Meet your team

Meet your team!

Everyone who works at BMS World Mission partner Justice Livelihoods Health (JLH) has a faithful passion to help those in need. And this harvest, you can join them! Meet your new teammates below, and find out more about how you can help transform lives in Uganda.

In Gulu, Uganda, a dynamic team is changing lives every day. Their aim? To see everyone in their community thrive, by helping them with access to legal justice, abundant livelihoods and flourishing health. You may have heard of them before, because the story of how they’ve come alongside farmers like Barbara is the focus of this year’s BMS World Mission Harvest appeal. And when you partner with them, they’re not just a team. They’re your team. Get to know them below!

Meet the JLH team and discover their vision for a flourishing Uganda!

Jimmy and Phionah Okello

A man and a woman standing outside of a building, both are smiling

“When I think about JLH, I think about gospel hope, transformation and a new life in Jesus Christ.” – Jimmy

Roles: Jimmy is a pastor and works in church engagement, Phionah works in accounting.

Jimmy and Phionah are passionate about seeing Christians in Gulu thrive. With their JLH hats on, Jimmy runs training for local church leaders to help their ministries go from strength to strength, and Phionah offers crucial accounting support for the JLH team. You’ll also find Jimmy and Phionah serving at University Community Church, where Jimmy is the pastor and where Phionah serves on the worship team, bringing the light of Christ to students at Gulu University.

“The thing I love most about my job is that I get to be the lubricant that helps the JLH machine keep running.” – Phionah

Susan Blanch Alal

a woman in a coloured and patterned dress, standing outside of a building, smiling

“Something that I enjoy about my job is ensuring proper co-ordination of JLH programmes, creating linkages with other partners and mentoring and coaching staff.” – Susan

Role: Programme Co-ordinator

You’ll find Susan overseeing all the different projects JLH runs, from speech and language therapy to child protection, borehole drilling and agricultural projects. Susan is often out in the field meeting the people that JLH support, and helping make sure everything is running smoothly across the board!

Benon Kayanja

A man standing outside of a building, smiling.

“When I think about JLH, I think about social justice, securing people’s livelihoods and good health.” – Benon

Role: BMS mission worker, Head of JLH

Benon’s vision is for a Uganda transformed through God’s power. Based in Kampala, Benon’s role is to head up the JLH team. As well as overseeing the running of JLH, he also works with Baptist churches in nearby Kasese, encouraging and supporting them in their local ministries.

Wilson Okelokoko

a man in a dark blue shirt, standing outside of a building smiling.

“When I think of JLH, I think of partnership and teamwork.” – Wilson

Role: Cek Cam Manager

Wilson manages the Cek Cam (pronounced ‘chek cham’) storehouse, helping farmers store their produce safely before selling it on at local markets. His job is crucial in making sure that farmers get a fair price for their crops. When farmers can earn up to 30 per cent more by selling through Cek Cam, Wilson plays a hugely important role in helping local families improve their livelihoods.

Genesis Acaye

a man in a red and blue checked shirt, standing in a farmers field, smiling.

“My favourite thing about my job is interacting with farmers, sharing ideas and learning from one another how to grow crops, get better yields and better livelihoods.” – Genesis

Role: Agriculturalist, BMS mission worker

You’ll often find Genesis visiting local farmers, delivering training and giving advice to make sure their crops are growing as well as they can. He travels to different farms on his trusty motorbike, building relationships and offering help where needed. In a country so affected by wildfires, droughts and erratic weather, his bountiful knowledge of Uganda’s flora is pivotal to helping crops thrive and growing plentiful harvests!

You're part of the team

Your support is crucial to helping the JLH team reach people in need across Uganda. Each staff member is supported by BMS donations, and they truly can’t do it without you. If you want to join the JLH team in bringing abundant life to farmers in Gulu this harvest, why not host a Days of Plenty service at your church? Visit the Days of Plenty appeal page to find out more.

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Words by Laura Durrant
Editor of Engage, the BMS World Mission magazine

A global cost of living crisis: your response

A global cost of living crisis: your response

Thank you for bringing hope

In the midst of a global cost of living crisis, you helped people like Richard to survive, thrive and have hope. Read on to find out how your gifts have helped families across Uganda, Lebanon, Nepal and beyond.

Relief, hope and delight. When Benon Kayanja first heard about the response of BMS World Mission supporters to our Global Cost of Living Crisis appeal, launched back in July, he couldn’t have felt more encouraged. Benon is one of BMS’ mission workers based in Uganda, and, like many of our workers, he’s seen first-hand the devastating impact that the Ukraine war has had on families around him. Fuel and food prices were on the rise, sometimes more than doubling. Wisdom from leaders was that the only way to handle the crisis was to live more frugally. But people like Richard, a farmer living in Gulu, were already struggling to feed their families, sometimes surviving on just one meal a day. With exploitative middlemen ready to make a tidy profit from farmers who could no longer afford to transport their crops to market themselves, it felt to Benon and his colleagues that bridging the gap to meet essential needs was impossible.

