OUR MINISTRY AND FOUNDATION BEGINS

THE MBUYU FOUNDATION

WELL ITS TIME TO SHARE SOME IMPORTANT NEWS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T BEEN KEEPING UP TO DATE WITH OUR PLANS FOR THIS YEAR.

ROB AND I HAVE NOW OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED OUR MINISTRY AND GOD GAVE US A NAME.

THE MBUYU FOUNDATION.

MBUYU IS A SWAHILI WORD AND I GUESS IN OUR ENGLISH IN THE WEST WE PRONOUNCE IT LIKE MBOOYOU.

OUR FLYER HOLDS A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF WHY WE CHOSE THIS NAME AND WHAT OUR GOALS ARE IN THIS COMING SEASON.

AS MANY OF YOU WILL KNOW OUR DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE AND OUR DESIRE TO BRING CHANGE IN UGANDA AND AROUND THE WORLD MEANS OUR DREAMS ARE HUGE.....

SO WE HAVE NARROWED IT DOWN TO TWO MAIN FOCUS'S FOR THIS COMING YEAR.

BEGINNING OUR HOME FOR STREET CHILDREN AND ABANDONED BABIES AND OUR KIMONO MATERNAL MEDICAL CAMPS.

OUR WEBSITE AND OFFICIAL LOGO ARE CURRENTLY BEING WORKED ON BY SOME WONDERFUL FRIENDS.

YOU CAN SEE SOME OF THE INFO THAT IS INCLUDED IN OUR RECENT BROCHURE BELOW.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN BECOMING A PRAYER PARTNER OR SIGNING UP TO OUR QUARTERLY NEWSLETTERS PLEASE EMAIL US AT

thembuyufoundation@gmail.com or contact us and we will add you to our email list.

We will be updating our blog regularly in the days ahead as we return to Uganda to start from scratch again and purchase the land to start our childrens home and as we obtain all the necessary things to begin our free surgical camps for women.

We ask for your prayers as we embark on this big dream... it is a big dream... not only will it cost a lot financially but emotionally and physically.
But we know it is where God wants us and we are determined to see lives changed and know He will provide all we need to accomplish this task.

DID YOU KNOW?

Uganda is known as the Pearl of Africa after Winston Churchill named it this because of its spectacular beauty and landscapes.

Uganda holds the beauty of all of Africa in one small country.

It has beautiful freshwater lakes, breathtaking scenery and delightful animals. It is one of the only places you can still see Gorillas in the wild.

Its greatest asset though is its people and culture.

 But although it is a place of great beauty

 there is great suffering and sadly this is what we usually here about.

OUR DREAM IS THAT ONE DAY - UGANDA WILL ONLY BE KNOWN FOR ITS BEAUTY - AND NOT FOR ITS SUFFERING.

To ensure this there are some major injustices that need to be eradicated.

1 in every 150 women still die in childbirth

That’s approx  16 women every day

Or 1 women every 90 minutes.

6 out of every 10 women will suffer life long complications from pregnancy that leads to spousal abandonment, social isolation and rejection - which means they usually end up on the street with their children.

There are approximately 2.2 million orphans in Uganda with this number rising and many of them ending up on the streets.

WHY THE NAME MBUYU?

Mbuyu is the Swahili word for

baobab tree.

The baobab tree Is only found in

Africa and Australia.

It is known as the TREE OF LIFE due to the fact that water can be stored in its trunk.

Its leaves have medicinal values and its fruit is seen as a super food.

It creates great shade and has strong roots.

They can grow to be so big that houses have been built in the trunks.

We want our ministry to be a place where people find shade, where they find  life, where they find healing, where they can develop deep roots, just as the baobab tree has.

We feel lead to this from a bible verse

found in Revelation 22;2

The verse talks about the tree of life  having healing in its leaves and bringing life and

healing to the nations

WHAT ARE WE ABOUT?

We have huge dreams and goals for the years ahead-

but our main focus to start with will be maternal health and the welfare and plight of the orphan and abandoned child.

Below is our first projects that we will be focusing on over the coming years

CHILDRENS HOME FOR STREET KIDS  and ABANDONED BABIES

We plan to do this through the purchasing of land and the building of a children’s home for

abandoned and street children.

This place will not just be an orphanage but a home.

When possible and safe we will help children to be re –established with their family or

family relatives.

When not possible we will take on the care of the child.

Our home will be a place where the child will find education, love and care.

Where they will not just be another orphan but a unique child with  a unique destiny. 

