One of our
members, Kate Potter, is a trustee of a small charity “African International
Christian Ministry (AICM).” This is the charity on which St Paul’s will be
focusing its thoughts and prayers this month. At Sunday Morning’s Service, Kate
introduced its work to the congregation. It is based on the small provincial
town of Kabale, in the south-west corner of Uganda, close to the borders with
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It works among
the Batwa, the Pygmy people (which are found in all those countries and in Burundi). The Batwa tend to be isolated from society by the other ethnic groups and scorned by
them. They tend to have had few opportunities for education, are very poor and
suffer from ill-health. Their plight has been made worse in Uganda as the
government has removed them from many of their traditional locations, to make
way for the tourism associated with the mountain gorillas in the Forest of the
National Park.
AICM has been
involved in development and education work with the Batwa, but unfortunately
severe storms have badly damaged many of the schools.
Let’s pray and
give for this work, which would have so delighted Jesus, as expressed his
concern for the poor.