Benon Kayanja is one of BMS’ mission workers based in Uganda.
Benon Kayanja has seen first-hand the devastating impact that the Ukraine war has had on ordinary families.
Richard, a farmer in Uganda, stands in front of his crops.
Your gifts will help farmers like Richard to support their families through the crisis.

Wonderfully, BMS supporters read Richard’s story and responded with incredible generosity – despite many families in the UK facing their own worries about escalating living costs this autumn. You raised over £96,000 to support projects in Uganda, Lebanon and Nepal that are helping families to weather this crisis – as well as shoring up similar work right across the world.

“As the planting season begins again in Uganda, my team is excited for all the support we can bring to small-scale farmers,” explains Benon. “Thanks to the incredible amount raised through this appeal, we are able to increase the number of farmers we can provide seedlings to. This will have an amazing knock-on effect, meaning a greater number of farmers can provide vital food and help generate income for their families.”

But Benon’s plans to bring transformation don’t stop there. Together with his colleague, BMS Agriculturist Genesis Acaye, he’s devised a way to help farmers avoid exploitative middlemen altogether, protecting their precious profit margins. They’re calling the project Cek Cam, meaning, fittingly, ’abundant food’.

How does Cek Cam work?

Cek Cam cuts out the middleman and buys produce at a good price. Excellent storage facilities mean communities of farmers are able to store their produce, wait until they have a large enough quantity and identify when the market prices are high. Produce sold through Cek Cam results in a competitive price which is split fairly between the farmers so they can buy more seeds. In fact, farmers like Richard earn as much as 35 per cent more when they sell through Cek Cam. Thank you for making all this possible. The plans are to help over 1,000 farmers by the end of the first year!

“Seeing the farmers doing better gives me joy,” adds Genesis, who uses his extensive agricultural experience to mentor farmers out in the fields of Gulu, northern Uganda. “Richard is among the farmers who have worked really hard to help their communities. We have given him the skillset to grow his sugarcane, and I’m also really happy that we have been able to help him with transporting his crops to market at a reduced cost. Thanks to your support, initiatives like Cek Cam are really making a massive difference.”

BMS Agriculturalist Genesis uses his extensive experience to mentor farmers.
BMS Agriculturalist Genesis uses his extensive experience to mentor farmers.
Doreen, Richard's wife, smiles with her crops.
Richard and his wife, Doreen (pictured), have been able to transport their sugarcane to market at a reduced cost.

But in a crisis with a truly global impact, your gifts have stretched beyond Uganda to support vulnerable families in places like Lebanon and Nepal, too. In Nepal, farmers have been given access to veterinary training and breeding goats that will boost their income. And in Lebanon, families are feeling hopeful for the first time in years. “I am 100 per cent sure that God is here and he listens to our prayers,” says Maha*, a Syrian mother whose family you supported through the appeal.

When Maha and her husband Mahmoud* fled Aleppo in 2013 with their three small children, they left behind everything they had ever known. Their first winter in Lebanon, the family of five slept on one mattress with a single blanket to keep them warm. Things haven’t been easy in Lebanon since their arrival, but there have been two big changes that have given Maha renewed hope. One is the presence of a BMS-supported Church Learning Centre that has given her children back the education that was snatched from them when they left Syria. The other is the family’s faith in Jesus. “The kids are still at the centre,” says Mahmoud, “and are very happy there. They feel valued and they love their teachers dearly. They’ve kept on learning English, Arabic, and mathematics, and they have art lessons. The centre has been our safe haven.”

A BMS-supported Church Learning Centre in Lebanon has given Syrian refugee families renewed hope.
A BMS-supported Church Learning Centre in Lebanon has given Syrian refugee families renewed hope.

“Jesus does not give up on us,” Maha continues. “Now I have faith that God has a better plan for me.” As the war in Ukraine continues and other economic factors add their own pressures, it’s clear the cost of living crisis isn’t over yet. And yet your generous response means that vulnerable people across the world will still be reached with life-changing help. Please pray that God would guide our finances and our prayers as we continue to support the most vulnerable families in Uganda, Lebanon and Nepal. Thank you again for your generous gift and for standing with Richard, Mahmoud and Maha in these desperate times.

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*Names changed.
Words by Hannah Watson
Editor of Engage, the BMS World Mission magazine

Offset your Christmas: grow trees and change lives in northern Uganda

Offset your Christmas:

Grow trees and change lives in northern Uganda

Have yourself a carbon-neutral Christmas, with the easy-to-use BMS World Mission carbon calculator. By offsetting your Christmas, you will help protect the environment AND transform two communities in northern Uganda.

