View from Uganda: Daily choices made for life

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 25 March 2000

KAMPALA, Uganda -- Uganda just received another shot of international attention the last few days, continuing the trend of sad, vicious stories emanating from this small country nestled among the Great Lakes of Africa at the source of the Nile -- still seemingly under the evil spell of Idi Amin, or so is claimed by some foreign observers.

No one would have heard of Kanungu, Rukungiri, Uganda save for the horrible story of between 300 and 500 people burning themselves and some of their children alive on March 17, following the misguided leadership of the religious cult "Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God," which claimed the end of the world.

It is not quite true that "no one" would have heard of Kanungu. For a period of three years ending in September 1997, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) workers John and Anne Lamman from Fort Collins, Colo., (and baby Claire born in their last year) lived and worked in this small community nestled among the legendary mountains that border Congo and Rwanda. John and Anne worked with the Anglican Diocese of Kinkizi in development activities, primarily with women's groups and forestry/agricultural projects. They also worked at ways of including both Catholics and Muslims in their relationships, chipping away at some of the walls within the community.

MCC still maintains relationships with Kanungu in several ways. MCC has provided funds for furniture for a small nursery school run by several community women who want to provide a good foundation for their children's education. Mothercare Nursery School operates on the principle that if nursery-school children have some formal education, they will have a better chance later on. Many of these children come from single-parent homes.

One of the initiators of this project is Dorcas Mutabaazi, who not only is involved in this work, (she and her husband Sam contributed the building and property on which the school is located), but keeps about a dozen extra orphaned children in her home. These extra children include offspring of relatives who died from AIDS, several community children who are orphans and several former street girls from Kampala who were initially taken in by her husband, Sam Mutabaazi. Sam lives in Kampala and runs another home for street children -- Dorcas Children's Home, newly supported by MCC's Global Family program.

MCC continues to be connected to Kanungu through Rev. Benon Rweijungu who is carrying on work begun by Anne Lamman in Trickle-Up income generation. Trickle-Up is a program begun by an American couple who had the idea that if a small amount of capital -- a total of $100 U.S. in two installments -- would be given to small groups of poor people -- these people through training in business management, hard work and good husbandry of natural resources around them, could get a boost in their family's income and development

Since Anne Lamman started this program in the last year and a half of her term, and through Rev. Benon's current leadership, some 20 groups of about 60 people have received this support. Through projects like tomato growing and pig rearing, several more families have been able to pay school fees for their children -- one of the primary uses to which any extra family income is put. Many of these people represent the poorest of the poor in Kanungu -- widows and orphaned young people who had little opportunity for formal education. MCC's provides administrative support to Rev. Rweijungu and communicates on his behalf with the Trickle-Up program in New York.

Why do I talk about Dorcas Mutabaazi and the women of Mothercare; about Rev. Rweijungu and Trickle-Up? It is because I feel compelled to point out that Uganda as a country survives through some incredible contradictions. Almost all of what is understood about Uganda internationally is catch words like "Idi Amin," "Bwindi Massacre," "AIDS Pandemic," "LRA" and now "Kanungu Inferno/or Uganda Jonestown."

If there is a macro-level of good news told, it is that Uganda is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa -- having chosen through the current government's leadership to swallow the IMF/World Bank pill of privatization and structural adjustment.

On one hand, Structural Adjustment and economic growth has not "trickled down" to the rural peasant; the group in Kanungu who hastened the end of their world were largely made up of simple rural folks led by an educated elite. On the other hand, AIDS while still a huge challenge, has been tackled and held somewhat in check through the collaboration of government, social welfare agencies and thousands of local people (mostly women) willing to confront the cultural taboos against talking about sex and to minister to the sick and dying.

The spirit of violence that seems to swirl around us, is confronted daily by thousands of Ugandans, praying and working for peace and alternatives to violence in their own hearts and communities. One could recount a long list of heroes of faith, as in Hebrews 11, working for a vision of shalom for their children against odds, willing to forgive countless atrocities and put aside vengeance for the sake of the future, and for the sake of their faith in Jesus Christ.

Uganda to me, is an example of the truth expressed in Romans 5:20 -- "where sin was powerful, God's kindness was even more powerful" -- but it is only faith that help us to see this reality. Ugandans are suffering. One does not want to minimize this. But in the midst of, Ugandans also live and work in active hope. It is not that they always even expect to harvest the fruits of their struggle, but their acts of courage and daily choices made for life are an investment in the future for their children, witnessing against the demons of death that threaten to overwhelm.

Pray with us that their courage will continue and their resolve will not fail.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org