Museveni lauds Church for fighting poverty

President Museveni has commended the Church for its role in eradicating poverty. In his remarks read out by Uganda’s ambassador to New York, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, during the golden jubilee celebrations for Kampala Diocese yesterday, he appreciated the Church for their outreach programmes.

“I encourage you [the Church] to continue with such good deeds of compassion and social outreaches. I want to recognise the Church for the efforts towards the community, your acts of charity and compassion are the true example of Christianity,” President Museveni said.

The head of State further said the Church is one of the government’s “most reliable partners” in economic development and socio-economic transformation.

He urged the Church to do more projects that provide employment opportunities to the community. 
“Religious institutions have supplemented government efforts in raising people’s living standards by extending health and education services to the community and this is the positive trend that we should applaud,” President Museveni added.

The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Stephen Kaziimba, decried the challenge of street children, unemployment and poor hygiene in slums around Kampala.

“There is still a big challenge in the slums. We visited [Katanga and Kisugu], there are street children, the hygiene in these areas is poor and there is unemployment and the Church continues to make outreaches to deal with this crisis,” Archbishop Kaziimba said.

He called upon the government and all the clergy to pay attention to the transformation of slums and rescuing children from the streets, a scenario he described as a “time bomb”.

Statistics provided by the Church from a study conducted in Kisugu slums last month, shows that more than 800 youths were unemployed, 1,200 are single mothers and more than 1,700 children are not in school.

The Church, as part of the golden jubilee celebrations, launched a campaign to acquire a piece of land, plot 8, for expansion, which is estimated at Shs9.8b.

To that effect, Mr Rugunda delivered Shs100m pledged from the President as contribution towards the purchase of the said plot.

Roots

Kampala Diocese is one of the 37 constituent dioceses of the Church of Uganda. It was inaugurated on the January 16, 1972. Its seat is at Nakasero Hill (All-Saints Cathedral-Lugard Road Plot 1).  

The diocese of Kampala covers Nakasero, Mulago, Bukoto, Kamwokya, Ntinda, Kyambogo, Naguru, Kisugu, Bugolobi, Nsambya, Kiwuliriza, Luzira, and Wandegeya city suburbs.