ACT Uganda Blog

Generous: A special year! It was September 2006 when we received Sue and John in our country. It was their first time to visit Uganda. They had mobilised funds to purchase an ambulance (Toyota Hiace Van) for the Ikamiro Bataka Lifeline Society, an association in one of the villages of Muko Sub County (Ikamiro Village) They had sent the money ahead of their trip to Chipper Adams (Chipper is an ex-pat American who grew up in Sub Saharan Africa with missionary parents). A day after their arrival, we headed to Chipper's home in Kampala to collect the ambulance and were excited to drive it to Muko and deliver it to the Ikamiro Bataka Lifeline! The Ambulance Chipper Adams suggested we take Christopher Nsereko, one of his most trusted drivers, who drove us well but on reaching Masaka (about 2 hours from Kampala), the vehicle broke down. We were all safe. This challenge caused us to sleep over in one of the hotels in Masaka Town while the car was in the garage to be fixed. (We consider Chr...

Generous, Richard, Jesse in the early years of ACT  (Jesse is 19 now)      (Generous) It was April 22, 2003 when my husband Richard and I sat down to write letters seeking for people with expertise in writing strategic plans. The purpose was for us to learn how to plan for projects that could help our community, especially the sick. How do we get them transported from their village homes to hospitals for treatment? Means of transport was a big challenge by then, causing patients to die in the hand-carried stretcher before reaching the hospitals.  Richard and I wrote a number of letters, all handwritten. We sent them to different people in different countries that we had found by searching online while we visited the British Council and American Embassy Resource Centres in Kampala. We waited on responses and by God's grace only one person out of many responded - Sue Waechter, Midland, Michigan. This was a miracle to us. Somehow, Sue felt called to respond. Sue la...

Happy Friday all! Our ACT MUSIC students enjoyed a special visit on April 8th, 2023 from a saxophone quartet coming all the way from Sweden. More cultural sharing which is part of ACT's vision. Job Ivan Tezigatwa, who brought the quartet to Muko, is a composer, arranger and conductor from Uganda. He had heard the ACT MUSIC students in 2022 and helped facilitate this workshop. The students learned about the saxophone and heard it played by professionals. All musicians played together, each teaching the others how to join together with their prepared music. Job Ivan arranged two pieces, "Bagatelle Variations by Anton Diabelli and "Beethoven is a Mukiga" from Beethoven's "Fur Elise" for saxophone quartet and string orchestra. (Mukiga is the reference to a single member of the Bakiga Tribe which are the people of Muko).  The string students were taught by their two student leaders, Brave Ainmaani and Norbert Ahariza, and the students were easily able to fit...

 

What will ACT's legacy be in Muko Sub County and the US?  In Uganda: we know for sure many things have been accomplished over the last 20 years and to list them all here would exceed the wording for this blog. A few examples are: nearly every farmer in Muko Sub County has been trained in perma-gardening and how to grow iron-rich beans; hundreds of kids have attended school because of devoted sponsorships - some have gone on for vocational education; some academically gifted students have obtained university degrees;  the students and community have benefitted from the celebration of music, both Western and Ugandan music;  thousands of community members have learned public health methods for better sanitation, decreasing domestic violence, education about alcohol; students in schools and church congregations have watched many dramas about different topics to enrich their lives; more than fifty artisans have made and sold their handcrafts to ACT;  the whole community h...

Joan Rukundo (pronounced joe ahn  roo koon dough), is one of ACT's HONOR Scholarship beneficiaries. Joan is a double orphan, last-born, from a humble family of five children. Joan's father died when she was 3 years old and her Mom died when she was 13 years and in Senior 1 (8th grade).  From then she began living a miserable life living alone in her parent's house because all her siblings had gotten married.  Joan is a clever and hard-working young woman. She concentrated on her books to make sure that she met her earlier academic bursaries (scholarships) which is the only way she could attend school. Joan was remained in the Girl's Dorm one break with two other girls. She did not want to go home and be pressured by her family to get married. She wanted to study!  It was fortunate that ACT introduced a scholarship program at Muko High School called the ACT Empowerment Scholarship and Joan qualified for the scholarship. She is proud of that.  In 2021, ACT transi...

"May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall softly upon your fields, And, until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of God's hands." A wonderful, well-known, oft-spoken Irish prayer on this St. Patrick's Day - March 17th, 2023.  The meaning of this sentiment in Irish tradition is  that the "wind' represents the breath of the Holy Spirit, that the sun and rains represent love and appreciation for nature and the environment. This week brought the rains to Muko in order to begin another planting season. In Uganda, they do not describe summer, fall, winter, spring but rainy and dry seasons. We in the US, complain and exclaim much about the weather day-to-day but in Uganda, it represents whether the farmers will be able to grow the food for their family's survival.  The Muko residents work hard to plant, maintain and harvest their plots of land with basically one tool - a lo...