel has learned a lot about other religions, their values and perceptions while sharing her Christian faith.  To expand her knowledge of Ugandan culture, Rachel and her family also have visited the Buganda King’s palace, the parliament building, and the Uganda National Mosque.

Her most scary experience is when she walked to a restaurant in Mukono town around 5 p.m., but her order arrived after dark. Like any other foreign teenager among Ugandans who do not speak much English, Rachel started to “freak out” as she wasn’t sure she’d remember her way home. But she did.

Admittedly, Rachel misses her American life, her friends and mostly her freedom. Almost all her hobbies were within a ten-minute radius and she didn’t have to worry about being so conspicuous because she blended in with everyone else.  In Uganda, her long blonde hair and fair skin attracts attention and makes her feel uncomfortable. After just one walk into Mukono town, she has avoided walking there again.

“There are so many inconveniences like needing to boil water for drinking, no microwave, dishwasher, and regular shower, and the long drive to school that I’ve had to adjust to, but I keep telling myself that it is only for a short period,” she says.

For Rachel, living in Uganda has taught her to be socially perceptive and in the future, she is considering a return trip to help some impoverished villages get access to clean water and support children to attain education through fundraising and charity.

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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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COVID-19: What $40 a night in quarantine teaches you

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


Alex Taremwa doing an on-line class via Zoom.

(During this unprecedented time of the COVID-19 pandemic, UCU Partners will be publishing stories about how UCU-connected Ugandans and Americans are coping.  This is the first of several accounts.)

By Alex Taremwa

In my shared apartment, Guma Jeremiah storms in from work. I call him the “diplomat extraordinaire” because he works for the Ugandan Foreign Service based in Nairobi. Panting is not Guma’s usual demeanour, and I can sense the haste and unease in this voice – evidently, he is scared.

“Have you watched the news yet?” he asks.

I send my hand for the remote and switch to NTV Kenya. The authorities are confirming what we feared the most – Kenya’s first Corona Virus Disease (COVID)-19 case – a 27-year-old female who had travelled in on March 5 from Chicago in the United States with a connect flight that went through London in the United Kingdom.  Both the USA and the UK were flagged high risk by my country, Uganda.

What followed was silence, then a unanimous decision that shopping essential supplies was paramount. The supermarket in our affluent neighbourhood of Kileleshwa, Kasuku Centre, is often less congested but this particular afternoon, it was as if people went out at the same time to shop. The place was filled to the brim – forcing some prices to shoot up.

At the counter was a Chinese man whose tray was mostly occupied by bathroom tissue paper – enough to cover him for two months or more. I can’t tell if it was the four-metre (up to 13 feet) social distancing recommendation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or his nationality that is associated with the genesis of the novel Coronavirus, but other panic shoppers gave him more than the deserved distance accompanied with a rare stare. I shopped for beef, bread, soap and groceries. Philip, my other housemate, sent for some alcohol.

“If I have to die, I don’t want to meet God sober,” he joked. He is terrified by face-to-face interactions.

Kenya’s announcement on March 13, 2020, was a wakeup call for Uganda. The virus that supposedly didn’t affected “blacks” or “Africans” as previously assumed had touched base in the region. When I first posted the update on my social media, the first responses I received were asking if the victim was White or Black. Around the East African region, Rwanda, the DR Congo and South Sudan announced cases. Uganda, in the middle, was now sandwiched with cases in all directions.

The next move for President Yoweri Museveni was simple, at least according to the opinion of most Ugandans I interacted with: Close the borders and stop all flights. They didn’t care that out of those borders were other Ugandans like myself – students, expats, parents – who wanted to return to their families. It looked imminent that the President, being the populist that he is, would heed to this pressure. He didn’t.

Instead, the president announced mandatory quarantine for all returning citizens – especially those from “Category One” countries that had more than 1,000 cases confirmed. This was my window to come home. Folks on the “Ugandans in Nairobi” WhatsApp group that I created agreed that if we waited, we would be locked out.

And so, I packed ready for quarantine – normally a 14-day absence from the physical scene but present on social media. Living in Uganda though, where we pay tax for being on social media, it is possible to be absent on both scenes.

The journey home
At Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), I met a one Alex Kawalya. He had spent the night at the airport because he had run out of money to hop onto the next flight. He had just sold his phone to one of the airport staff to get a seat aboard Kenya Airways to Uganda where he wished for a miracle if he was to afford the $100 price per night in Entebbe Central Inn Hotel where government was quarantining returning citizens for 14 days.

Stories of returning Ugandans being herded like sheep by the army to the hotel were sickening. Women and children slept in lobbies and the government would have nothing of the “I am a student on scholarship in Kenya and I can’t afford $100 a night” talk.  Like Kawalya, I boarded KQ 412 at 11 a,m., not knowing what fate awaited me at Entebbe International Airport – but I boarded anyway.

It was the only one of the few flights heading to Kampala and from the look of things, one of the last ones as Jambo Jet, Fly Sax, and even Uganda Airlines were no longer plying the EBB-NAI route – a real catch 22 situation. You’re not wanted at home, but you cannot stay where you are.

Uganda confirmed her first case on Saturday, March 21, after I had been in the country for a few hours.  The victim, looking feverish, was a Ugandan coming from Dubai and had flown in at 2 a.m. aboard Ethiopian Airlines. Having just flown in and in the process had interacted with another Dubai returnee, the pressure mounted. Even when I wasn’t put in institutional quarantine, I felt sickish. I volunteered Kawalya’s name to the Ministry of Health for testing and he did well.

Life in Quarantine
On March 26 and from my self-quarantine hole at Kisubi Forest Cottages in Entebbe, where I am writing this, Uganda has 14 COVID-19 cases. President Museveni closed the airport and borders soon after and has since closed public transport, churches, markets (except for food stuffs). And as of today (March 26), all the 104 tested samples of suspected cases had turned up negative. From this hole, I keep my family updated about my health at all times. Occasionally, I go out, watch the stars and feed the mosquitoes – they are really hungry.

I have to cough up $40 a night to keep my family and country safe but with the stories of people bribing their way out of quarantine, others not staying home as required and thousands who have to be forced to wash their hands with soap – I am not sure if my sacrifice will make any difference.

One of the new cases is a father who travelled from Kisumi, Kenya, by bus and ended up infecting his 8-month-old baby. My conscience tells me that feeding mosquitoes is much safer that infecting innocent people. When I finally get out of this place on April 3, these mosquitoes will surely miss me.

Alex Taremwa is a graduate of Uganda Christian University, a journalist and Masters Fellow at the Graduate School of Media and Communications, Aga Khan 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.

Ball Hockey team during training at the Uganda Christian University sports field

With the help of Canadian mentor, ball hockey breaks ground in Uganda

Faculty, Sports, , , , , , ,


Ball Hockey team during training at the Uganda Christian University sports field
Ball Hockey team during training at the Uganda Christian University sports field

By Maxy Abenaitwe

Africans take pride in their cultural roots. For Ugandan Amon Matthew, the curiosity for other cultures has always been equally as strong.

Captain Amon Matthew with the Uganda flag
Captain Amon Matthew with the Uganda flag

That inquisitiveness found an eight-year-old Matthew playing ball hockey, a sport more common to Canada.  He played it on the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Mukono campus with the children of a Canadian couple, journalist Thom Froese and medical doctor, Jean Chamberlain Froese, founder of the UCU Save the Mothers program.