Along side of this will be our advocacy work  to the government to increase the help and care for the orphan and abandoned child.

We want to see this generation of orphans and abandoned children not seen as a plight on the

society but rather the foundation for a great future and country

FREE SURGICAL CAMPS FOR WOMEN

It breaks our heart how many women are still

dying in child birth and how many suffer the life long complications of pregnancy and childbirth.

A time that should be so joyous is still a time of great fear for women in Uganda.

Our dream starting in 2016 is to run free

surgical camps all over Uganda.

We will travel all over the country offering free surgeries and treatment.

We aim to operate on 50-100 women every month.

While also treating other women with medications and education who may not need surgery.

The cost we need to raise for each surgery is approx $500 or Approx $ 7200 for 100 each month.

These surgeries will allow the women to

regain dignity, social acceptance, and in turn help them to find work and the ability to care for the children.

In the near future— we would like to

provide these women with skills training

alongside this.

ABOUT US

Roberts Makanda is a doctor who is passionate about seeing all people find freedom from the things that enslave.

Rob was born and raised in Uganda. At the age of  7 he lost his mum during childbirth and his father two months later from unknown causes.

This left him and his 6 siblings on their own.

They were all separated between family but eventually Rob found his was to a Salvation Army children’s home.

He found love and a future there.

Through hard work and sponsorship he was able to get a good

education and eventually made it to uni to study medicine and surgery.

His passion now is to use his skills as a surgeon to help others—especially women like his mum. He is also passionate about seeing orphans like himself find a life worth living and find hope.

Leah Makanda has been passionate about orphans and

Africa since she first heard God speak to her at 12 asking her “was she willing for Africa to be her home one day. “

Since then Leah has worked in childcare and social

justice  and as a foster mum while doing many mission trips to Africa  where she eventually met her husband. A whirlwind

romance and marriage quickly followed and resulted with her packing up and moving to Uganda.

 Leah is also passionate about  good health services as she was born with a rare medical condition and has known what it is like to need good medical care and surgeries from a young child.

This became especially clear recently when  Leah

suffered severe medical complications during a

miraculous pregnancy. Leah and Rob know first hand that if they had not had access to get Leah home to Australia during their pregnancy—Leah and their beautiful son would not be here today.

This has made them even more passionate about ensuring that all Ugandan women have the same access to quality antenatal care.

Over riding all of this is their deep love for God and their desire for all people to know the love and acceptance a relationship with Him brings.

And the desire to show His love in practical ways

OUR BREAK IN PHOENIX ARIZONA

We have had the wonderful blessing of being able to spend the last month here in Phoenix Arizona visiting with the people who sponsored Rob through senior high school and university.

Their gift of the flights here and the past month has been a blessing we felt so incredibly humbled by.

We have loved getting to know them more and having the opportunity for them to see what their support has meant over the years and where Rob is today because of that support.

Its been lovely for me to get to know them and for them to have the time with Hezekiah.

We have loved all the adventures and sight seeing we have done while here.

As they are cattle ranches we got to enjoy some time at a few of their ranches enjoying the country life and Rob got to do some firsts like riding a horse and other fun things.

The grand canyon has been a HUGE highlight for us both - the handiwork of God on full display that's for sure.

We also have loved the colder weather and getting to have fun in the snow.....

and exploring Indian ruins has been great fun  ... we even found some old pottery pieces and arrow heads in the indian ruins on the sponsors ranch.... was very cool

Besides those highlights we have loved spending time with robs sponsors and other new friends like Randy and Julie who Rob met many years ago when they came to Uganda .... and we have been so blessed by Ten40 church where we have been attending while here. We have made some great friends and felt so much support from their Pastor and the whole church. We are excited about how God ordained this meeting with them and to see where God takes it.

We have been making memories that we will cherish for a lifetime.

Hezekiah has grown so much in the last month and has started crawling and pulling himself up on things.... our little man who dr's kept saying was quite behind in some areas has taken great leaps this month. Every day we are reminded of what a miracle and blessing he is.

We have also been so blessed to be able to share our dreams and visions for our ministry in Uganda and to be able to receive the so much support from churches and people here.

This has been a huge blessing to meet with people who see our heart and vision especially as they've never met us before.

The support in Australia has been huge too but to see that translate to here also has been a wonderful blessing.

Rob and I have been able to spend some time dreaming and coming up with some of the finer details of our next chapter and what the days ahead will look like.

We are excited and nervous all at the same time.

We head off from here on Monday back home to Uganda.
I am very excited for people to meet Hezekiah and for ZIah to see his homeland.

