Stars Ministries Uganda
Between 2007- 9, I was blessed to go to the USA, particularly to Wheaton College in Illinois, Chicago, with my husband Nicholas, under the Billy graham scholarship. While my husband went to school there, I volunteered with Wheaton college church, which had a Disability ministry. Every Sunday morning I would go and be one of the class supporters for people with disabilitie
s (PWDs). From there I got to meet a wonderful lady who again introduced me to the Joni and friends ministry. I got to experience something I had never seen: seeing many people with special need being cared for, loved and involved in society. It made me wonder where such people would be hiding back home in Uganda. TO MY RETURN HOME. I started with a survey and to my surprise, Uganda had many PWDs and they were actually in my neighborhood. I had come back with a desire of seeing church and society reach out to the Special needs people like I had seen it happen in the USA. I tried starting it at my previous church and the idea was did not work. So I kept looking for different ways of starting. I prayed and looked for people who would support me. I was passionate and ready to run, meanwhile, God transitioned us into another church once I got my pastor’s go ahead, Just like a woman in labor, I gave birth and went out believing God for the unknown to happen. While doing home visits to identify if people with special needs are in our community, I was overwhelmed. I learnt that parents with special needs children have a lot of support needs, ranging from being carried to every place, to the negative attitude that people have towards people with special needs. Parents or caretakers also need a lot of help, especially the single mums need to fend for all their children. So they either lock up the special needs children in a room or leave them out side until evening when they get back from work. Worse still, when it rains, they are socked and showed in mud, eating in very dirty places. Elderly parents also need help to carry, wash and bath their special needs children. Our pastor gave us a Sunday to create awareness about the PWDs in church. During this Sunday we invited one of a successful special needs person (Francis and Adrian Mugwanya) who talked to the congregation about the way God created the PWDs and loves them equally. We have so far made several home visits and have also managed to get wheel chairs to 9 of the people with special needs. My desire is to see society embrace the PWDs and help them get a dignified life. We want to model PWD’s acceptance for the community, church and family members. It’s also important to consider that having a special need does not give one a free ticket to heaven as Christ’s follower. So it is the role of the church and the community to nurture and model the PWDs into becoming Christ-like. Thank God, we started ministering to them. Every time one steps out of their comfort zone, challenges arise. In this case one of the immediate challenge is transport. It is hard to push a wheel chair from their homes to church and back. The plan is that we get a van every Sunday morning that would pick and drop them with there wheel chairs. Hiring is very expensive and sometimes not reliable, so our prayer is that God will provide a car. At the moment those who come to church sit together with the other children in the children’s church but as we go forward, we pray that we will have a special class for them. A class that will address their learning and interaction needs. Next, we dream of a day care center where very vulnerable Special needs people will be brought in from morning to evening. Taken care of, have a clean place to stay, a meal and a loving community, and then in the evening be taken home to their parents. We do this with hope that parents and the community will be able to see the difference in these children. This will also give the parents time to work without worrying about their children, as well as starting to love and care about them the same way we do. Parents who can afford to be with there children will benefit from the counseling services that will be provided still at the center, from support groups that will be formed and a physical therapist that comes in every week. Giving Platforms:
Cash, cheques or electronic transfers can be received at Housing Finance Bank, Kampala Road. Account name: Stars Ministries Uganda
Account number: 0100565718
Online giving through our ministry Partners: Faith and Learning International, follow the electronic giving link; https://www.egsnetwork.com/gift2/?giftid=CADA3D4F7EA0485
Mobile Money donations may be made to +256782012028
