BWA Assists T DROUGHT STRICKEN UGANDA

he Baptist World Alliance provided emergency asistance to a drought-stricken region of the East African country of Uganda in late 2015.

At least 640,000 people in Uganda’s northeastern Karamoja

region, more than half its population, faced food shortages as a result of a drought-affected harvest. Severe dry weather led to food and water shortages, wildfires,

siltation, soil erosion and an increase in pests and diseases that caused devastating loss to farmers. “Severe conditions of hunger, starvation and malnutrition have surfaced among the children and the elderly in the affected families,” the project request to the BWA declared. “Families are going for days without food while others are on the brink of death. . . . The worst hit districts are Moroto, Napak, Kabong and Abim.”

In early January, approxinatley 3,000 people received BWA assitance in Napak and Moroto. The project, funded by Baptist World Aid with an initial sum of US$20,000, was a collaboration of the Uganda Baptist Convention and two faith-based NGOs, Hope Focus Ministries, led by former general secretary of the Baptist Union of Uganda, Geoffrey Mayimba;

and African Church Empowerment

Ministries, headed by BWA Vice President Michael Okwakol. The problems of 2015 have spilled over into the new year. In

late January, weather experts predicted a continuation of the hot and dry weather conditions in most parts of Uganda. “The predicted El Niño rains that were expected to last until February ended in December,” Okwakol reported. “Crops planted in expectation of the rains failed and the drought still continues.”

Food aid distributed by Baptists in

Moroto, Uganda