Please pray for Ugandans’ desperate needs during coronavirus pandemic

My friend Nancy Lee Cardoza just posted this urgent need for Ugandans impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Nancy is the founder and manager of Northern Uganda Women and Children Support Initiative (NUWCSI) and, together with God, has done marvelous things to help an impoverished community near Gulu, Uganda, through quilting and a honey business.

Nancy writes:

Uganda is now on a mandatory lockdown for 14 days. No transportation is allowed at all, not even in a private car. If someone has a medical emergency, he will need the approval of a local government official to travel. So no buses, no boda-bodas, no taxis, no private vehicles. We are still wondering if bicycles are okay.

The idea of not using my car for 14 days is killing me. I had already made the decision to stop the women's quilting meetings and today we closed the Honey Centre for an indefinite period of time. I was hoping to travel out to our property during this time, where we will build the training centre, and to start clearing the land. However, now I can’t do that by car so this may be the time to pump air into the tires on my bike and ride the 15k or so to the site. My body could definitely use it. Oh, but I'm feeling the pain of it already!

Fortunately, I was recently in Kampala and picked up supplies in anticipation of this shut-down. I have enough rice, beans and canned tuna to sustain me nicely. I even had the foresight to fill my extra propane tank today so I wouldn't run out of cooking fuel. I have no refrigeration, so dry and can goods only.

Unfortunately, my Ugandan neighbours may not fare as well. It's the beginning of the planting season so they will have no crops to harvest. Many live day to day. [Clarification from Linda Thomas: That means each person needs to work every day to earn enough money to buy food for their families that night, which might be something like beans and rice.] Closing shops and stopping transport of boda-bodas and taxis is going to be devastating. There is no such thing as unemployment [compensation] in Uganda. My heart goes out to them.

My main concern is for the women in my quilting group.

How are they going to access the hospitals in Gulu town

if there is no transport?

How are they to get needed medicine?

How are they to get food supplies?

There are no supermarkets in the village.

I can't even travel out there now to check on them or bring supplies.

Currently, there are about 37 cases of Covid-19 and no deaths reported. Please pray that this number stays low and that life here can resume as normal. God is in control!

James Donovan writes: “What the Ugandan government spends on health care is one of the lowest in the world. The World Bank estimated its per capita spending on health at 6% of its gross domestic product, one-third that of the United States. Because of this chronic underfunding of the health system, Uganda has just 55 intensive care beds for its more than 42 million people.

“Of these, 20 have no ventilatory capacity and only one-third are part of the public health system.

“And these beds can be found only in the regional and national referral hospitals, located in major urban hubs.” (Click here to read the rest of the article.)

Friends, Nancy’s post cries out this message: Their situation is urgent. The citizens of Uganda are going to be desperate for their food and usual medical needs, besides the coronavirus’s impact. Please pray! Check out the Facebook Page for NUWOCSI.

About NUWOCSI:

NUWOCSI is operating a project in the village of Tegot-atoo in Gulu District in northern Uganda. This village, located about 20 kilometers from the town of Gulu, was once the location of an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp during the insurgency/war with rebel leader, Joseph Kony, and the Lord’s Resistance rebel army and, in 2008, became a resettlement area.

The objective and primary purpose of the NUWOCSI project is to provide marketable skills and income-producing activities for impoverished women of this village. One of the founders of NUWOCSI, Nancy Lee Cardoza has been working with more than 60 women, training them in the art of quilt-making and in basic sewing skills since 2011.

The beautiful, hard-working ladies at NUWCSI

Urgent prayer for Kenyans during the coronavirus pandemic

In the madness surrounding the spread of coronavirus, Kenyans are being told to stay home.

That’s not a new thought for North Americans. For some businesses and employees, this is financially devastating.

But for many millions of Africans, the stay-at-home order has a more catastrophic impact than it does on most of us.

What many North Americans probably don’t understand is this: Millions of Kenyans need to earn a small wage each day so they can buy the most basic of food (like beans and rice) for the family dinner each night.

Kenya’s Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe finds words for the agonizing obvious:

“But how can we stay at home when you need food . . .?

That’s the question we all ask ourselves.

How can you stay?

[If we don’t have food]

. . . this . . . pandemic [is] going to kill all of us.

How can you stay home when there is no food?”

It breaks my heart to think of them going hungry.

It was not uncommon for any number of Kenyans I knew—

moms, dads, kids, and grandparents—

to go without food for a few days

if they needed to pay for medicine

or if they had to pay for their children’s school fees.

