Today we received this video message of thanks from Patrick Rhuweza, our Project Coordinator in Uganda, along with the report below. Your efforts are making a difference and we are so very grateful, now and always.
You gotta feel proud to be part of our mighty Herd!
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe Uganda currently has 58 confirmed cases. As a means to control the rapid spread, the government of Uganda put in place measures aimed at controlling the congregation of many people in one place. As a result all schools and colleges were closed for a period of one month until 20 April 2020.
The closure of institutions took place before a single case of COVID-19 was detected in Uganda and following the emergence of confirmed cases more guidelines were put in place. Including closure of public transport as well as private transport, which marked the beginning of a complete lockdown of the whole country.
Today the movement of people is completely banned unless with permission from government officials and work places are closed down.
Children under our sponsorship, and their families, have been going through extremely hard times with numerous calls made to me on a daily basis along with dire voice messages. It breaks my heart when I hear our boys and girls speak with frail voices as they tell me their stories of hunger.
Some told me that they had spent two days without food.
Our usually energetic boys and girls are directly affected by COVID-19 given the fact that all of them come from families without capacity to survive beyond a week without an opportunity to search for food on a daily basis.
It is now a month since the lockdown started and the Government has announced an extension of the lockdown for the next three weeks.
Families will definitely be affected, especially grandparents looking after their grandchildren as part of the Nanna Project, and our HIV positive children are extremely vulnerable at this time.
Most of the families we are supporting are either headed by widows, grandmothers or by children themselves.
Emergency funds were sent by Forget Me Not and used to buy food to #feedourfamilies through dealing with shop owners or sending money through mobile money transactions.
We have supplied maize flour (posho), beans and cooking oil to benefit 125 people and feed them for about 3 weeks. We are at least sure that our children will not starve for the above period although in case the lockdown is extended, the same situation may reoccur.
We are dealing with a matter of life and death, and promise to keep monitoring the situation and suggest proposals on how we continue to protect our children from the risk of starvation.
As Project Coordinator I will keep closely in touch with all our children and update you as much as possible.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, support and donations.
Patrick Rhuweza
21 April 2020