Now age 22 and captain of the UCU Ball Hockey Team that in March 2020 had no name, Matthew recalled his addiction to “the most beautiful and interesting thing” he had learned. Referring to the ball hockey sport, he added, “Out of love for the game, I put my all.”

Uganda Ball Hockey will forever be grateful to Froese for building the first playground at the UCU staff quarters. Now, Matthew has taken over the ball hockey team reins from the Canadian founder.

“At that point, I realized I had been left with a huge task ahead of me, considering the fact that I was young and still in secondary school,” Matthew said. Part of taking his leadership role seriously involved missing his high school sports activities. When students questioned his absence, he replied with two words – ball hockey – and then had to explain what that was.

Captain Amon Matthew with ball hockey supporters
Captain Amon Matthew with ball hockey supporters

Ice hockey is synonymous with Canada.  When the ball hockey sport evolved by replacing an ice puck with a tennis ball in the 19th century, ball hockey became elevated in popularity in this North American country. Rules between hockey on ice and other surfaces vary but all involve using sticks to move an object toward a goal.

Matthew’s excitement about the sport became contagious for other Ugandan youth. There were teams and games – first informally among young men and then formally with Matthew’s persuasion to places like the Baroda International Vocational Institute in Mukono and UCU.

By 2018 and armed with videos and enthusiasm, Matthew approached the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports. He also visited the National Council for Sports, and met with a representative of the Uganda Hockey Association and the Mukono Municipality Mayor, George Fred Kagimu, who had watched the game in Sweden. With some coaching, ball hockey moved from an association to a federation.

Barriers were largely financial – lack of equipment, including the ability to buy hockey sticks at 50,000 UGX ($15) each; and no uniforms. Matthew sought and received foreign support from the London Ball Hockey Association in Canada, International Street Ball Hockey Federation and World Ball Hockey Federation.

Ambitious Matthew sees Uganda taking part in the 2021 World Championship Events. Additionally, Matthew is organizing a national tournament of the UCU juniors and men’s teams.

“With or without Ugandan government, we can still go on,” he said. “We are moving on and growing. No matter what, we shall get there.”

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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.

Shepherds (in red jerseys) representing Uganda at international level

UCU Shepherds gain notoriety in rugby world

Sports, Students, UCU Alumni, , , , , , ,


Shepherd Alumni before a national game
Shepherd Alumni before a national game

(NOTE: Across the United States, March Madness refers to National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball competitions – a month when university rivalries are at their peak. While March Madness was cancelled due to the Coronavirus in 2020, these Uganda Christian University sports stories are offered in honor of what was to be. The stories are a collaborative of The Standard and UCU Partners.)

By Maxy Abenaitwe

In the early years of the past decade, the Uganda Christian University (UCU) 7s Shepherds were the untouchables of East African rugby.

As a result, the Uganda Rugby Cranes and other national clubs like the Black Pirates continuously fished from the Shepherds’ pond. It is no wonder that half of the Uganda Rugby Cranes are former Shepherds.

Rugby, which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century, is a sport involving two teams of 15 players each. They carry, pass and kick a ball into an end zone with winning determined by the greatest number of points. Often, the sport is known as “rugby sevens” for seven players per team engaged in seven-minute halves. The most basic law of the game is that no player is allowed to throw the ball forward to a teammate. In rugby, the ball is moved with sideways or backwards tosses or a player kicking and running with the ball.

Uganda had a deep history of men’s rugby participation ahead of the country’s first official rugby match in 1958. In 1955, the Uganda Rugby Football Union was formed. Much as there were no clubs at the time, games were frequently played between representatives from Kenya and Tanzania (or Tanganyika as it was called at the time) teams, but matches were mostly against the Royal Navy as well as some British and South African Universities.  In 2000, UCU took on the rugby mantle and over time developed a great team of influential players.

Shepherds (in red jerseys) representing Uganda at international level
Shepherds (in red jerseys) representing Uganda at international level

Over the years, UCU players have been recognized for their talent. Philip Wakorach has been the most desired player, whose talent is sought across borders, namely in Kenya and France. Equally, Ivan Magomu has been the best fly half (receiver of a short pass). Pius Ogena was recently awarded Male Rugby Player of Year 2019 under the Uganda Sports Press Association Awards, and Desire Ayera was recently ranked 37th player of Uganda’s 2019 top athletes.

Considering their current maiden performance, the current Shepherds are leaving lasting marks. The team won gold at the 2019 University Side Step 7s events. The Shepherds went ahead to win during the 18th AUUS 2019 games at Kisubi University.  And immediately after their remarkable performance, two players were called at the National Rugby Cranes team.

Ivan Kabagambe, a former Shepherds’ player, says the great performance is largely inspired by the success of the Shepherds alumni.

“The alumni have also kept in touch to ensure talent keeps growing,” he said.  “This has been done majorly through friendly matches between the Shepherds and their alumni.”

Despite a few challenges, Kabagambe thinks there is no excuse for not making it at UCU. This signifies that with more support from the university, the team could do wonders since the passion and talent is there. If only the Shepherds could participate in more tournaments, have more funding and have enough designated rugby training space, more medals would be brought home.

Why the great performance
Approximately 90% of the Shepherds attribute their success in the larger rugby world to UCU’s favorable environment that best suits sports development. They cite the hilly landscape, availability of drinking water all over the compound, access to good food, and use of gym facilities as well as university administrative support and medical attention.

The good medical attention, specifically the physiotherapy, helps the players to quickly get back on their feet and continue with their struggle.

Additionally, UCU sportsmen and women have a reputation of being the best people to work with. This is because of their remarkably good discipline.  The factor of character also has contributed to the quick growth of the Shepherds.

The future of rugby
Close to 50% of the rugby clubs, the national team inclusive, have aging players. This means university students are being targeted and have professional opportunities.

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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.

Akao (in yellow, center) poses with her teammates (Photo by Andrew Bugembe)

Ugandan football (ah, soccer) continues to soar for girls

Sports, Students, , , , , , ,


Akao (in yellow, center) poses with her teammates (Photo by Andrew Bugembe)
Akao (in yellow, center) poses with her teammates (Photo by Andrew Bugembe)

(NOTE: Across the United States, March Madness refers to National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball competitions in a month when university rivalries are at their peak. In honor of the “madness” of watching American basketball in March 2020 and in collaboration with the Uganda Christian University student newspaper, The Standard, UCU Partners is featuring stories on this month on some of the sports played at UCU. This week, the focus is on soccer.)

By Eva Kyomugisha

One of the greatest gifts God gave Africa is football. It is very common to find a group of people gathered at a field or around a television in a pub watching a football match, each with his or her own comments as to how the game should be played.

Ugandan football, which Americans would call “soccer,” came to the country with British introduction in 1897. Like USA soccer, the objective is to score goals without touching the ball with the hands. The Uganda Football Association, now called the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA), started in 1925 with a league inaugurated in 1962. The game originally for men only has crossed the gender barrier.

Women’s football in Uganda started in the early 1990s but initially was only played for fun and not professionally. According to the FUFA website, the first time qualification was attempted for the African Cup for women was in 1998 when Uganda hosted Egypt at Nakivubo stadium.

Currently, women’s football in Uganda has gained traction with approximately 50 teams participating in a number of leagues in the country.

