Our President and CEO Wess Stafford understands both the purpose and the aspiration of the Leadership Development Program — to select the best and brightest Christian students from our Child Sponsorship Program and position them for major impact in their communities and nations.

“To overcome the plagues of our world today — poverty, disease, injustice — we need leaders who are fully equipped with a quality education, yet walk the path of Christ.”

A former Leadership Development Program student is, in fact, on track to do just that in Uganda.

Margaret Makhoha, a 2003 Leadership Development Program graduate, was recently elected as a member of the Ugandan Parliament and will serve a six-year term, representing her home district of Namayingo in the nation’s legislature.

Senator Makhoha won with 50 percent of the vote in a four-candidate race. Her campaign theme of “It is possible!” was born out of her personal experience of growing up in poverty. She saw the suffering of the women in her village and determined as a girl to someday make a difference in their lives.

Margaret’s vision is to bring services closer to the people of her rural district, where most make their living as subsistence farmers or fishermen.

“Few can understand the worsening plight of families in developing countries more than those who are rising above it,” says Wess Stafford.

“And who better to defeat these societal ills than those who have lived through it?”

The freshman legislator plans to work with the Ugandan government to improve roads, education and health services for her district.

She also is an advocate for the economic empowerment of her people, desiring to network with nongovernmental organizations to serve needy children and orphans so that they might be helped as she was through Compassion.

While she was an LDP student, Margaret received a bachelor’s degree in education from Makerere University, located in the capital city of Kampala. On her own, she later pursued a master’s degree at the same university.

Community service was a way of life before moving into politics, and Margaret served her community as Director of the Butema Child Development Center, run by the Butema Baptist Church on the rural plains west of Kampala.

Margaret stepped down from that position in order to enter the race for senator. A mother of three children, she is married to a pastor. Her strong Christian roots began in her childhood home, growing up with her pastor-father and mother.

The now Senator Makhoha sees challenges ahead for Uganda, including insufficient and poor quality social services. But she looks forward to the work with optimism.

She joins her colleagues next month, when the newly elected class of legislators will be sworn in.

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Joanita Nannyunja completed a bachelor of science degree in agriculture at Makerere University in Kampala. Makerere University is Uganda’s oldest and most prestigious institute of higher learning.

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Kenneth Kataryeba

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Despite this impressive reduction in the spread of AIDS in Uganda (from 30 percent in the 1980s to 6.5 percent to date), AIDS is still infecting and killing many Ugandans. Uganda’s HIV prevalence rate has stagnated over the past four years, meaning that the country is not managing to reduce the number of new HIV infections.

Damalie Andabati, the health specialist in our Uganda Country Office, says,

“Currently 6.3 percent of Uganda’s population is infected with HIV, and a new issue that has been discovered by the Uganda Virus Research Institute is that 66 percent of the new infections are among married couples.”

The reason for the high percentage in this unexpected group is not yet certain.

It is feared that HIV prevalence in Uganda may be rising again. It has been suggested that antiretroviral drugs have changed the perception of AIDS from a death sentence to a treatable disease. This perception may have reduced the fear surrounding HIV.

As part of our holistic outcomes around health, voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV is part of the regular health screenings conducted for the parents and children at the child development centers.

Kansanga Child Development Center carried out a VCT session back in March and 233 caregivers and children were tested, which is one of the best success stories of beneficiaries being tested for HIV by Compassion Uganda.

Kansanga, a red-light district of Kampala, is a community in the slum areas, and the child development center is located one kilometer away. Much effort has been put in clearing this district of prostitution and raising awareness about preventing HIV. Many fear being seen going for the test or seeing the results they will receive from the test.

More than 60 percent of Uganda’s population is illiterate and ignorant, and others are even too poor to own radios from which they would hear information on where to go for testing. Our church partner staff, and government officials, are hopeful for the future — that with tireless effort in community training and sensitization this figure will be adjusted.

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