Genesis Acaye is passionate about Jesus. He’s passionate about communities thriving in northern Uganda. And he’s passionate about the environment.

For BMS worker Genesis, these three things are inextricably entwined.

“The environment feeds us. Everything that we eat is because of the environment. Every problem that affects the environment affects us directly. It affects food availability, food quality, food prices,” says Genesis. “Working to ensure the wider community is safe is good because you are supporting people’s health, people’s lives, and you’re also fulfilling the command from God to take care of what he’s given us.

Genesis Acaye is passionate about trees. He's also passionate about people.

“That’s why I love to see trees and forests – to see people growing more food, more harvest, famine reducing, people earning more money and living better. It improves lives. It transforms lives.”

This Christmas, you can support a life-transforming project in northern Uganda, and help fight against climate change while you do it!

Using the BMS carbon calculator, you can offset your Christmas dinner, your Christmas travel, your heating, the postage on the Christmas presents you send… and you can use that money to give a long-lasting, life-transforming gift to 30 families in northern Uganda.

Right now, Genesis is preparing to begin a new agroforestry project in two communities. The project has the Climate Stewards Seal of Approval, and Genesis and his team are preparing the ground at two churches to set up demonstration sites. When the dry season finishes in March, trees will be planted and the exciting work will begin. And you can be a part of it.

The problem

There are devastating deforestation rates in Uganda. Over the past 25 years, the country has lost 63 per cent of its forest cover. This loss of trees has a huge impact on the environment – and also on people’s daily lives. Poverty rates have increased, with an estimated 10 million people now living below the poverty line. And with 90 per cent of the population relying on fuel woods for heating and cooking, sky-rocketing prices for wood and charcoal mean that many cannot afford to buy fuel. As a result, rare tree species are being cut down and forests are being destroyed for the charcoal trade.

Decline in soil fertility, increased erosion and erratic rainfall patterns are also contributing to this picture. There has been a general decline in crop yield and livelihoods and lives have been put at risk.

The problem is particularly great in northern Uganda, where people spent two decades living in Internally Displaced Person camps during the war.

The solution

More trees. Reduced fuel use. Sustainable farming.

Genesis and his team have a plan. They are selecting 30 households from two communities to take part in an agroforestry pilot project that will have long-lasting effects in the region. They are going to:

1. Train families to successfully plant and grow a range of trees, which will enable them to meet their immediate needs for food, income and fuel, AND help protect the environment through increased forest cover. Through two demonstration plots, and ongoing follow ups, households will learn to plant fruit trees (such as jackfruit, mango and pawpaw), timber trees, and umbrella trees on their land. Some of the trees will be used by the families, others will be left to grow into forests and will be managed and used sustainably.

By creating diverse forests on their land, families will increase carbon sequestration and reduce air pollution, as well as having improved soil fertility, less soil erosion, and clear boundaries to their land – reducing land wrangles and conflicts which are common in the region.

2. Train households to construct and use energy-saving stoves, reducing fuel use by 50 to 60 per cent compared with the commonly used three stone fire stoves.

3. Teach families about creation care, sustainable forestry and why it’s important to God. Genesis and the BMS-supported team will use the Bible to show how caring for creation is a command from God. The project will be run through local churches, and biblical principles will be central to the teaching.

4. Trained farmers will train others. The 30 families who have been trained in this project will be empowered to teach others the skills they have learnt – and sustainable agroforestry techniques will spread as these farmers teach and partner with their neighbours.

How you can help: offset your Christmas

That’s all we’re asking you to do. By carbon offsetting as much of your Christmas as possible, you can be a catalyst for change in northern Uganda. You can help protect the environment. And you can help families grow food, improve their livelihoods, and teach others how to care for creation.

That’s all we’re asking you to do. By carbon offsetting as much of your Christmas as possible, you can be a catalyst for change in northern Uganda. You can help protect the environment. And you can help families grow food, improve their livelihoods, and teach others how to care for creation.

Carbon offsetting may sound complicated – but we’ve made it simple! We’ve got our very own carbon calculator, and you can enter in details like how many miles you (or your family) have travelled for Christmas, how much meat you’re eating, and how much you spent on posting Christmas cards. You can even offset some of your Christmas presents, like clothes and books!

BMS Agriculturist Genesis has been working to improve farming techniques in northern Uganda for years.

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Ready to help protect the planet and transform lives in Uganda this Christmas? Offset your Christmas now!

Help us fight child abuse in schools

Help us fight child abuse in schools

Praying for this

The threat of abuse is very real for pupils in many Ugandan schools. You can help by getting your church to pray for our child protection work.