Ruth Akao plays a ball during practice (Photo by Andrew Bugembe)
Ruth Akao plays a ball during practice (Photo by Andrew Bugembe)

As a little girl, Ruth Akao grew up around boys who loved to play Ugandan football. This exposure ignited the 21-year-old Uganda Christian University (UCU) student’s passion for the sport as she often participated in some of the groups’ games.

“It made me happy when I played,” she said.

She continued playing the sport while at school. She has been engaged in professional leagues for over 10 years and isn’t done yet. While at Hope High School along Masaka Road (between Mukono and Kampala), she was scouted to play for the UCU Lady Cardinals team.

“I play position 11 which is the left-wing,” Akao said. “My job is to get the ball from the midfield and cross it to the box for scoring. Sometimes, we do the scoring ourselves.”

According to Akao, a major benefit from the sport is the fact that she receives half tuition to pursue her studies in Human Rights, Peace and Humanitarian Intervention in the Faculty of Social Sciences. She also states that she has been able to meet new people and make the necessary connections that she may need at a later time in her career.

“Ten years from now, I would like to start my own sports academy for girls,” she said.

Akao was part of the UCU Cardinals’ team that captured many honors in 2019, including a win of the Women’s Elite League. Despite Akao’s success in the sport, not many people in her life support her passion for the male-dominated sport.

“There is a time I went to the village and the people there were not happy with the fact that I am a football player,” she explains.

Akao added that most people find girls’ football to be too slow and boring for them to watch. She attributed this to the limited publicity from television and radio stations, which do not air the girls’ games as much as the boys’ games.

“It is only one radio station, FUFA, which sometimes plays our games,” she said.

Akao has also personally had her own challenges the sport. She explains that the volume of games means that she often has to miss some of her classes to participate in them.

“I have resorted to studying in the night in order to keep up with my studies,” she said.

For Akao, she advises the ladies who want to join the male-dominated sport to get out of their comfort zones and do what they love to do irrespective of what people tell them to do.

“Do not give up, and keep going,” she said.

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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.

Netball – Game of speed, height, discipline

Sports, Students, , , , , , , , ,


UCU Journalism Student and Netball Player, Hanisha Muhammed
UCU Journalism Student and Netball Player, Hanisha Muhammed

(NOTE: Across the United States, March Madness refers to National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball competitions – a month when university rivalries are at their peak. In honor of the “madness” of watching American basketball in March 2020 and in collaboration with the Uganda Christian University student newspaper, The Standard, UCU Partners is featuring stories on a few UCU sports. Today’s story is about netball.)

By Patty Huston-Holm

For eight years and while serving Uganda Christian University (UCU) as a volunteer consultant and lecturer on the Mukono campus, I watched a bunch of girls move swiftly around a basketball court, passing a ball without letting it touch the ground. This, I was told, is a sport called netball.

I observed the mostly very tall and physically fit young ladies move energetically around an outside basketball court as I engaged in my own end-of-day exercise – stretching and strengthening my arms, legs and abdominal muscles on some nearby metal bars and elevating my heart rate with a rapid climb up and down stone steps. Occasionally, I would sit on the steps overlooking the court and watch the netballers while chatting on the phone with my mother back in Ohio.

Girls playing netball on the UCU Mukono practice court
Girls playing netball on the UCU Mukono practice court

The ladies had a smaller version of a basketball, an object of familiarity to an American like me.  But they didn’t dribble it, which seemed odd. It reminded me of the USA in the 1960s and 70s, when girls were protected from over exertion with female basketball rules of no more than three ball bounces before passing. However, these UCU players that didn’t dribble the ball were not frail.

Periodically, over the years of watching the Mukono, Uganda, girls practice but never seeing an actual game, I looked up the netball sport on the Internet. I learned that it started in 1891 in the United States, which ironically pays little-to-no attention to the sport today.  My country’s 2020 teams are mostly comprised of players outside the country.

Netball started for men, but then became a mostly female sport. Netball is the most popular women’s sport in Botswana, Malawi and Tanzania.  And it is pretty popular in Uganda.

Finally, in February 2020, I made an appointment with one of the UCU players to learn more. The player, Hanisha Muhammed, is not just any university player. In addition to being on the UCU Angels team, she plays for two national teams – the She Pearls (name connected to Uganda’s reputation as the “pearl of Africa”) for those under 21 and the older women’s She Cranes (named after Uganda’s national bird) team.  At age 20, Hanisha is the youngest player for the She Cranes.

On an early evening of February10 and on a day when she is not working her journalism/marketing internship at the Bank of Uganda, Hanisha arrives. She carries her practice ball (slightly smaller than a basketball) in a black bag. She patiently answers questions about her life, and explains the game and why she is so passionate about it.

“I was a swimmer,” she said. “But people kept telling me that because I was tall that I should do netball. I’m 6’3”.”

Short netball players are rare.

One of eight children from two mothers and one dad, Hanisha acknowledges her Ugandan family was more privileged than most. Her mother is a hotel owner from Rwanda, and her father is a retired psychiatrist with mostly Acholi, Uganda, roots. Hanisha calls Kampala her home, but lives in Mukono when UCU classes are in session.

In Secondary 5 (high school junior year), Hanisha exchanged her bathing suit and the pool for a T-shirt, shorts, sneakersand a cement court. She never looked back. Her program of study at UCU is journalism – a career she believes she can do alongside netball until she’s in her late 30s. When her sports career subsides, she will still have something in public relations or journalism.

“In other countries, you quit the sport earlier, but in Uganda, there are players up to 40,” she said.

While little-to-no payment to play isn’t an enticement, travel and the lessons of physical fitness, patience, teamwork and discipline are. The sport has taken Hanisha to Fiji, South Africa and Botswana. She maintains her weight with a healthy diet, sometimes practicing eight hours a day. She drinks lots of water and juice and avoids drugs and alcohol.

Some of the netball rules are: Seven players with two defenders and two shooters on the court. Thirteen players on the team. No dunking. No dribbling. No running with the ball. Feet firmly on the ground when shooting. No basket backboard. Release ball within three seconds.

“The umpires do the counting, but so do we,” she said. “You can’t hold onto the ball very long.”

Hitting the net’s pole so that the ball bounces off of it is a highly honed skill, she explained, adding, “The best players know what they are doing when they do that.”

“The game has a lot of rules,” according to Hanisha, who, like other netball players, pulls her long dark braids up on the top of her head for a game.  “Few basketballers can play netball, but netballers can play basketball. Netball is about the feet, how you land with the ball and speed. You have to be as quick as possible.”

While realizing young girls look up to her, she does the same with Peace Proscovia, a UCU graduate with bachelor and master degrees in business administration and captain of the She Cranes.

After Hanisha’s graduation in October 2021, she hopes to begin playing more with international teams.  Right now, her life is occupied with studies at UCU, playing netball, reading and praying. Financial remuneration is not important.

“Money doesn’t blow me away,” she says.  “It’s just not a priority for me.”

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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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Shorter-than-normal Ugandan basketball player uses ‘brain’ to excel

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Fayed Baale celebrates after winning game 6 of the finals of the National Basketball League (NBL)

(NOTE: Across the United States, March Madness refers to National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball competitions – a month when university rivalries are at their peak. In honor of the “madness” of watching American basketball in March 2020 and in collaboration with interns working at the Uganda Christian University student newspaper, The Standard, UCU Partners is featuring stories on the UCU sports of basketball, netball, soccer, rugby and hockey.)

