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