GIVE A GOAT – MI DYEL ACEL!

Uganda has been hostage to the lockdown for 95 days, which President Museveni himself called "95 days of war". The situation is practically this: it is impossible to enter or leave the country, the borders are closed, except for the transport of goods essential to the survival of the population. From 7 p.m. to 6.30 a.m. you have to respect the curfew and stay indoors. The boda boda, the motorcycle taxi, are forbidden to transport people, although this is often the only means available to reach certain villages lost in the savannah. Finally, schools and places of worship remain closed until a date.

Fortunately, the infection situation is improving. The numbers are derisory compared to what we are used to in the West. Of the 774 positives recorded a few days ago (compared to over 170,000 tests), 631 have already recovered and none have died. And they are realistic numbers, which are confirmed to us by our friends in the various missionary hospitals. But according to Museveni: "Uganda is entering a more dangerous phase". This only foreshadows how much longer the lockdown could last.

Meanwhile, people in Northern Uganda, deprived of the possibility of occasional work, have been suffering from hunger for months. Sister Maria, going to visit her children in the villages, found whole families with scabies: you can barely eat, there is certainly no money for soap!

People deprived of transport can't even get to hospitals to get treatment or to give birth. The president's response to people's hunger cries is that "the biggest issue is life or death, not business, jobs or convenience. But is it really the health of the population, in the broad meaning of the term, that has priority?

As Wecare we have been asking ourselves a lot in these months about what was best to do, about how we could really make our closeness to the people of Northern Uganda, affected by yet another misfortune.

We immediately chose to support Sister Maria, who was busy distributing food to the families of her HIV-positive children. Every day, the ambulance left loaded with rice, wheat, beans, cooking oil, salt, sugar, peanut butter, dried fish and soap, to give some relief to the poorest.

Then we heard that the price of farmyard animals had collapsed, so we thought we would buy some and ask her to give these families chickens, goats and piglets. In a society so linked to agriculture and pastoralism, this was the best way to help the poorest.

For our scholarship guys, on the other hand, we wanted to think a little more out of the box. Three years ago, we chose 14 kids, not only to pay their school fees, but to make a little bit of a road with them in this life. We don't want them to feel like beneficiaries of alms, we want them to grow up, from an educational and human point of view. That is why we invented the project "GIVE A GOAT" for them, or in Lango language "MI DYEL ACEL"! Each student received a goat and signed a contract, which sanctioned the transfer of ownership, but also the commitment to make us a goat, which will be given to Sister Maria in December, so that she can give it to her most fragile children.

Thanks to the generosity of some of our benefactors, we have been able to expand the project, buying 6 more goats - and 6 more we will buy soon - and entrusting them to small families who find themselves momentarily without the possibility of work. We have also asked them to give back a goat for the HIV-positive children.

Because if it is good to receive help when one is in need, it is even better to be able to help and feed a chain of goodness and generosity!

For now, from Uganda is everything.

Apwoyo Matek to all of you, dear friends and benefactors of Wecare!

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