By Maria Eyoru

Every evening, when returning the Standard newspaper office keys to the Uganda Christian University (UCU) main gate, I watch students, namely members of the UCU Cannons boys team, practice at the nearby court.

My interest in the game especially peaked when I observed the shortest player on the team. He dribbled the ball, gripping it firmly in his hands while smartly ducking to dodge his taller opponents. I was intrigued by this young man who stood at five feet, eight inches – more than four inches shorter than any other player.

His feet appeared to move as light as feathers as he smartly ran fast while still dribbling the ball, ducking down to pass the ball to a teammate. That uncanny speed, especially by a not-so-tall player, caught my attention. The opponents seemed lost and confused. Captivated by what I saw, I decided to talk to this player – Fayed Baale. I simply had to know more about this UCU player of a sport, basketball, which started internationally in 1891 and in Africa in the early 1960s.

Fayed’s journey to become a basketball player wasn’t easy. It was a difficult voyage that involved a game of cat and mouse. Before he developed the interest in basketball, he had a passion for playing football (soccer) as is most common among the youths of Uganda.

One of his coaches, Zayed Yahaya, approached him about shifting his skill to basketball. Zayed nudged and kept nudging until Fayed joined in Secondary 3 (high school junior year).

Fayed Baale, shorter but faster

Fayed said his coach’s persistence was so overwhelming that he found strategies to “dodge” him. Half joking, Fayed added, “He started monitoring me and punishing me, so I played out of fear.”

At the onset, Fayed’s parents were not supportive and asked teachers to discourage him from being on the court. Basketball began in 1963 in Uganda. It was registered under the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and has since grown to have over 20 teams. It is popular but still lags behind soccer that has been around longer.

“My parents tasked the teachers at school to punish me if they ever found me on court, but they did not,” Fayed said.

He eventually developed a passion for the game and started to play with the National Basketball Association (NBA) Junior League; the team won the NBA Junior League in 2015.

Though he loves the game, he understands that height as his could be a challenge. He overcomes his elevation deficiency with being quick on his feet, playing smart and focusing on his goals. He has to put in extra effort and works twice as hard as the other players through speed and quick thinking.

“What it takes for me to make it, you have to have the heart, passion, self motivation, patience and work harder,” he said. “I work out a lot so that by the time I go for the game, I’m faster than others. And I use my brain. That is how I survive.”

His drive comes, in part, from Stephen “Steph” Curry, a Golden State Warrior with National Basketball Association honors in the United States. Curry is taller than Fayed and from a sports family with a role model sports father and basketball-playing brother and volley ball-playing sister. Curry also is a decade older than 20-year-old Fayed, the first born of seven children. Yet, despite differences, the California basketball star serves as an inspiration for the younger and shorter Ugandan.

Fayed is planning on playing the sport professionally when he finishes his education and while being a human rights activist in Uganda. He is pursuing a Bachelors degree in Human Rights, Peace and Humanitarian Interventions within the Social Science faculty 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.

UCU Nursing students Babirye Tamara Peace and Kakooza Abdul Wahabu practice a birth simulation with “Baby Nicole.”

Uganda Christian University launches master’s in midwifery program

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UCU Nursing students Babirye Tamara Peace and Kakooza Abdul Wahabu practice a birth simulation with “Baby Nicole.”
UCU Nursing students Babirye Tamara Peace and Kakooza Abdul Wahabu practice a birth simulation with “Baby Nicole.”

Uganda Christian University (UCU) is launching a new program – a master’s course in midwifery and women’s health – under its School of Medicine. At the request of UCU Partners, Ugandan writer Constantine Odongo had a chat with Elizabeth Namukombe Ekong, a lecturer in the medical school’s nursing department. What follows is some of this conversation related to the new program. 

What programs are under the department of nursing?
We have undergraduate and master’s programs in the department. In the Bachelor of Nursing Science, which began in 2006, we have two entry points – nurses with diploma, but want to get bachelors; and the direct entry right from S6 (high school graduation). The completion program takes three years for nurses already experienced, while the other entry takes four years. The master’s in nursing started in 2008. We are now introducing the master’s in midwifery and women’s health.

Students Kiribata Dorothy, Bagenda Isaac, and Mbulaka Remmy Allan with a practice plastic baby as part of their training in the UCU nursing program.
Students Kiribata Dorothy, Bagenda Isaac, and Mbulaka Remmy Allan with a practice plastic baby as part of their training in the UCU nursing program.

When does the new course start?
In 2017, the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) approved our curriculum, but we have not had the personnel the NCHE insisted on. They insisted on staff with master’s degrees in midwifery, yet most of us have masters in nursing. We have been looking around for personnel. The challenge we have had is that in Uganda, only one university has been offering this course, so not many people have the skill set that NCHE required. The other challenge is many people who opt to pursue master’s degree studies are already established somewhere else. So, it is not for us to uproot them from their already set systems. There are some people who have expressed interest, so the university actually put up advertisements in January, calling for people to apply for the position of lecturer in midwifery. As this year (2020) is the Year of the Nurse and Midwife (designated by the World Health Assembly under the World Health Organization in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale), it is appropriate that UCU starts the master’s in midwifery. 

Which people are you working with to ensure that the program kicks off?
We are trying to put up a team as NCHE recommended. The other thing is we have partners who are professors with PhDs in midwifery and are willing to come and teach and also offer online interactions, since the program design is a modular one. We have two professors from the United States – one from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and another from Bethel University in Minnesota. They are ready to start the teaching in May, if we have set our intake to start and we have finally got the required number of students, the personnel and the clearance from NCHE. We are making arrangements for the professors to come and make the physical preparations.  We expect the face-to-face teaching to happen three times a year. 

Elizabeth Namukombe Ekong, nursing lecturer
Elizabeth Namukombe Ekong, nursing lecturer

Who helped you design the curriculum for the midwifery master’s course?
We developed it from a prototype curriculum that was designed from a program by the East, Central and South African College of Nursing (ECSACON). The ECSACON prototype is the same that many universities in the region use to develop their curriculum. We undertook a study to review the status of midwifery in the region and established that there was a need to provide a platform for the existing midwifery cadres to upgrade their skills at master’s level. When developing the curriculum, some of the areas the study looked at is the number of midwives in the country, the mortality rates, etc. From the ECSACON prototype curriculum, we developed ours for the master’s course, with assistance from colleagues in the UK. When we were satisfied that it was ready, we passed it through the approval process up to the university Senate and the NCHE. With the approval in 2017, it meant that the moment we get the relevant personnel with a master’s degree in midwifery, we would be ready to start.

What achievements has the nursing department registered?
We have developed skilled competent and dependable nurses with the passion and faith to render services across the continent, but also offer leadership. Our graduates have been absorbed in different institutions, both state and non-state and the feedback we get about their conduct is encouraging. We have had collaborations with facilities where we send our students for placement, like Uganda-China Friendship Hospital Naguru, the hospitals of Nsambya, Mulago, Butabika, Jinja referral and many others.

Some of our students are Assistant District Health Officers, and some are in charge of medical facilities and in other leadership positions in hospitals. Others are working at the Ministry of Health.

What is in the curriculum for the midwifery master’s program that you are soon launching?
The curriculum is designed with two tracks: Education and Practice as the program prepares educators and practitioners We have areas of midwifery education, which involves teaching and learning, curriculum development, measurement and evaluation; we also have an area on research and statistics. We have another area of midwifery leadership courses and management, so our students are able to graduate with better management and leadership skills.

