200 miles away from Kasese in Masaka, our other Ugandan team is also thriving. Drs. Kim and Ken visited this team as well, where they went on outreaches for six consecutive days. Despite the fact that their vehicle broke down twice, the group made it to every outreach and had 2,336 students sign chastity cards. That’s a productive week! At one particular outreach at St. Aloysius Secondary School, the outreach closed with praise and worship, where the song “I Surrender All” was a hit. Many of you will recognize it. Fr. Deus, the program director of the UCE Masaka team, is doing an excellent job in his new role.
On March 13, 2017 the team paid a visit to the Namabaale Parish for a youth outreach. One team volunteer stepped in and gave a profound testimony on his sister who died of AIDs and how his parents, brothers, sisters and her sister’s family were affected. He also gave a personal testimony about when he had an unsafe girlfriend but never knew that she had AIDs until he received the news that she had died. He went for several HIV testings and found all to be negative, but he could not believe it. To him it was a miracle to be alive, and then he decided to abstain until he got married. Therefore he urged the youths and adults to be careful with their lives and implored the married ones to be faithful so as not to make their families suffer.
Fr. Deusdedit, regional director of the ministry in Masaka, also held a meeting for all volunteers in the area to discuss best practices and future goals. About 10 were in attendance. Everyone introduced themselves, including Drs. Kim and Ken, and shared stories of recent outreaches. One volunteer also gave a brief presentation report of UCE activities in Masaka, statistics and the achievements and challenges met so far and in conclusion, the UCE team Masaka showed appreciation to the UCE co-founders Drs. Kim and Ken Dernovsek for their passion and coming to help the youths of Uganda live healthy lives.
For a team that was just recently relocated, this group is making impressive progress. This year alone, they’ve seen approximately 5,000 sign chastity cards. With the school year closing in early May, the team will regroup over the summer and put together their plans for an even more impactful fall semester!