But we all know this:

No one can do without food for the duration of this pandemic.

Please join me in praying for Africa’s millions of dear people

who are experiencing the desperate ramifications of the coronavirus.

At a time like this, I recognize yet again

how important it is for people to have Bibles

in their own language, their “mother tongue,”

the language in which they express their love,

the language in which they sing lullabies to their children,

the only language in which they can really understand God

and communicate with him intimately.

Knowing that,

I’m thankful God gave me an opportunity to support the work of

Bible translation

in both South America and Africa

with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Let’s pray Africans and all people around the world can find peace and hope in the following:

Do not be anxious about anything, but pray and ask God for what you need, always giving thanks. Philippians 4:6

Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background

Place all your worries and cares into God’s hands because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

Don’t worry, because I am with you. Don’t be afraid, because I am your God. Isaiah 41:10

I leave you the gift of peace, the peace of mind and heart, the kind of peace you can’t get from the world. Don’t be stressed and afraid. John 14:27

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

Click here to read World Vision’s glorious “Prayers for people affected by the new coronavirus.” It will bless and inspire you.

Click on the following links for more information about coronavirus in Kenya from VOA’s Mohammed Yusuf:

“Crowded Slums Pose Challenge as KenyaBraces for Coronavirus” 

“Kenya’s Ebola Workers Enlisted to Fight Coronavirus”

Please pray for Kenyans during coronavirus outbreaks

Please pray for our Kenyan friends during the world’s coronavirus pandemic. Below you'll see a picture of our dear co-worker Elizabeth (far left), her sister Agnes (next to her), and other relatives and friends at their home in 2001.

Please pray for Elizabeth’s two daughters and their families as well.

I thank God that we can keep in touch with them on Facebook! At the same time, I wish I knew how to find other Kenyan friends.

Covid-19 has spread across the continent, hitting other nations besides Kenya. Please keep them in your prayers, too.

Click on this link to read more about Kenya’s situation: “45 under virus watch as medics track patient’s last contacts,” and on this link to read “Counties scramble to set up isolation wards for Covid-19.”

Thanks for praying. 

Our friends have great faith in God. 

May He comfort them, protect them, 

and provide all they need.

African adventure: using a choo

I moseyed over to check out the choo (rhymes with go) closest to our tent. It consisted of nothing more than a yellow tarp around a hole in the ground.

A yellow tarp around a hole in the ground!

Our choo (pit latrine)

Dave and I had just arrived in Eleng’ata Enterit for phase two of Kenya Safari, our orientation to living and working in Africa. On that first afternoon, under massive fig trees alongside a stream in a desert, we had scurried to clear a space and set up our tent.

While we did that, Brian, our orientation director, assigned several men to dig holes to serve as two outhouses—but no, they would not turn out to be outhouses. They were those dreaded pit latrines.

So far on Kenya Safari, I had found ways to avoid using pit latrines, but now—now I was doomed. That choo was my only option.

How could I ever use such a toilet? At my age! Day by day I grew closer to—er . . . day by day my husband grew closer to carrying an AARP card in his wallet.

Someone my age

should not have to squat over a pit latrine—a choo—

and fumble with a bulky skirt and a roll of toilet tissue

(and sometimes a torch—a flashlight—

which would prove to be prone to falling into that pit),

all while watching for scorpions!

And I would have to use that choo for six weeks!

Six weeks!

I hurried back to our tent and rifled through my backpack to find my one little chocolate bar. This situation required a chocolate fix!

Dear Joy outside the choo

Jesus said that even before we ask, God knows our need (Matthew 6:8). In this case, He answered on the spot through one of our fellow campers, Joy.

She cut a circle out of the bottom of a red plastic basin and turned it upside down over the hole. It was only about six inches high, but it helped! Oh, yes, it helped! God bless her!

That’s Joy in the picture, standing outside the choo. All these years later, I’m still so thankful for the little red plastic potty seat Joy crafted.

Praise for Grandma’s Letters from Africa from President/CEO of Wycliffe USA, Bob Creson: “Grandma’s Letters from Africa is an engaging, memorable account of Linda’s years in Africa. It was a privilege for me to read over the shoulders of her granddaughters as Linda tells her story through a series of letters. Through both laughter and tears, she learns to balance her roles as missionary, wife, mother, and grandmother. In the process, Linda falls in love with Africa, its people, and her work. Readers will be moved by this compelling story that reveals God’s heart and extraordinary grace.”

You can buy Grandma’s Letters from Africa from your local independent bookseller or online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online distributors.