There are foundation science courses like pathophysiology, pharmacology, and advanced health assessment in maternal and infant care. Other profession-based foundation courses offer an opportunity for the students to learn theories in nursing/midwifery, together with advanced courses in normal and abnormal midwifery. With other partner universities both here in Uganda and beyond, we share courses to do with cultural diversity, trends and issues in midwifery, neonatal and women’s health. Students also go for an international module (internship) to strengthen their teaching approaches and clinical experiences.

The students also take selected courses in advanced clinical practice from areas of their desired specialty in maternal and child health. Health care systems is another course taught to enable students understand the major elements, dynamics, determinants and organizational themes in public health, policy issues and health financing.

How have you taken care of the developments in information and communications technology as far as your course is concerned?
We intend not to leave our graduates behind as far as information and communications technology is concerned. We have lined up a course in informatics, which involves the application of technology in what they learn. We expect to take the students through online healthcare packages, how they can remotely follow up on patients and network with the online medical ecosystem in order to know a patient’s medical history and other things.

Many women, especially those in rural areas, still opt for traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to deliver them, citing harassment from midwives. What is your department doing to reverse this phenomenon?
We always emphasize professional ethics and Christian values in our students and that is why we have faith-based and foundation courses to see how virtues of the respect for one’s work is instilled and how the students ought to relate with their clients. In the midwifery curriculum, for instance, we have integrated Christian worldview to help students relate and handle our clients from a Christian perspective.

Why should we separate nursing from midwifery? Would it be better to equip the students with both skills, so the medical field gets multi-skilled professionals?
At UCU, the Bachelor of Nursing Science teaches concepts of both nursing and midwifery, just like the undergraduate course, which teaches medicine and surgery. The specialization occurs only at post-graduate level. That said, there are universities that offer bachelor’s degrees in midwifery. It’s also important to note the difference between the work of a midwife and a nurse. A midwife’s work involves care for women and families whereas a nurse is involved with the general health of everyone. Midwives focus on women, children, pregnant women, reproductive health issues and educating the community about the same. 

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To support this Uganda Christian University program and others as well as students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.

‘Nursing is a calling from God’

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Annet Kabanyoro, UCU graduate working on her PhD in South Africa
Annet Kabanyoro, UCU graduate working on her PhD in South Africa

Annet Kabanyoro is a doctoral student in healthcare at the University of South Africa. The dean of the School of Nursing at Kampala International University, she has risen through the ranks from enrolling in a certificate in nursing and kept on advancing, including with a master’s degree from Uganda Christian University (UCU).  This is part of her story as told to UCU journalism student Esther Byoona.

What do students learn in a doctoral health science program?
There is an advanced level of learning. Communication and how you communicate are advanced. We do write ups, learn how to write, scientific writing, completing the thesis because you’re at that advanced level. Everything is advanced.

How does this level of health education improve healthcare in Uganda?
When you’re at an advanced level, you can influence policy in a positive direction, to make sure health service delivery is improved to make sure people do the right things. You ensure people are using evidence, evidence-based practice, research and published scientific information so when you’re at that level you are able to influence policy, read literature synthesize it, write in scientific journals and implement more.

Why do you care about healthcare in Uganda?
A population that is not healthy cannot advance.  Without healthcare, more people would be sick all the time.  People cannot go to work, go to business, and go to school. There is nothing that can go on. Health and care of it should be taken as a priority. When you are healthy, you could do many things including self-care, but sickness debilitates and some people can hardly care for themselves.

What does your career path in heath care look like?
I started at a low level in 1992. I was at the certificate level in nursing and I kept on advancing.  I did a diploma, degree, a masters, now I am doing my PhD. I have done other courses like leadership and management and others. But I started at that lowest level so I’ve gone through all the levels of training in nursing since 1995.  I assumed different roles ranging from being a bedside nurse in the clinical area to a nurse educator.

What do you love about the healthcare profession?
When you’re a health worker, and someone comes to you very sick, and they get better, you feel motivated. You feel happy, you feel great and sweet and you know that wow, you did your part. I love to see a patient who came when they were very sick and then improve and they are walking and smiling and thanking you. In education, when you see students on day one, you see they don’t know anything about the profession so you train them. They get to know what you do. Seeing students advance and get well socialized in the profession excites me.

What are the other benefits?
I get enumeration, and enumeration helps me take care of my family. My first born is a doctor. Though it can never be enough, we thank God we have food, housing, and clothes. I network with my colleagues professionally both locally and globally. I did a module in America.

What are your challenges?
Working in a resource constrained environment. Sometimes you want to do something but you don’t have the resources. I have to improvise all the time whether in clinical or education. You want to do a training and you cannot refuse them because it is their right but the resources are never enough. And culture can be a challenge.

Do you have any advice for those who may want to study healthcare?
They should understand nursing is a calling from God. You should deliver service above self. The nurses’ anthem spells it out. There is not much money earned from nursing. Professionalism is key.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs such as the ones in nursing as well as other 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.

Powerful lesson from reconciled Rwandans

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Delight Cajo in her first trip to Rwanda
Delight Cajo in her first trip to Rwanda

(NOTE: The author of this article is a fourth-year honors student pursuing her Bachelor’s in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Uganda Christian University. These are her August 2019 impressions of a first time trip to Rwanda as part of the American-based Uganda Studies Program.)

By Delight Cajo M. Salamula                                                                       

The Nyamata Genocide Memorial in Kigali is where I saw, touched and felt the atrocity of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group of people. It was inside a catholic church where Tutsi men, women and children fled, hoping to be protected from the “enemy” – the Hutu. Tutsi men were on the outer end of this five-acre plot to shield thrice their number of vulnerable women and children whose strength could not measure up to theirs. A book, “Mirror to the Church,” estimates that 5,000 Tutsi perished during the massacre at Nyamata and that 8,000 victims are buried in mass graves behind the church.

Bloodshed was the theme of the Easter holiday. But this time, it was not the blood of Jesus Christ claiming its dominance through his resurrection. It was the bloodshed of best friends killing each other. The irony was that the Hutu and Tutsi, along with a pygmy tribe called Twa,were under one king in 1994 in Rwanda. They have the same language and cultural norms.

The movies “Hotel Rwanda” and “Sometimes in April” and the “Mirror” book by Emmanuel Katongole give only a glimpse of the emotional and physical calamity that happened on the Rwandan soil April 7 to July 15 in 1994. The origin of this massacre had an economic backbone. The colonialists split already existing Rwandans into the three ethnicities based on how they looked and how much land and cattle they owned. The Tutsi were the rich with more privileges of higher paying jobs and their children studying in better schools compared to the Hutu and Twa. The Hutu, aggravated to think the Tutsi were the major bottleneck to their development, planned the killing for about a year before it started.

 

Delight Cajo and students in the Uganda Studies Program learn a Rwandan dance as part of their experience in understanding genocide and reconciliation.
Delight Cajo and students in the Uganda Studies Program learn a Rwandan dance as part of their experience in understanding genocide and reconciliation.

Bad as the genocide was, not all the Hutu participated. An estimated 1.5 million out of 8 million Hutu did, according to Reverend Antoine Rutayisire, who wrote the book “Faith Under Fire.” This book also shows how God came through with miracles saving lives in this massacre.

