Uganda is a beautiful country with a long history filled with wars, uprisings and poverty. Africa’s HIV/AIDS epidemic has hit Uganda hard, creating a true crisis situation with its children. Currently, half the population of Uganda is under the age of 15, due largely to adults dying from AIDS complications. Many sympathetic households take in multiple orphans despite having scarce resources to care for them, out of deep concern over saving these children from the tragedies they would surely face alone.
Pastor Ronald Lufafa is an English teacher at a primary school, and the school has been gracious enough to provide him with two rooms to house the 25 children in his care. However, the school will soon need the rooms again, so the Lufafa family and the orphans are in critical need of their own housing.
“I had secured a small piece of land where I had started constructing a house which I thought I could take these kids,” said Pastor Ronald, “but because of insufficient support and the less salary I am getting, the building ended on the foundation. We need to complete this building so that the kids will have their own apartment.”
The children are currently sleeping on bunk beds, with four children to one bed. They need more beds, mattresses, blankets, sheets and mosquito nets. Pastor Ronald and the children have planted a garden that they tend to daily, but it is not enough to feed everyone.
“The children’s life is not that good at the moment because what I am providing is not really enough,” says Pastor Ronald. “That is why am doing all I can to improve their standard of living. There is lack of enough food and sometimes they go without meals.”
Pastor Ronald has a definite, long-range plan for improving the lives of the children in his care. He calls it “The Way Forward” and it includes the following goals:
-Securing a safe, reliable water source
-Self-sufficiency through agriculture, poultry keeping, animal husbandry and creating a way of generating daily income
-Acquiring additional land to accommodate such a working farm, with enough room to build a guest house which could be rented to visitors and also be used to house those who come to visit Blood of Jesus Ministries on mission trips
-Setting up a school to allow the children to receive an uninterrupted education (Ugandan children frequently experience gaps in their education because of a lack of funds to pay the school fees)
-Setting up a vocational center to help teach life skills and trades
-Setting up a clinic to meet medical needs
Please consider partnering with Blood of Jesus Ministries to help Pastor Ronald meet his life’s goal of making a better life for the orphans in his care.
In summary, the most urgent needs of the orphanage are:
-Prayer for health, safety and God’s provision
-Monetary donations for food, medical bills, utilities, medicine, school fees and scholastic materials
-Labor and materials to finish building the home that is now just a foundation
-Money to purchase beds, mattresses, bedding and mosquito nets
-Clothing, shoes and blankets for boys and girls ranging in age from five to 15
-Transportation to make daily life a little easier and to reach the villages serviced by the Widows Empowerment Project
Pastor Ronald and the children stand on this favorite verse:
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 4:19