Worship with Hope, Grow with Love,
and Serve with a Passion for Justice.

Mission Spotlight: Kyamagwa Sanitation & Hygiene Improvement

By Mike Puckett, Mission Support Ministry Team Chair

One of our local, longtime mission partners, WaterStep, shares many alarming global facts about water safety on their website:
• 1 in 10 people do not have access to safe water. That’s 663 million people–twice the population of the US
• Women and children spend 200 million hours each day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources
• 1400 children die every day (one every 60 seconds) from diarrheal diseases linked to the lack of safe water and adequate sanitation and hygiene

Henry Batwaula is all too familiar with these facts, after spending his entire 40 year professional career in public health in and around Jinja, Uganda. Henry is the father of Beargrass deacon Henry Nabeta, who along with wife Vivian (also a deacon) and their 3 children, have been vibrant members of Beargrass for many years now.

Uganda is a poor country in east-central Africa, with a young and fast growing population. The majority of its 40 million people reside in rural areas, where more than 65% report a lack of proper sanitation facilities. The national government devotes just 5% of its annual budget to healthcare, with rural areas the most severely affected. Life expectancy in Uganda is only 54 years of age. So, after Batwaula retired from  public service in 2019, he began the non-profit Kyamagwa a year later to do God’s work in this environment. Kyamagwa has no employees, with all its efforts coming from volunteers like Henry and other members at St. James Church of Uganda, where he and wife Prossy worship and serve.

“The Beargrass Mission Support Team was humbled and honored by a recent invitation to participate financially in a project Batwaula has earmarked for the rural community of Muguluka, some miles north of Jinja.”

A public market exists there featuring 80 vendors, and is visited daily by 450 customers shopping for food and other essentials. Yet, it has no existing water source and just a 2 stance latrine. Henry’s grant request was for $14,610, with ⅓ of that needed to drill down into the water table; and the remainder sufficient to buy materials and construct at least 4 more latrine stances. The project will allow for the availability of water for the village, while also facilitating hand washing and latrine cleaning. When the six-month construction is complete, the facility and its ongoing maintenance will be handed over to the market leadership and the village health team. The Beargrass team was exuberant and unanimous in its decision to fund 100% of the request. While the funding exceeds our original 2024 budget, it was made possible by a recent $15,000 bequest from the will of an anonymous donor! As Jesus tells us in Matthew 19: 26, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”.

For decades Beargrass has been a faithful, financial supporter of over 70 Disciples global ministries. And, we have funded many adult and youth international mission trips. But, it will be our first endeavor in directly providing financing for the well-being of God’s children in east Africa–some 7,800 miles away! We give thanks for so much—for the people of Uganda; for the lives, faith, and service of Henry and Prossy, as well as Henry, Vivian, and their children; for this opportunity to extend our reach so dramatically; and, for this faithful and generous congregation and your willingness to “serve with a passion for justice”.

The Mission Support Team invites you to take a look at our grant application, listed under the Serve portal on the Beargrass website. Dr. Flowers has challenged us all to consider how we might continue our upward trajectory to make a difference in God’s Kingdom.

About the Mission Support Ministry Team:
Oversees Beargrass’ annual budgetary support for mission partners, outreach efforts, and educational assistance for its members. This includes outreach projects, grant applications, selecting scholarship recipients, overseeing the Alternative Giving Fair, Beyond the Walls Endowment Fund earnings, and engaging our congregation in service work.

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