As I was pondering Rev. Emmanuel Katongale’s words about whether “the blood of tribalism runs deeper than the waters of baptism,” it dawned on me that God can wipe out the ethnic scars of the Rwandan Anglican Church. In 2019, these people sang and worshiped like they weren’t in Rwanda during that horrific time in 1994. Rhetorically, I wondered, had it happened to me, would I forgive the one who made me an orphan and go ahead to fellowship with him?

An experience in Rwanda with the American-based Uganda Studies Program changed my perceptions in many ways. Through an organization called Christian Action for Reconciliation and Social Assistance (CARSA), I listened to stories of two reconciled perpetrator and victim pairs of the genocide. If you want the truth, listen to both sides. Expressions of pain, anger, jealousy, betrayal, vengeance / revenge, ignorance, hatred, obedience to authority, confusion, psychological transformation, murder, awareness, acknowledgement of mistakes, search for forgiveness, change in behavior, bonding and acceptance of mistakes and history were told.

What stood out the most for me from our visit with CARSA was the psychological transformation that yielded into a peaceful human environment. The psychology behind reconciliation is having a common interest.  Cows represent wealth in Rwanda and Uganda, but also reinforce peace in Rwanda. The perpetrator and victim(s) of the deceased family share a cow as upkeep. This enables them to shed layers of the grudge. If one can forgive the person who killed his or herbiological family, then it is possible to forgive and reconcile with absolutely anyone.

While not all Rwandans have reconciled, it was powerful to learn from those who have.

God did not plan the genocide. It’s by God’s grace that people whose families had been killed got back together and have hope through forgiveness and reconciliation.

One of those reconciled is Reverend Antoine Rutayisire, who recalled when he was five years old that his father was killed during the genocide. As some feel the world turned its back on Rwanda, he doesn’t. He does not blame America, the United Nations and others for not stepping in and stopping the genocide. According to Rev. Rutayisire, Rwanda should take full responsibility for its situation.Today, there is Rwandan peaceful cohabitation in which all residents are called Rwandans. In fact, the labels Hutu and Tutsi are forbidden for use of identification in the country.

Advancements over the past two decades include economic growth, health care and infrastructure. Through these, I realized one could always rise up when fallen.

The Rwandan economic growth rate averaged at 7.5% over the decade 2008 to 2018, while per capita growth domestic product (GDP) grew at 5% annually, according to the World Bank.On a local level, I learned through Hope International about a savings program that enables medical insurance for the poorest members of a community. One hospital, in Butaro village, treats cancer at no cost.

As I journeyed through Rwanda back home to Uganda, I saw eucalyptus trees planted on either side of the road, palm trees in the midsection of road and all the slopes of this country’s mountainous terrain with contours. Rwanda has a wave of natural beauty tethered by fresh air and temperate weather. Its culture esteems their inimitably defined long-horned cattle as a sign of wealth.  With gratitude, people dance with their hands up in a U-shape to imitate the cow horns,amalgamating energy for the men (bulls) and grace for the women (cows).

I acknowledged the slogan, “God worked very hard for six days creating the heavens and earth. But on the seventh day, He needed a break, so He picked Rwanda as the place to take a much-needed sleep. God sleeps in Rwanda, then keeps busy at work everywhere else.”

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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 mtbartels@gmail.com.

UCU students Ivan Mutesasira and Mildred Nampala pose with chess and “overcomer” coach Robert Katende. All are from Katwe. (UCU Partners Photo)

Uganda has many ‘kings’ and ‘queens’ of Katwe, including at UCU

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UCU students Ivan Mutesasira and Mildred Nampala pose with chess and “overcomer” coach Robert Katende. All are from Katwe. (UCU Partners Photo)
UCU students Ivan Mutesasira and Mildred Nampala pose with chess and “overcomer” coach Robert Katende. All are from Katwe. (UCU Partners Photo)

By Patty Huston-Holm

In the game of chess, if you lose the queen, most players forfeit.

Not so for Robert Katende, best known as the chess coach for Phiona Mutesi, the Ugandan slum girl featured for overcoming the odds of poverty in the “Queen of Katwe” movie. Not so for Ugandan Madina Nalwanga who had never seen a movie before being plucked from a line up to portray Phiona in the 2016 movie.  And not so for chess players and Katwe slum residents Ivan Mutesasira and Mildred Nampala, studying at Uganda Christian University (UCU) in 2020.

The list of Katende-influenced, overcomer names is long and growing.

Children learning about life and chess at SOM Chess Academy in Katwe (UCU Partners Photo)
Children learning about life and chess at SOM Chess Academy in Katwe (UCU Partners Photo)

The game of chess and the Sports Outreach Ministry (SOM) Chess Academy compound in Katwe are the visible ties between Katende and his protégé students. Yet, the most valued of 16 chess pieces – the queen who can move in all directions on 64 squares of the game – symbolizes much more. Katende and his young chess players have suffered losses that would cause most people to quit. But they didn’t.

On a hot, sunny day in early January 2020, more than 50 children surround Katende at the academy. He calls them “kings” and “queens” because, he says, they can rise to the top despite their poverty and other vulnerabilities.  They call Katende “coach” as they learn not only how to play the game of chess but how to maneuver through life.

On break from regular school, the poorest of Kampala’s boys and girls ages three to teens, play or silently watch two-player teams at a dozen handmade, wooden chessboards. They sit or lean against each other under an avocado tree, within a three-sided tent or in the building that also houses Katende’s small office at the academy. Katende tells some of his story behind the better-known one about Phiona.  It also is detailed in his newly released book, “A Knight without a Castle.”

Coach Robert Katende at the academy in Katwe (UCU Partners Photo)
Coach Robert Katende at the academy in Katwe (UCU Partners Photo)

Katende lost his “queen” – his mother – who abandoned him before he was a year old.  As he grew, he felt so abused and unwanted that his only deterrent from killing himself was that he couldn’t scrape up enough money to buy rat poison to do it. He persevered with a life that often found him sleeping on cardboard with his grandmother and a younger child, suffering injuries that included a dislocated wrist wracked with pain as he successfully completed written exams, and digging his fingers into gardens and laying bricks to work his way through school while oftentimes being cheated out of wages.

Today, the former mathematics teacher with a university degree is the backbone of the Academy located in Katwe, which is the poorest slum in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala. The Academy is a haven in a village best known for high illiteracy, poor housing, prostitution and low employment except for metal workers who get accolades for their skill in crafting beds and sheds. The chess coach also leads the newer Robert Katende Initiative, a child-uplifting, fund-raising arm based in the United States.

“I see myself as a moving miracle,” he said. “It is not of my own making. God has chosen me to glorify His name. I have no reason to be alive but for His Purpose.”

Katende’s story is one he would rather tell through the next generation that he might have inspired.  That generation includes:

  • famous Phiona, now studying business at Northwest University (Kirkland, Washington), where another Katwe chess player (depicted in the movie as the boy clicking his fingers a lot) named Benjamin also is enrolled with a dream to become a neurosurgeon;
  • teenagers named David, Lydia, Gloria and Stella who auditioned as young, poor Katwe children and received supporting roles in the movie;
  • two student chess players enrolled in engineering at the Mukono campus of UCU. There, with the hand of the university’s Vice Chancellor, the Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) exists to serve the underserved with the Academy – if there is financial support.

