Report from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitator

I have had a number of communications with Thomas recently. He is just about to send me an updated report following significant numbers of trainings in the refugee camps in northern Uganda. 

Recent Events

Activities

Thomas has been very active, travelling and training various people in the refugee camps in Northern Uganda and also in his local areas including Kamuli and Buvuma Island, which is one of the islands in Lake Victoria. He now uses coordinators in the refugee camps to work with him. He has coordinators in the Injumani, Oboni, Amoy, Rhino and Bidibidi camps. He took some of these coordinators with him when he did recent training which involved Foundations for Farming and trauma training. 

It is wonderful to see how effective and engaged Thomas is in this ministry. He is very clear that you need a holistic approach to trauma and healing. Therefore, he has integrated both the trauma training and healing with Foundations for Farming training. He sees that Foundations for Farming is very integral to the healing process. He also provides the groups with finances for land and seeds for planting. We have met several of the pastors who were involved in coordinating, and with whom Thomas is collaborating and training. We have reported previously on Pastor Isaiah who we met in the Foundations for Farming mini conference and training in Jinja in October 2022, and who greatly impressed us. The photos attached are of two other pastors. Pastor Andrea who lost his arm in a previous civil war in South Sudan but is a diligent and faithful farmer. The other is Pastor Moses from Rhino Camp. In Thomas’ words “Pastor Moses from Rhino is so fantastic and a good trainer. He is asthmatic and lost his church members to another leader when he was bedridden and at the point of death. He survived.” 

Thomas has trained farmers in eight districts (8 refugees camps) and also in local communities. He also did follow up visits in April. The photos are very encouraging.

Personal 

Thomas’ heart has been greatly affected by some of the people that he has encountered. He encounters refugees and others that he knows, whose faces are, in his words “disfigured with suffering.”  Refugees do not necessarily stay in the refugee camps but often leave the camp to live in towns like Koboko in northern Uganda as they are able to do that, and it lessens the stigma and trauma. However, people take advantage of their vulnerable situation. For instance, rents for land have been hiked to a very high-level now. The rent for land is now 240,000 UGX (US$64) per acre per year, which seems extremely high. Also, often refugees clear the land in preparation for planting only to then be driven off the land. There is no protection for the refugees from either the police or the Office of Prime Minister, which has a responsibility for refugees.

In Thomas's words (early May 20240, “I just could not sleep the night after the trauma healing workshop. I could not imagine the magnitude of the trauma manifested in the disfigured faces of women due to the trauma of poverty. These are refugee women struggling to survive in Koboko town which hosts refugees from Congo and Uganda. I earlier lived in Koboko between 1990- 1995 where I first pastored a church which we founded in 1990. The members I left were refugees who were vibrant but now so disfigured especially women. The reason I developed materials covering “trauma is integral missions” was to help the churches and believers appropriately handle trauma victims.” 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

Despite the difficult situation, the trainings are bearing fruit. People want to change their lives, and many people take the opportunity. Others, however, do not always respond, and it is difficult to know how to assist them. We have no idea how traumatic the life experiences of these refugees have been. All of them have lost loved ones, homes, farms and livelihoods due to war.

Thomas is also discipling the coordinators so that they are able to continue to train and follow up. He often does two-day training sessions with them and also takes the Foundations for Farming coordinators with him when he trains. The coordinators are practising and teaching too. We saw evidence of this at the mini conference in late 2022 and it is encouraging to hear that it is still continuing. 

Ideas for the Future

Thomas also has a pastor friend in Sudan (Emmanuel) who calls him regularly and is wanting to start Foundations for Farming training in Yei. This is a wonderful development which we will need to consider as matters develop, and the situation stabilises from the civil war there. Thomas says South Sudan is stabilising. He says that Yei is stable, but the villages are not. There are still lots of challenges from the rebels, but the situation is calming down. It is now safe within 5 km of Yei, but not beyond that. 

Thomas has big dreams of commercial farming and believes that commercial farming would provide the transformation to enable communities to fight hunger and poverty. He wants to be able to move from subsistence to commercial farming. However, in many years of discussion with him I have yet to see a sustainable plan from him. 

Comments from Thomas

“We have had trauma healing training at the camp and farm visits as per the support plan. Visiting the refugees' farms and the local farms in Kamuli and Buvuma Island is vital. All trainees received the seeds and refugees got support to rent land. We are grateful to BHW. I and Joyce are always working to protect and implement the vision of Bright Hope World especially as you work along with us, supporting us to change the lives of the communities involved. May the Lord graciously bless you.”