---

Uganda, Africa

UGA02 - CFC - Child Care Ministries

• View report dated: August 26, 2015

• View report dated: September 27, 2016

• View report dated: October 18, 2017

• View report dated: August 29, 2018

• View report dated: December 12, 2019

• View report dated: February 19, 2021

• View report dated: December 16, 2021

• View report dated: February 13, 2022

• View report dated: June 6, 2023

• View report dated: May 28, 2024

• View report dated: July 30, 2024

---

Report Date: October 30, 2025

Report from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Recent Events

HIV/AIDS Loan Programme

The HIV/AIDS programme is still continuing. In theory, there are approximately 20 people involved, but only 9 are active participants. Two of the original people have died. In addition, Stephen Sande, whom we have previously reported on and who was the leader of the group and the one providing direction, has suffered two quite serious accidents. He had a motorcycle accident and was also hit by a motorcycle, suffering a significant leg wound and subsequently a burn injury from the exhaust of a motorbike. For this reason, he was not able to meet with us. Of the people who have received small loans, some are continuing, but only one is actually repaying. James is convinced that there needs to be further sensitisation of the remaining members of this group, many of whom we have reported on before. Unfortunately, some have been sick or died, and others have been demoralised by their illness.

We agreed that it would be a good idea to incorporate those people in the HIV/AIDS programme into the main loan programme. This would only apply to those willing to undergo a re-sensitisation process and commit to making repayments. It is not worth working in a constructive, long-term way with those who are not willing to abide by the repayment rules. However, James seems confident that of the remaining nine, some would be willing to join the main group and abide by the rules.

In this regard, the previous budget had $3,000 allocated for the HIV loan programme. We are not able to determine how this money was used. However, the larger loan programme, which is continuing and actually surviving quite well, as you will see from the stories, could do with a boost. 

Leadership Development and Church Growth

We had an extensive discussion with Solomon Mayende (James and Gorret’s eldest son) regarding both the leadership development and church growth sections of the budget. There are good reasons for both of these to be continued. Solomon was very clear that there has been a significant post Covid effect on the leadership of the churches. He indicated that many of the pastors had been disoriented by Covid. Many had lost their fellowships or their sense of direction, and they believe that training and perhaps mentoring is key to getting their ministry back in focus.

They have already done three trainings this year and are planning to do one more before the end of the year. The budget item is $2,000 for these four trainings, and this is very reasonable given that there are more than 100 people at each of the trainings. The trainings are not just general. One of the trainings is for women leaders and one is for youth leaders. 

Education Programme

The education programme is continuing well. It has faced significant challenges, but it is clear from our discussions with James and Gorret that they have risen to those challenges and have been able to find a way through. At present, there are approximately 115 people in the education support programme: 20 in primary, 42 in secondary, 15 in university, and 35 in vocational training. In addition, there are three special needs students: Sandra, who is deaf and dumb; Emma, who is deaf and dumb; and one boy who is mute. Two of them are in the Mbale School for the Deaf, which we visited a couple of years ago and were very impressed with the standard of care and teaching. There is also a vocational training institute there, and one of them is studying fashion and design. 

One of the challenges they have faced is the increasing cost of education. It has increased enormously. Another very serious challenge is that there have been times when they have started to provide partial support to a family or children, and the parents themselves have then abandoned their responsibility to be a parent and to supply their part of the payment. This has been a problem. It has meant that they have had to pay everything for some of the students. We would understand that this primarily applies to some primary or secondary students. 

They gave two serious examples. One was a situation where there were six children and both parents abandoned all of them, and they now live alone. The eldest, Good Luck Jonathan (in brown shirt), is in S4. He is 16 and an excellent student and is also heavily involved in Elizabeth's farming groups, which is the subject of a second report. We met him. Apparently, he is excelling at school. James and Gorret have taken responsibility and are now supporting all six of these children through their education. They are a child-headed family.

There is another family in a similar situation. There were five children, and because of family conflicts, the marriage broke and the children were left alone. They could not afford school, and James and Gorret started supporting them. During the holidays, the children also stay with James and Gorret at their house.