Through the UCU Partners organization, based in the USA state of Pennsylvania, San Antonio, Texas, resident, Sandra Lamprecht, offered that first support. She sponsors the two UCU students, Ivan Mutesasira and Mildred Nampala.  Already an admirer of UCU quality curriculum and character-building education and with family in Uganda, the United States woman saw the “Queen of Katwe” movie in 2016, met Katende in 2017, and felt led to help.

With Katende’s recommendation and facilitated by the MOU at UCU, Lamprecht first agreed to be the American “mom” for Ivan Mutesasira, who is a lesser-known character in the “Queen of Katwe” movie.

“I’m the guy with the hat,” Ivan commented amidst the young chess players, including one hanging onto his leg on this January 8 day. He smiled as he referred to his movie portrayal as a member of the chess team that traveled more than a decade ago with Phiona to Juba, South Sudan, and the tournament where she won and garnered international attention through the media, a book and then a movie.

Like Katende, Ivan, who is now 28 years old, believes his life outside the movie better defines him and God’s purpose.

“The movie touches me because I lived it – paying for water and fetching it in a jerry can, sharing pit latrines, no electricity,” Ivan recalled. “My parents divorced when I was age five. There were five of us as children with a mom supporting us by selling vegetables at the market.”

While he was raised Christian and went to church, Ivan saw his life take an upward turn when, at age 12, he met Katende. Through moves on a chess board, the young Ivan learned discipline, responsibility, strategic planning, action consequences and that someone – the coach and God – believed in him and loved him.

“My friends were dropping out of school and having unplanned children,” Ivan said. “I was learning to accept and appreciate what I had, trusting in God, praying and playing chess.”

What Ivan learned through the chess academy is continuing at UCU, where character building is incorporated into his program in Civil and Environmental Engineering.  Upon his graduation with a bachelor’s degree in July 2021, he hopes to make a difference in the place where he grew up.

“That building is wrong structurally,” he said, pointing to a crumbling residence towering three stories above the Katwe academy. “Effluent from the upstairs bathroom is flowing down into people’s rooms. That’s part of what I want to fix to improve lives.”

Mildred Nampala, 21, and the second Katwe youth sponsored at UCU by Sandra Lamprecht, likewise wants to be part of the solution to her country’s poverty issues. She is a year behind Ivan at UCU and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering.

One of three children, Mildred never knew her father who died when she was a toddler; her mother died when she was 12 years old. She served as a house cleaner and cook in exchange for school fees and a place to live with an uncle, his wife and five children until one of the biological children got pregnant out of wedlock. Out of fear that the same would happen with Mildred, the uncle kicked her out of the house. She found refuge in various homes, including that of her sister who works as Katende’s accountant.

Mildred found refuge in chess.  The game also reinforced the value of teamwork with all the pieces working together under the guidance of the players. And the “Queen of Katwe” movie that Mildred has “watched more times than I can count” reinforces that she and others in poverty can be more.

While he has had offers to relocate with other organizations and in developed countries, Katende says he is called to remain in his Katwe birthplace. As he looks around and admires the mechanical skills of the less-educated population of the slum, he aspires to grow the chess academy focus into a vocational school within the next few years.

“The school will go there,” he said, pointing to an area near the academy’s single avocado tree and below crumbling houses and rows of laundry blowing in the dusty wind.

This Katende and others know: Millions of people around the world play chess. Losing a queen early on doesn’t mean you lost the game.

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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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Prof. Monica Chibita with her husband, Justice Mike Chibita (left) and the Uganda Christian University Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi at the inaugural lecture

Praise and joy as UCU holds first professorial inaugural lecture

Faculty, , , , ,


Prof. Monica Chibita with her husband, Justice Mike Chibita (left) and the Uganda Christian University Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi at the inaugural lecture
Prof. Monica Chibita with her husband, Justice Mike Chibita (left) and the Uganda Christian University Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi at the inaugural lecture

By Douglas Olum

It was 1:45 p.m. East African Time on Friday, January 17, and I was in the Nkoyoyo Hall at Uganda Christian University (UCU). A couple of other people were gathered under the same roof. But, unlike the other days of that week, the sky was coated in dark clouds. And drizzles from the sky were peacefully showering the trees and green grass on the compound, making them look even more beautiful.

Prof. Monica Chibita delivers her professorial inaugural lecture
Prof. Monica Chibita delivers her professorial inaugural lecture

For a moment, my heart wondered why the rain on such a day? We were set to listen to the first-ever professorial inaugural lecture at UCU, and it was to be delivered by the dean of the faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication, Prof. Monica Balya Chibita, receiving full professorship.

Then I remembered one Bible verse, Hebrews 6:7 (KJV) which states: “Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.” Indeed, the rain was a momentous blessing as Dr. Chibita was to be only the second to Rev. Prof. Christopher Byaruhanga, the dean of the UCU School of Divinity and Theology, to receive such a full academic professor designation

Over the weeks, this particular lecture on the topic of “Between freedom and regulation: Reflection on Uganda’s Communication landscape” had been widely advertised. And a number of people, both within and without UCU were eagerly waiting to listen to this incredible academic whose childhood dream wandered from becoming a nurse, to becoming a lawyer because it seemed prestigious, then to becoming an altar girl, a social worker and finally a teacher.

Soon, Prof. Chibita marched into the hall in company of her husband, Supreme Court Justice Mike Chibita; her mother; four of her five children; Rev. Byaruhanga; the Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi; two UCU deputy vice chancellors; and other UCU faculty members, donned in their academic gowns but not the mortarboard cap that only Monica Chibita wore to match her red robe.

The University Chaplain, Rev. Eng. Paul Wasswa Ssembiro, led the opening prayer.  And it was all joy and praises as the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Rev. Dr. John Kitayimbwa, the Vice Chancellor, and the dean of the UCU School of Divinity and Theology, provided words in the ceremony for the highly anticipated lecture.

“To us as a university, Uganda Christian University, this is a very welcome opportunity for us to showcase to the public but also to showcase to our very students what it is we are doing in the area of teaching and learning, in the area of research and in the area of community outreach,” Rev. Dr. Kitayimbwa said.

Prof. Monica Chibita (left) receives an award from Uganda Christian University Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, shortly after her professorial inaugural lecture
Prof. Monica Chibita (left) receives an award from Uganda Christian University Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, shortly after her professorial inaugural lecture

Dr. Senyonyi expressed appreciation to Prof. Chibita for her focused developmental leadership that has transformed the former department of Mass Communication under the Education and Arts faculty to its own esteemed faculty.

“Shortly after she joined UCU, Prof. Chibita sent five staff for PhD studies to build her department. Furthermore, she merged that departmental growth with her personal academic growth, thus becoming the second home-grown professor at Uganda Christian University,” Dr. Senyonyi said, “Today her contributions are out for all of us to see. She stands tall in every way among the achievers of this university.”

Dr. Chibita graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts in Education (Literature in English) from Makerere University. In 1992, she obtained an MA in Journalism from the University of Iowa. She joined Makerere University as a lecturer in 1994, where she rose through ranks up to Associate Professor. Between 2003 and 2006, she pursued her doctoral studies from the University of South Africa. She joined UCU in 2012 as head of the then department of Mass Communication under the Faculty of Education and Arts. Over the years, she developed and got her department lifted to a faculty status.

“Congratulations to you, Prof. Chibita, for a well-deserved promotion,” the vice chancellor continued. “I am elated to host UCU’s first inaugural lecture.”

