In mid-August, 2023 Rabbi Leila Gal Berner, president of the Board of Ezra Uganda and Board member Brenda Gates-Monasch visited Namutumba, for two weeks.   It was an awesome, awe-inspiring, and painful visit. The awe-inspiring part of the visit was to meet the Abayudaya Jewish community we have been supporting. The people are warm, friendly and dignified. It was soul-warming to meet the peoplewhose lives we have saved – the sweet, twoyear old thriving toddler, smiling and astoundingly beautiful, who at birth experienced pneumonia and almost died, the lovely, dignified woman who, afflicted with malaria, was at death’s door and is now robustly healthy, and so many more. The very painful part of our visit was to witness the extreme and abject poverty of these same amazing people. They are on the edge of hunger and possible starvation all the time.

We spent time in the beautiful synagogue we helped to build, where we were welcomed so warmly now filled each Shabbat with song, dance and devout prayer. We participated and witnessed Lecha Dodi, psalms and other prayers as the people sang and danced around the bima to the lively cadences of Hebrew and Luganda melodies. 

We visited the chicken project we built where thousands of chickens and chicks are now being raised for eggs and meat. The project is now entirely self-sustaining and provides the community with money for some essential services. It was awe-inspiring to realize that this project that emerged because of the dollars you donated, now helps to feed the people – a community that has, if its lucky, one meal a day. This project grew out of the need of parents of children with disabilities to find a way to make a meager living while they could care for their children. They now can do so with pride and dignity.

We ate Shabbat lunches on two Shabbatot with the people, meals they receive from the leaders of the community, with funds that Ezra Uganda provides. For some, they would not eat at all on Shabbat if these meals were not provided. There has been almost no COVID-19 in Namutumba because we vaccinated the whole community against it. As a result, our folks have stayed mainly healthy from this scourge. We also cured Hepatitis-B in the village.

The GREATEST NEWS is that THERE IS NOW A JEWISH COMMUNITY SCHOOL named ETZ CHAYIM SCHOOL with almost 200 elementary school aged children! This was supported entirely with Ezra Uganda funds – funds that you donated! The school opened on Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish New Year of the Trees — wonderfully symbolic because our children are the “seeds” for our future and will ensure that Namatumba will continue to not only to survive but will also thrive!