This is part of a series of articles, here at African Christian, that profile African Churches that are working to fight poverty in Africa. We believe the hope of Africa is the local church and prayer for more leaders and churches to be raised up who will lead the way in Africa and world in showcasing how local churches and care for and alleviate local poverty.
Bugolobi Children’s Church
Bugolobi children’s church was born out of the need to cater for the physical and spiritual needs of the children in Bugolobi area of Kampala. Poverty in this area has affected many children and the interventions available are few and far apart. Poverty in Uganda is exemplified by these children who apart from not being able to go to school, are exploited and abused. Some of the children are even defiled and cases of child pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV infections are high among the children in the Bugolobi area. Without intervention, most of these children fall into the cycle of poverty and their children follow the same pattern and in the end the children of slum dwellers end up living in more deplorable conditions in the same slum and so are their children. Even with free education, most children cannot access education because of lack of other necessities that go with school enrolment such as uniform, books and sanitary items. Most children from these slum are therefore forced to work and the girls would do the cleaning, cooking and tending after their younger siblings, while boys would fetch water and assist in cleaning.
The intervention
A businessman and his wife (David Lubwama and Robinah Lubwama), who used to pass through the slum on their way to work felt they needed to intervene.
What could they do to show some love, to touch many lives in a meaningful way, to bring hope and healing? How do you identify the needs of children without meeting them? When would these children be free from some of their chores? When would parents and guardians allow them to somewhere? The intervention needed was designed to cater not only for the material well being of the young children but also for their spiritual formation and well being. The idea of the children church was born out of this need and the fact that most of these children would not have been allowed out of home due to the various chores they had to do. The children church has grown to cater for more 500 children since its inception a good number in an effort to reducing poverty in Africa.
Program and Activities
The children church used to run only on Sundays at the beginning, but there has been effort to make the program run throughout the week. The main focus of the program is educating the young children and empowering them apart from providing for them some basic needs. Some of the program activities include:-
Training on hygiene and sanitation– Children are taught how to prevent infections common in the slum area such as diarrhea, typhoid, malaria and other water borne infections. They are taught how to use latrines and wash their hands.
Teaching parents to make good homes in the slums– The social workers from the project visit the children at home and share with the parents the concerns of the children. They also assist the parents in setting up stable families despite the biting poverty in Uganda especially the slum.
Counseling and spiritual instruction– At the church, the children are divided to groups according to their ages and given Christian teachings by volunteer teachers.
Feeding– The children are provided for with meals when they visit the children’s church.
The story of the Bugolobi children church exemplifies how religious teaching can be incorporated in fighting poverty in Africa.
We’d love to hear the story of how your church is working to end poverty in your community – Make a comment below or email us your thoughts.
More information or to contact the church – CLICK HERE