An inaugural lecture is a formal public function in which a newly appointed full professor is unveiled to the public, with the desire to inform the academic and general public of the professor’s recent research and publication works that have merited her new appointment.

Dr. Senyonyi warned that UCU will not grant professorship and honorary doctorates to people who do not deserve it.

“It seems to me today that university leaders and even none academic personalities have taken to self-proclaim themselves professors. Someone asked me to give him an honorary doctorate, even without a clear beneficial relationship with this university. Of course I refused and instead proceeded to write a policy on honorary doctorate to knock out the quacks,” Dr. Senyonyi said.

He also encouraged the university academic staff members to invest in research, warning that, “Academics who do not research are digging their academic grave,” because without research, they die academically.

In her lecture, Prof. Chibita illustrated the issues of media ownership, management, operations, legal frameworks and how the arms of the media in Uganda have continuously been twisted since the pre-colonial days, to curtail media freedom and serve the interests of the financial and political powers. Some of the means used by the governments that she illustrated included expelling foreign journalists and banning newspapers under the Milton Obote II Government. Others include the mandatory annual licensing of all journalists by the Government of Uganda. She noted that the pages of laws may be confusing for journalists.

Another challenge to Uganda and global communication in the age of social media is the blur of lines between consumers and distributors of news.  She concurred with the vice chancellor and his concern with lack of research, including lack of deep reading in an age when people get news from Facebook.

For Uganda, part of the answer is in translation to mother tongue. Prof. Chibita asserted that, at least 36 different languages are spoken in Uganda, including dialects like English and Kiswahili. But research has shown that people in the central and western parts of Uganda prefer to receive information in their own languages.

To her, that explains why large corporations like the Vision Group, with 53 percent ownership of the media in Uganda, run English and Local Language newspapers, radios and television. These include: The New Vision as English Newspaper, Bukedde as Luganda paper, radio and TV for the central region. Others include: Rupiny Newspaper and Radio for the North, Orumuri newspaper, Radio West and TV West for Western Uganda.

At that, she joked with her audience of roughly 500 dignitaries, current and former students and colleagues and family and friends, “I won’t embarrass you by asking how many of you read the newspaper today.”

To access a video of the lecture, click here. https://www.facebook.com/UgandaChristianUniversity/videos/486175712043875/?epa=SEARCH_BOX

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, 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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Fulbright Professor David Hodge with wife and daughters on the Uganda Christian University, Mukono, campus

Arizona professor lives his research dream in Uganda

Faculty, Scholarship, , , , ,


Fulbright Professor David Hodge with wife and daughters on the Uganda Christian University, Mukono, campus
Fulbright Professor David Hodge with wife and daughters on the Uganda Christian University, Mukono, campus

By Benezeri Wanjala

Relaxing at his new home-away-from-home on the leafy, expansive Uganda Christian University (UCU) in Mukono, American Professor David Hodge talked about his life. He is a social worker, researcher and teacher. He is married to Crystal, and they have two daughters, Esther and Rachael, ages 15 and 12.

A lecturer of Social Work at Arizona State University in Phoenix, USA, he’s here for a year – through June 2020 – as a Fulbright Scholar, he says. His specialty is spirituality and religion.

As we chatted, Mrs. Hodge offered me a beverage. Their children were away at school.

David Hodge
David Hodge

Hodge outlined the process of obtaining the scholarship: “When you apply for a Fulbright, you have to come up with some sort of plan that you will execute. Then you go through an extensive review process, which is evaluated by external reviewers who decide whether it is a good fit or something they want to support.”

He teaches a Master’s in Social Work class at the UCU Kampala campus. The program classes are condensed into three days – Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This arrangement is typical for advanced degrees, he says, because it enables students to work during the rest of the days in a week. His particular class in religion and spirituality takes place on Thursday evenings.

However, teaching is one of two components of his yearlong Fulbright scholarship. The second is research. He is developing tools and approaches to help social workers tap into clients’ spiritual strengths. His research project involves making the tools “consistent and congruent with Ugandan culture.” The research tools are qualitative in nature, as opposed to quantitative.

“I will take the questions and approaches, and I’ll ask social workers how I can make them more consistent with cultural norms,” he says. His previous writings have evolved around Christianity, Islamism, Hinduism and some indigenous tribal religions.

“My career has been focused on helping social workers work with clients’ spiritual and religious strengths in an ethical and professional manner,” he continued. “My academic work pretty much all revolves around spirituality, religion and culture.”

He obtained his PhD from one of the most respected schools of Social Work in the United States, the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Thereafter, he did post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2005, he joined Arizona State University, one of America’s largest universities. Ten years later, he became a full professor. He also served as head of the PhD program for six years before stepping down to pursue the Fulbright scholarship opportunity. The Fulbright at UCU was attractive because of the East African reputation for spirituality.

“It is a faith-based school and its mission is to achieve excellence in the heart of Africa,” he says.  “When you look at the demographic data, Sub-Saharan Africa is the most spiritual and religious geographic area in the world. For my work, you can’t think of a better environment.”

Additionally, Hodge has found fascination in the food, wildlife and other cultural aspects of Uganda.

“There are all kinds of monkeys that jump around in the compound and on the roof,” he remarks with a smile. “We don’t have that in America. The monkeys there are in zoos. Here they are out swinging in trees. So I took some pictures and sent them to my parents, and they found it interesting.”

He has enjoyed all the Ugandan food he has tasted so far.

“I haven’t had rolex yet, though,” he admits. Rolex is a Ugandan street delicacy, composed of eggs wrapped into a bread called chapatti.  He says he likes the vegetables in particular and he buys them from the local market.

He also likes the weather. “You can have your windows open all the time. That’s a real luxury. In Arizona, it’s desert. It goes as high as 40 and 50 degrees Celsius during the summer. In the winter it goes down to close to zero.”

The transition to Uganda has not been without challenges. While they have made new friends, his daughters are finding it slightly harder to adapt, especially at school. They study at an International School, which is on the Northern Bypass of Kampala and involves a lengthy transport time from their home on the main UCU campus in Mukono.

“They had only been to one school their whole life before they came to Uganda,” he said. “They have to go to bed very early and wake up early as well. I am lucky because I only need to go to Kampala once a week.”

Land transportation in Uganda is a challenge for the entire family. Hodge and is wife do not have international driver’s licenses. Traffic jams are commonplace while traffic lights and drivers with licenses for the cars, taxis and motorcycles are not.

He has found the difference in the standards of time interesting. While Americans are extremely time conscious, Ugandans are not.

“My Ugandan friend says, ‘People from the West check their watches for the time, but Ugandans have the time’.”

He continued: “The way I look at it is different. People prioritize values differently. For example, Americans tend to prioritize efficiency over relationships. Ugandans prioritize relationships over efficiency. Societies are structured differently. And that’s one of the things I like about Ugandans. They are warm and friendly, but that means when you’re talking to someone, you might not be able to make it for your next meeting. It’s hard to optimize all your values simultaneously.”

Prof. Hodge is looking forward to the rest of his time in Uganda, both professionally and personally.

“On the personal end, I am looking forward to learning more about the Ugandan culture,” he said. “And I’d like to see some of the wonderful sites in the country like Lake Victoria and the source of the River Nile.”

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For more of these stories and experiences surrounding Uganda Christian University, 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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