Uganda Statistics (source UNAIDS/UNICEF 2020)

• Located in East Africa on the equator
• About half the size of California
• Population is 48.4 million with 3.2% annual growth rate
• 49% of population below the age of 15
• Life expectancy is 58.7 years of age
• 5.4% of Uganda’s population has HIV
• 50,000 new AIDS infections in 2017 with estimated 340,000 per year by 2025
• 22,000 AIDS related deaths in 2020
• 900,000 orphans due to AIDS in 2020
• English is the official language of Uganda

Uganda was a British Protectorate from 1894 until 1962, their year of independence. Since then, they have weathered many violent dictators, including the notorious Idi Amin. Today, Uganda is experiencing peace under their current president, but the effects from decades of war and now the AIDS epidemic have devastated their economy and their lives. Despite this cloudy outlook, the Ugandan people have persevered. They are a beautiful people full of faith and love, and are very friendly to their international visitors. Uganda is called the “Pearl” of Africa because it is green and lush year round. There are modern cities, schools, and hospitals, but many of the remote villages are quite primitive. Ugandans dress in colorful clothing, and as one visitor noted, even with all the dirt roads they somehow keep their clothes bright and clean.

The village of Buwenge (where Omega School is located) is about 10 miles north of the city of Jinja which on the bank of Lake Victoria and the source of the great Nile River. Jinja is 44 miles east of the capital of Kampala.

For more information about visiting Uganda visit our “Mission Opportunities” page or contact Pastor Fred Tumwebaze at: fred@rescueafricanchildren.org 

 They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Matthew 25:44-45