One of the amazing and remarkable things is that James and Gorret’s daughter, Elizabeth, has also taken it upon herself to help and support six children in the education scheme from her own income. She is a third-year law student in Kampala but is very resourceful with business, as you will see from the other report. Elizabeth initially met the school fees of a family where both parents abandoned the children. Subsequently, the father came back and took responsibility for five of the children, with Elizabeth now meeting the education costs of the sixth. She supports 5 others.

Of recent graduates, one of the girls has gone into fashion and design. She is one of the deaf students, as the Mbale School for the Deaf is also a vocational training institute. Two of the young people have gone into the army.

The education programme is actually meeting the needs of a very large number of young people and children and continues to have good fruit. The additional responsibilities imposed on James and Gorret mean that the three of us agree that it is appropriate to increase this support and enable them to fully carry out their ministry to these people.

Tree Planting

312 trees have been planted on land owned by Elizabeth but available for Farming God's Way / Foundations for Farming. We visited this land, and it is truly impressive. There is a 12-acre block of land which is used for communal farming, being farmed by groups of young people, totalling 89, with significant plans for further developments including fish farming, animal raising, chickens, and the like. There is also another smaller plot of land being part of what Elizabeth owns, which is for family farming. All of the land is in the process of being developed, and much of it is already cultivated with yams, watermelon, maize, pumpkins, groundnuts, and various other crops. It is clear that the Farming God's Way principles are being implemented well. When we were visiting the land, we got to interact with some of these young people who were cheerfully working the land and were being supervised by one of Elizabeth’s associates.

On this land, they have planted 312 trees and are also growing some seedlings. They would like a continuance of the budget allowance because this will enable them to bring in other types of trees from outside the area—species that are not presently grown in the local area and for which they can therefore simply grow from seeds. Such trees would be blueberries, apples, other species of mango, and some jackfruit, which are sensitive to transplanting. We agree with this for the following year.

Church Development

This is very similar to the leadership development but sits in a different category. Covid challenged a lot of existing churches and highlighted the need for real evangelism and discipleship. They have changed the model from large-scale rallies to home cell groups, and this is bearing fruit. Because there is a leadership vacuum in some 3 or 4 of the churches in the 36-church network, they have also recognised that there is a need to grow and develop a level of leadership and ability in the churches that does not sit at the pastor or church leader level. In particular, they want to develop Sunday school leaders, women leaders, and youth leaders to a greater degree.

Solomon already pastors a church in Kampala and is being requested by James to move with his family back to Busia. He is definitely open to this but also recognises that in relation to his own church, he needs to ensure that the remaining leadership is sufficiently trained and ready to take over when he departs. They wish to rebuild initially the churches that have somewhat collapsed in 4 areas. They talked about Mayombe and Bulenge. Both of those were success stories, and they have used some of their resources to rebuild both churches and people have returned. But they have plenty of other work to do.

The recognition is that without the next generation of leadership and people that can step into a pastor's shoes if something happens, the actual church itself can fall over. This is now the focus and is why there should be a continuance of that part of the budget that presently provides for church development.

Solomon is also wanting to develop remote modules for use in various remote parts of Uganda and using different types of media. He is a media specialist and that is his business as well. He is looking at utilising this for the furtherance of the kingdom, and apparently there is a need for suitable training and teaching materials.

Prison Ministry

After we returned home, we received another email below. James is still continuing prison ministry, but not in prison in Kween we previously reported on. This is an extract from his email:

We regret not sharing more about our mercy activities during your visit. Due to restrictions at Masafu prison, we couldn't take pictures. Building stronger relationships will be key to overcoming these challenges. 

 

Personal Stories

Rose

(Applying for microloan)
Rose is a nurse and midwife working in the hospital at Busia, and lives 14km from her workplace. She is married to Musa and has seven children. Musa and Rose live separately due to their respective employment, and Musa is a current microloan beneficiary. Rose supports a number of wider family members who are often needing financial support. She wishes to become a microloan beneficiary to help purchase a car.  

Rose has started a clinic 4km from where she lives and employs two nurses who work there part-time in a rented building.  People pay to be assessed and treated, returning some profit, from which she uses to support extended family members and save some in the loan scheme.  She has already saved 2 million Ugandan shillings.  She is widely known by the local community and people often come to her home seeking care.  She now plans to start a clinic at, or near, her home and intends to do this work when she is off duty from her job at the hospital. The clinic would help to pay back the loan she wishes to obtain. A car would enable her to get to and from work more easily and to the clinic she started.