He was such a wonderful flyer on the long haul flights to USA I believe he will be just as wonderful on the three flights to Uganda.

Thank you for your continued love and support

FOLLOW THE LINK TO SEE MORE OF OUR PHOTOS FROM OUR ADVENTURES HERE IN PHOENIX

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156564678595615&type=1&l=8c87024d97 

Christmas Gifts for Kids at Home of Joy

What a privilege it was to be the hands and feet of God and so many amazing people as we blessed the Salvation Army children’s home in Kampala with some Christmas gifts.

The home of Joy is a home for disabled children.

Their disabilities range from severe mental disabilities to severe physical disabilities.

Many of the children are missing feet, arms or legs due to either birth complications or sometimes bad malaria shots as babies!

Every one of the children are unique in character and so very special. Many are funny and cheeky and love to laugh!

They love card games and soccer and dancing.

I am constantly amazed at what they can do with their limited physical abilities. And there’s never any complaining.

They work very hard at their school work every day and dream big for their future.

Some are orphans, or have been abandoned. Many have families who cannot financially afford to care for them or who live in remote location so they would have no hope of any schooling due to their families location and their physical disabilities.

What an awesome thing it was to be able to surprise the kids and tell them we had a BIG surprise for them in a few days! You could feel the anticipation in the air.

Rob and I spent days shopping for unique individual outfits for the close to 40 children. Many of them would have never had a brand new outfit or received a Christmas gift so we wanted to make it as special as we could.

We also bought gifts for all the workers – many who also have disabilities of some sort who grew up there and now work in the place. They all work so hard and love the children. Some of the workers even have families of their own who they have to leave in the village while they work to provide money for their families.

The children were EXTREMELY excited on the night of their surprise.

Robert explained to the children that they were so special and unique and so very loved by God that people from the other side of the world wanted to let them know how LOVED and SPECIAL they were, that they wanted to give them a gift each for Christmas.

This was met with much cheering J

ALL THE CLOTHES LINED UP READY

I then delivered a Christmas message and talked about the true meaning of Christmas – which to these kids is not hard to grasp because for them – Christmas is simply about God loving us enough to send Jesus and loving family and friends.

It was great to show them that love in a practical way.

We called out each child’s name individually and you could see the joy on their faces as they received their gift..... They then waited until everyone had their gifts before they could unite the bow and see what they had received.

There was a lot of tears of joy and lots of laughter – especially from the workers – some who had never received a Christmas gift in the 40 or more years of their life!

What a gift it was to see the joy on all their faces.

We told the kids that not only had we had enough money to buy them all new outfits but we also had had enough money to fix the water piping (the water system had broken down – and the children had to fetch water from down at water pump – very difficult with their various disabilities – was special seeing the way they helped each other and those who couldn’t do it).

This news was met with MUCH cheering!! J

But the biggest cheer came when they would no longer have smelly LEAKING toilets! That we had paid a plumber and been in contact with sewage department to have it all fixed – YOU would have thought we had given them all a trip to Disney land they were so happy and cheering so much!

More joy was expressed when we told them we were going to have a movie night with ice cream included! And that they had to all get dressed up in their new clothes.

A few days later we were blessed to see all the children in their new clothes. All scrubbed up ready for a fun night.

All the workers came and we started of the night with the kids leading us in singing and praise to God! What an amazing experience this is to watch as these precious children with such limited physical bodies, allow their minds and hearts and souls to completely connect with God, someone they know and love deeply.

Risks Dr's face in Uganda & Medical Donations from Australia

Risks Dr's Face here - and the Life Changing Donations

A few months ago when I was still in Australia Rob experienced something at the hospital which I had never even considered would be something we would have to deal with.
.......... Exposure to HIV

Obviously I knew how prevalent HIV is here but I guess I never really considered the effect that would have on Rob or us as he treated these patients.
I guess all dr's around the world can come in to contact with disease that can be passed on to them - but here for doctors HIV exposure is a common factor.

I remember quite clearly while I was recovering from surgery that Rob had mentioned he wasn't feeling well.
I found this strange particularly as it went for a few days - Rob never gets unwell!

Finally he admitted to me why he was so unwell.
He had been exposed to HIV and was currently on rejection medications.

While operating one day something had burst during the surgery and blood squirted into his eye.
The patient was HIV +
My first reaction was - WHY DIDN'T YOU HAVE OR FACE MASK ON ????........
Poor Rob - like I thought He had just forgotten to put them on..... His answer was gentle," Honey, we don't have any".

