Seeta Junior School Mbalala Campus has donated property worth millions of money to Mapeera Bakateyamba’s Home located at Nalukolongo in Lubaga division, in Kampala Capital city Authority.
Sr. Crispin Christine Namara, the school headteacher led the team of pupils together with their teachers to deliver their package of the donation on Saturday.
After receiving the package which included; products like, rice, maize flour, milk, clothes, juice, among others, the administrator of the Mapeera Bakateyamba’s Home, Sr. Mary Lawrence Nakiwu called upon well-wishers to come to their rescue with aid both material and financial to help sustain their operations. Mapeera Bakateyamba’s Home looks after helpless aged and disabled people.
Sr. Nakiwu said the home, which is one of the oldest in the country; founded by the late Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga in 1978 is currently struggling to sustain the increasing numbers of the people whom they look after, coming from different parts of the country and the surrounding East African Countries.
The facility which is under the management of Good Samaritan Sisters, Sr. Nakiwu says it currently has a number of 75 members who include disabled people including those who are incapacitated and the ones who are very old.
“Though the founder of this place had intentions to put in place 100 different rooms for old people, 45 years down the road, we only have 60 in place. But the numbers for the occupants are far beyond the capacity. We are looking forward to raising money so that we can build at least 100 rooms,” she said.
“To our dismay, the facility sometimes runs out of food, pampers for the old and disabled people who cannot help themselves, medicine and other daily requirements. As the administrators, we are only able to sustain this place from the help we get from different good samaritans. Unfortunately, due to the on-going financial adversities, a big number of people who were our daily donors dropped out,” she said.
The day started with the Holy mass, celebrated by Rev. Fr. Raymond Kalanzi, the Managing Director of the Catholic Church’s Radio Maria.
Fr. Kalanzi who is also the founder of Thereza Ministries, a charity organisation which looks after abandoned and helpless children located in Kampala expressed gratitude to the administrators of Seeta Junior School Mbalala for having selected Mpareera Bakateyamba Home for the school’s donation programme.
Sr. Namara said the donated products were solicited from the pupils, parents, teachers and the school also made a top up.
Sr. Namara said the school has been always running such donation drives in the community in Mukono where the school is located but after learning about the situation the administrators of the home are going through, they decided to come to their rescue.
“Making this kind of donation and coming with the pupils to also come, look at the beneficiaries, it is intended to instil the culture of donation to the poor into the pupils right from their tender age. We want them to grow with this spirit,” she said.
The pupils who visited the old and disabled people from their different cubicles greeted and shook hands with them, and a good number of them ended up shedding tears after seeing the people they had never seen.
Many of them during an interview said they appreciated God for what they are because they had not got a chance to realise that there are people who are happy yet they lack some of body parts, they can’t move as they do but they still love and thank God for what they are.
“I have learnt that it’s not good to waste anything including food or drinks because we have been told that sometimes if they don’t get people to donate to them, they can go for a full day without food,” said Marita Ssemakula, the school’s Chief Judge.