 

Musa

Musa was a driver and lost his job during the Covid pandemic. In order to survive, he started a small business in which he now buys and stores large quantities of maize and rice from local farmers and sells it on. He needed to purchase a motorbike to transport goods from farms to his business and applied for a microloan in order to do so. Business is going well, and he is considering another loan to expand his business, which currently employs three people.

The microloan programme has allowed him to find an alternative way to support himself and the family post the Covid pandemic. He is grateful he is able to support his family.

 

Joy

Joy is married to the son of Musa. Her husband is a driver and is often travelling away from home. Joy’s husband came to know about Pastor James after they got married during a time when they were finding it difficult to buy food and pay for rent for their home. They had their first child and Joy was no longer working as a hairdresser. She is expecting her second child in a few months. Her husband requested a loan through the microloan programme to purchase a plot of land. The land is being farmed by Joy, and they are no longer having to buy food. Their hope is to repay the loan, take out a second loan to purchase another plot of land and eventually build their own home instead of renting. The loan has helped them a lot and Joy is grateful they are able to grow their own food.  She is confident that their future will improve further when they are able to build their own home and not rent.   

Josephine 

Josephine is married and has four adult children. She lives in Busia with her husband. Josephine knew Gorrett and had been discussing her plans for the future, including the hope to take out a loan to open a Drug Store. Josephine had worked in a Village Health Team after being trained at a local missionary hospital. Her role was to teach in the local community to extend sanitation and hygiene practices, and deal with minor health issues. Her husband was a nursing assistant and they both had a passion to open a drug shop.  Josephine saved over 1 million Ugandan shillings before being granted the loan, and they have since opened the drug shop where people are assessed and pay for necessary treatment. The loan helped them purchase a microscope for completing diagnostic tests and they were able to purchase smaller equipment thereafter to assist with other aspects of the work. They are now expanding to include antenatal care and immunisations.  The business has been very successful, and they have been able to educate their children and grandchildren as a result. There are benefits for the community who are able to access treatment at less expense, and they may employ staff in the future.

Ideas for the Future

Microloan Programme

In all of our conversations, James and Gorret have made it clear that Covid badly affected just about everything. This has been a common theme throughout our interactions with people in Uganda. Today we were looking at the only remaining functional loan programme out of the four that were in Uganda at the start of the 2-year Covid lockdown in this country. At present, the loan programme has 30 active people in it who are vigilant. They would like to boost the number in their programme, and there is clearly a demand for further loans from people who are competent, capable, and willing to repay. Our recommendation is that the $3,000 that was allocated last year for the HIV/AIDS group, be allocated this year to the microloan group so that it can grow and expand appropriately and put behind it the effects of the Covid downturn. 

Succession Planning

We also discussed the fact that James and Gorret are looking at succession within their own family. They have identified that Solomon is the pastoral care worker for the 36-church network, a job which he is already undertaking in conjunction with James. Elizabeth is working with youth and agriculture even though she is a law student living in Kampala. Her abilities are truly astounding. Bonnke is also actively involved in the ministry and runs the finances. His wife, Resty, and Solomon's wife, Ruth, both have involvement at the vocational and skill training level.

We discussed it was appropriate for succession to be within families and did not think that this was an unusual or unrealistic thing in this situation. James was very articulate when he said that there have been times when he has looked to other friends or colleagues to start to work with him in that role and been disappointed by it.

 

Comments

It was very encouraging to meet with James and Gorret. They are both very well. James is looking extraordinarily healthy. He takes some Chinese natural medicine supplements, and he is saying that his health is very good and it was obvious. Gorret is also enjoying good health. Both of them had previously had issues with potential diabetes but are no longer, having both lost weight. Gorret herself, is still actively involved in farming and in local leadership. And James is actively looking to pass the ministry on to his children as outlined. We think this is a good thing, particularly as these people seem to be very high calibre.

In this context, it was wonderful to meet with some of the loan beneficiaries today, including the potential one.  It was also really good to travel out to the land that Elizabeth has purchased in Buhoya and have very clear evidence of a huge level of commitment and successful planning and implementation by someone who seems relentlessly positive, faith-filled, and a joy to work with.