I thought to myself - what?? Something as simple as eye and mouth protection??
Due to the fact that they didn't have this basic item Rob was now exposed.
He went on the medication to help his body try and reject the HIV virus.
Sadly these medication are EXTREMELY taxing on the body.
Major side affects were causing Rob nausea, vomitting, no appetite, rapid weight loss and dizziness.
This lasted for weeks.
It got so bad he had to have few days off work.
We waited for the results. You get tested after a few weeks and then have to wait again for 3 months.

I found this time incredibly hard.
Not that I was worried about Rob having HIV - my God is bigger than that - and even if it had happened - again My God is bigger than that....

I found it hard being so far away when he was so so sick and needed me.
Still working long hours while being so sick and having to still cook even though he didn't want to eat but he had to try and keep something down.
This was incredibly hard.
When I told mum and dad they too couldn't believe something so basic for a doctor and for surgery in particular could be unavailable and the lack of these items could change a doctors future forever.

Dad was on to it very quickly and within weeks had received a donation from John Hunter Hospital of various face and eye masks.
Dad also purchased more.
Even ones from bunnings!
Anything to protect their eyes.

Thankfully when Rob had his first test he was negative.
But he was still unwell for weeks after he'd stopped the medication. Before he'd fully recovered - and AGAIN while I was still in Australia - again he got sick.... and again he had to admit he was back on the rejection medications because he had been exposed to HIV again during another surgery!

Again he lost weight and had to go through that alone. 
I have been shocked by his weight loss in such a short time - but even more so the  muscle loss from being so unwell. And this is just the rejections for this disease - Rob said exposure here is normal for dr's - and dr's will go through it numbers of times through their career. The majority of dr's who do turn up positive is because they do not complete the round of rejection medication. To me this sounded CRAZY - but Rob admitted that if he wasn't married and didn't have me to think about he probably would have abandoned them as well - that's how sick they make you.

Thankfully Rob tested the other day and is completely clear - but now the job of regaining weight and muscle strength remains.

But I can't help but think of the countless dr's who are exposed - and the majority of the time it could be prevented by basic items
And I think of all those dr's you end up HIV + because of their love and care for the people here and passion for their work.
And how as a wife ( or husband) that would feel if your partner innocently contracted the disease through their love of caring for people.
Sadly even since I've been back many of Rob's dr friends here have been exposed and have had to undergo the same symptoms and treatment as Rob.

But thanks to Dad's effort of gaining donations -  for now this is not such a huge concern.

When Mum and dad were here we took them around the hospital and dad donated all of the face and eye goggles.
How grateful the surgical staff were.

Rob said surgery is a different place - dr's are happier and more at peace - able to concentrate on the task at hand more and worry less about the risk surgery is for them. Something so simple - yet so life changing!

We also had the incredible privilege for mum and dad to hand over various other medical donations they had been sent with.

An ambu bag for the malnutrition ward - where sadly Rob experienced many children die purely because they didn't have this basic item.

Ventilation machines for paediatrics and various swabs and other things have also been donated and are making a big difference!

How life changing basic items can be! For those that rounded up these donations - on behalf of the hospital, doctors and patients we say a BIG thank you!

Since I have returned home the kids have been around a lot more.

It did take quite a few weeks for them to settle back in to having me here – had to remember they didn’t need to be afraid of the muzungu J

Some of the little ones come and visit me – usually in the morning after older siblings have gone to school  or doing chores.

I usually give them something to eat when they come and lately we’ve been drawing together with baby and pens or sometimes we watch tv.

Tv doesn’t seem to interest them much  - although if its the music channel then straight away they start dancing.

Music is such an important part of the culture here.

The older kids and I have been having fun some afternoons after school doing skipping.

Many of the kids had never seen a skipping rope before or knew how to skip so it was lots of fun teaching them how to do it.

Majority of them took to it really quickly and added in their local rhymes etc as they skipped. 

 
Since I took these photos - we have been doing skipping afternoons a few times a week - especially now the kids are on school holidays. 
So there are so many kids back from boarding school or who I now get to see before dark. 

The only real way to guarantee a good education here is a boarding school and actually works out cheaper overall then sending your kids to the same sort of quality day school with feeding etc. 
Very hard for parents when they have to send kids even 8 away. 
But even if they aren't sent away to boarding school many schools don't finish till around 5ish so so many of the kids i dont see often. 
There is a CRAZY amount of kids within 2 minutes walking of my house. 

Most times we have the skipping afternoons I am now averaging around 20 - 30 kids from age 1 - 15 
FUN TIMES!!!