Ministry Zone

LOCATION & HISTORY
Uganda is a country populated with beautiful people. It is also a country saturated in color and a variety of landscapes that have stirred inspiration in travelers and residents for eons. The Nile River, a source of wonder for thousands of years, receives most of its valuable supply water from Lake Victoria, and passes through nine different countries on its north to south journey: Tanzania, Kenya, Zaire, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, the Sudan, and finally Egypt. Despite its physical beauty, Uganda is still a country of great need, with many orphans, street children, and areas of extreme poverty.

Kampala, Capital of Uganda
Lying along the equator, most of Uganda consists of a fertile plateau. The western part of Uganda contains a branch of the Great Rift Valley, while the south includes Lake Victoria. There are several mountain ranges in both the east and the north. The majority of Uganda has a tropical climate, generally rainy, yet it has two dry seasons. The northeast has a semi-arid climate.

The Republic of Uganda is a country in east central Africa.

Population: 28,800,000
Life expectancy: 53 years (1 in 12 Ugandans is an orphan)
Income: 85% make less than 60,000 shillings ($34.00) per month
Geography: Landlocked nation of 91,000square miles (about the size of Oregon)
Neighbors: North - Sudan; East - Kenya; South, Tanzania, Rwanda; West - Congo
Language: English is the official language with a significant number of native Swahili dialects spoken
Religion: Protestants 33%; Roman Catholic 33%; Indigenous 19%; Muslim 15%
Census highlights:
97% of households use firewood
92% do not have electricity
48% of households have a radio
49% rely on word of mouth as main source of information
17% have no access to toilet facilities
56% are children below 18 years
12% live in urban areas
77% engage in agriculture
1.8 million orphans have lost at least one parent
75% use kerosene candles (tadooba) as main source of flight
4.5% have a TV set
77.4% still live on rammed earth floors though a majority have iron roofs
Gender ratio: 95 males to 100 females
Average household size: 4.7 persons
One in every 25 persons has a disability
Literacy rate: 68%

Uganda is becoming a Christian nation in the heart of an Islamic continent. The economy is improving, but Uganda remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Although God is awakening the church to action, poverty is still rampant in Uganda, and lack of governmental funds to assist the unemployed perpetuates the cycle of poverty.

There are roughly 200,000 refugees from Sudan living in Uganda, and 1.2 million IDP's (internally displace persons) living in northern and eastern Uganda.

LRA (Lord's Resistance Army)

From 1986 to 2008, the LRA was in conflict with the Ugandan government and had inflicted brutal violence on the population, especially in northern Uganda. Its military campaign mainly consisted of attacks on the civilian population -raping, mutilating, slaughtering, and abducting, raiding villages, looting stores and homes, burning houses and schools. Although the LRA does not threaten the stability of the government, violence has displaced 1.6 million people who now live in 249 IUP camps. Deprived of their means of livelihood, once proud farmers and their families are now dependent entirely on the food they receive in camps for internally displaced persons. Many people have little or no access to proper medical care. Ugandan troops are unable to protect these refugees and internally displace persons in camps that continue to be terrorized by the LRA.

The LRA is believed to have abducted over 30,000 children since 1986. Education has obviously been disrupted as many of the children do not sleep at home for fear of being abducted. Instead, they walk for miles at the end of each day from their villages to the relative safety of towns, where they spend each night in public buildings and stabled Children Centres. These children are known as “Night Commuters”.

AIDS
Ten percent of the world's people live in Africa, yet that continent is home to 90 percent of the world's HIV-infected children. In 2007, estimates report that over 470,000 children now living in the countries south of the Sahara will die from AIDS. Of every 100 children born to HIV-positive mothers, approximately 33 will be born with the virus. Most of these children will not live to see their 5th birthday. Tragically these children carry this silent killer because of a parent's actions. Children with AIDS suffer on many levels, often having to drop out of school to care for a dying parent, or to care and provide for younger siblings. In some cases orphans have no choice but to form child-led household where older children raise their younger brother and sisters. These household are among the most economically vulnerable in Africa, and such conditions take away any hope for a good education for the children. AIDS has taken a huge toll in the social fabric of Uganda's society. Although the number of new HIV infections has actually declined, the expectation is that the death toll from AIDS will continue to rise for the next couple of years before leveling off. Almost every family living in Uganda has been affected by the scourge of AIDS which has left tens of thousands of parentless children in its wake.

WORMS
The eggs of parasitic worms are ingested into children and adults from the food they eat. These eggs “hatch” and grow in the host's stomach into worms as much as six inches long. If the worms live long enough in the intestines, they can grow large enough to start sucking blood from the host child. Children often die from the effects of such infestation.

HEALTH
General health is compromised by a continual lack of clean water, poor hygiene, unsanitary food storage and preparation, malnutrition, lack of pre-natal care, lack of antibiotics, and general disease prevention.

VACCINES
Immunizations against common childhood diseases are virtually non-existant.

MALARIA
Malaria is a major health problem in Uganda affecting infants, children and adults. A pregnant woman is susceptible to the loss of child if she becomes infected with the disease. A simple insecticide treated mosquito net reduces the risk of contracting this often deadly disease.