Imagine a classroom with 100 or more primary age schoolchildren in it. Put aside how crammed it might be and concentrate on this: more than two thirds of the children in front of you have been sexually abused by a male teacher, according to a Unicef survey. The percentage of children who have been caned is even higher, yet their abusers get away with the abuse, free to inflict suffering on a child in a place every child should feel safe: school.

The survey on the prevalence of abuse in Ugandan schools shows that people are aware of the abuse – but it still continues. Do not think it is going completely unchallenged though. Ugandan officials are making strides. And, with your support, BMS World Mission lawyer Linda Darby is working tirelessly in Gulu, northern Uganda, to change attitudes towards child protection in schools.

BMS mission worker Linda Darby guides teachers in child protection policy work
Linda Darby’s mission to tackle abuse in schools begins with training future nursery teachers about child protection.

Backed by local government, Linda has so far taken 21 schools through training on how abuse can be identified, reported and prevented. And the message of protecting children from sexual and physical abuse is not restricted to the school environment. Community leaders also attend the training, alongside the school’s senior staff – and ends with a school developing a child protection policy. With your prayers, we hope even more schools in Gulu will develop more effective child protection approaches.

“At first, people can be defensive, but as we explain the types of abuse, especially sexual, they realise it is happening and they are more open to listening,” says Linda. “This work is important because it is helping children thrive in school, and that will improve their circumstances in life.”

A BMS project worker helps teachers identify signs of child abuse
We’re helping teachers and community leaders in Gulu, Uganda, identify signs of child abuse.

The work Linda does in Uganda couldn’t happen without your prayer support. We encourage you and your church to please pray today for:

1. More local trainers to come forward to help Linda in her work. Pray for the right people, with the right skills, and with huge hearts to protect children from harm.

2. Energy, wisdom and strength for Linda in her work. Pray that she knows the encouragement of your prayers when she talks to schools about why child protection policies must be developed and put into practice.

3. The children who are being abused. Please pray for the abuse to stop, and that the children sense God’s love for them in their lives.

4. The adults who commit abuse. Pray that they understand the darkness of their actions and are guided towards a new life in which they never hurt a child again.

Download the prayer points

Through your prayers today, we believe that even more schools in Gulu will take child protection more seriously. We know it’s possible. You can play your part today in protecting children you will never meet.

Please pray.

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A tale of two villages

A tale of two villages:

providing clean water in Uganda

Supporting this

Disease, infection and chronic pain. All a result of drinking dirty water. For millions of people, unsafe water is all they have to drink. But thanks to your giving, boreholes in northern Uganda are providing clean water for hundreds of people, preventing illness and transforming communities.

Today, there are over 663 million people living without a safe water supply close to home, spending countless hours walking to distant sources, and coping with the health impacts of using contaminated water. Everyone deserves access to clean water, but the problem is so large, it can seem difficult to know what to do, or how to fix it. When faced with an issue like this, the best way to tackle it is to start small, working in village after village, providing safe water and preventing disease until one day, everyone has access. And that’s exactly what BMS is doing.

In Abwoch and Pajaa, two villages in the north of Uganda, people didn’t have access to a safe supply of water. The main borehole in Abwoch was contaminated, and in Pajaa the nearest clean source was a half an hour’s walk away – most families had to make two to five trips per day, spending up to five hours fetching the water they needed. Disease was rife, all because of bacteria in the water.

But thanks to your support, this is no longer the case. BMS has drilled a borehole in Abwoch, and another in Pajaa, providing over 350 people with clean water, free from bacteria and infection.

BMS environmental consultant Tim Darby gathered local leaders, church leaders and community members together in each village. They decided where the borehole would be built, and agreed to provide sand and gravel as resources to help construct it. The communities also agreed to provide accommodation, food, and water for the team drilling the hole and building the water pump.

In the space of seven days, the two boreholes were built, providing clean water for hundreds. A fence was built around each water pump, preventing animals from contaminating the supply.

The villagers were then taught hygiene skills, and elected a committee to help with maintenance and to ensure the water remained clean.

Both boreholes are free from bacteria, providing safe drinking water for the hundreds of people who use them. Charles Opiro, part of the borehole committee in Pajaa, says that people have not been sick from water-related diseases since the new water pump was built, as now they don’t have to drink water taken from puddles or dirty lakes.

Having clean water is helping Pajaa community in other ways too. The boreholes are providing new economic opportunities for the community. Charles used the clean water to make bricks during the dry season, which he then sold to fund the school fees for his younger siblings. He’s also seen more women participate in the economy – his neighbour took her goods to sell at the market because she no longer had to spend such a long time collecting water.

Your support for our work in Uganda is providing safe water to hundreds, preventing disease and saving lives. It’s transforming the way villages in northern Uganda operate. And the project has barely begun. “I just want to say thank you,” Tim says to our generous supporters. “You’ve enabled so many people to access clean water already. We’re so grateful.”

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