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Benon Kayanja
March 2025
Benon March 2025 Update
Dear Friends
Christian Greetings from Uganda where we are witnessing the onset of the March-April rains, supposed to be a blessing providing rain so that planting of seeds can start but instead has turned into an ordeal of catastrophic floods especially in Kampala city-the Capital of Uganda. Roads are turning into rivers, homes being submerged, while businesses being disrupted and, in some places, taking people's lives with lots of anguished cries raised to the Lord to intervene, most of this is largely due to weak enforcement of environmental policies and very inadequate drainage infrastructure. There is a lot of creation stewardship needed to be embraced to avert these occurrences in our communities.
We feel led to engage in sensitisation especially in the Justice Livelihoods and Health (JLH) Strategic locations about aspects of creation stewardship and to ensure that information trickles down to the people about their responsibility in curbing the floods, by not throwing waste in the drainage channels, not settling in wetlands, and not destroying the wetlands, we need also to be humbling ourselves before our God seeking guidance through prayer for renewed morality with sincere hearts, pray with us that we will proactively engage with the stakeholders.
Thank you so much for your consistent prayers for our work here, our Church Community Mobilisation(CCM) continues to gain ground with trainings starting to have positive results especially understanding biblical basis for holistic ministry and God's expectation of the church (mandate) in engaging in holistic ministry within the church and with the immediate community; the CCM facilitators who are majorly church pastors and church leaders from 4 Evangelical denominations in Uganda at the end of last year concluded Resource Mobilisation Bible Studies - where the church understood the biblical perspective of meeting its needs using God-given resources, and this one has been very important in helping the participants to match needs with the resources in their communities. We have now moved onto Relationship building Bible Studies, where the church is being facilitated to move to its immediate community and begin engaging it in a practical and holistic manner so as to truly become 'salt and light' to the community, we will need earnest prayers as we do the trainings for the facilitators but also as the facilitators engage with the community leaders at these levels especially these categories; security, political, witch doctors to mention but a few-2 Thessalonians 3:1.
Our Gender Mainstreaming work in Uganda continues to register high numbers of cases and victims especially due to the awareness campaign, you will know that this majorly based in Kasese where a JLH office and desk for Gender has been established. There is a strong connection between Justice and Livelihoods-Justice ensures that everyone has equal access to resources, opportunities, and decision-making processes, which is crucial for sustainable livelihoods, this is particularly true for women as they often face systemic barriers to economic opportunities and resource access.BMS last month working alongside JLH helped to secure a grant to help Gertrice Biira (See photo, lady in Green Top Dress)-a 39-year-Old Woman Married for 15 years to Baluku Paul with 3 boys with age ranges of 15 and 3. Gertrice and Paul developed misunderstanding when Paul asked Gertrice to get a loan of 2 Million Uganda Shillings (Approx. £445) in her name with plans to boost their business, this later did not work due to extra-marital affairs by Paul. He later moved out with another woman with 7 children who did not belong to him. Gertrice struggled to pay back the loan while looking after the 3 children until the business collapsed before the loan was cleared, she sold everything she had in the house to clear the loan and consequently ran away from her home leaving the children alone most times because of fear of being arrested, during that time she suffered psychological and emotional challenges, the story is quite long and heart breaking.
Luckily Jackie the JLH Gender Trainer got to know about her story and we brought this to the attention of the BMS Gender Justice Coordinator who moved swiftly to help arrange 4.5 Million Uganda Shillings (Approx. £1000) to help with clearing her debts which had now risen with interest, we are glad to be part of this story in the life of Gertrice, we would like to do more especially with improvement in her skills development as well as access to resources, we thank God for using BMS in raising the funds and so much appreciate those supporting BMS to be able to reach out, please pray for women like Gertrice who are suffering like this and no one knows about their situations, that God will enable us to reach out to them to offer psychological and emotional support.
The JLH buying and Selling Cooperative (CEK CAM-Acholi dialect in Northern Uganda to mean Abundant Food) of farmers and growers in Gulu continues to grow majorly buying agricultural produce from farmers (ensuring they earn their worth) and selling it for a mark-up, hence ensuring sustainability of the JLH Agri-Livelihoods Programme, this has led to increased and stable incomes for our farmers. We still have hurdles with capital to purchase all the produce from the farmers, this without a doubt leaves gaps for middlemen to gain access to our farmers. Please pray for the Lord to increase our working capital strength and for more wisdom on how we can grow the CEK CAM capital.
We also realize that with the CCM process gaining more ground, there will be need for JLH Financial Services where our beneficiaries can access low interest credit to support their local initiatives, we are therefore keen to have a facility where small microfinance loans can be drawn and returned on revolving basis. Please pray for this set up as an innovative and sustainable solution to the needs of the churches and the communities we serve.
You will be pleased to hear that William Tusiime, that young man we have been discipling for a while now was last month introduced to the parents of Lydia (William's Fiancée) and a wedding is coming up very fast in April, please pray for their spiritual growth as well as God blessing their relationship.
Dorothy has lots of passion for Evangelism and so she has planned a Mission during Easter season on Good Friday in Bukasa one of the suburbs in Kampala, please pray for the preparation, travel and the logistical needs to be met so that souls are fetched for the Kingdom of God.
Blessings
Benon