A second chance at life
Sep 30, 2010
THE New Vision, on May 21, 2010 published the story of 33-year-old Agnes Nakitende, an HIV-positive mother of nine children, six of whom also have HIV.
THE New Vision, on May 21, 2010 published the story of 33-year-old Agnes Nakitende, an HIV-positive mother of nine children, six of whom also have HIV.
This Mukono family, which lived in a shack about to collapse, had given up hoping and was waiting to die. Three months after New Vision published her story; a new amazing story has been born. Nigel Nassar brings you Nakitende’s journey.
Agnes Nakitende stares blankly into space and cries. Only this time they are tears of joy. Nakitende’s journey has been one of uncertainty, and at some point, only waiting to die. Her husband, police constable Alfred Malinga, succumbed to HIV/AIDS in September last year. None of his relatives came to her aid, and in fact, one of Nakitende’s in-laws confiscated the deceased’s death certificate, hoping to process any money the deceased might have left behind.
Most who came to know Nakitende and her nine children had written this family off.
Nakitende lives in Kirwanyi village in Seeta Nazigo, Mukono district.
When I first did her story in May, I hoped it would stir some Good Samaritans to come to her rescue. And, it did. Organisations and individuals gave their all to help. One such person was a prayerful Ugandan lady called Annette Brooks, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Brooks says she cried upon reading the story online. Then she went to church at Global Evangelical Ministries in Boston and nagged her pastor, John Baker Katende, to read the story. They immediately set in motion a fundraiser, and on that same day, sh560,000 was sent to Uganda through Brooks’ relative Joseph Musumba, to buy this family food and other necessities.
Two week later, Brooks sent another sh2m in bits, to help take all the children for medical care, buy food, pay a milkman for daily supply and pay school fees. Brooks and her church, also got Musumba to mobilise masons and build a temporary mud house for the family. In three weeks, Nakitende and her children were living in a real house. It cost sh1.9m. Altogether, sh4.5m has been spent by this church. Brooks says they are to build Nakitende a business after she visits this village on Christmas Day this December.
At about the same time, Maureen Baziwe, a young Ugandan student in the UK sent Nakitende sh200,000. She says when she comes home festive season, she wants to visit Nakitende.
Meanwhile, Phiona Nampungu of Standard Chartered Bank, through the bank’s employee volunteerism scheme, collected sh5m, and the bank doubled it to make sh10m. On June 5, 2010, work commenced on a 4-roomed brick house for Nakitende. On this day, about 50 staff members of the bank went to Nakitende’s home to build the house along with the masons.
There had been a two-roomed house that the local church, Zion Church Community, had started building for the family but had left off at window level. It is to this structure that the bank added two rooms. Within two weeks, the house was complete.
They also delivered beds, blankets and mattresses for the family, and also helped pay off an outstanding loan Nakitende’s late husband had takes to buy the plot of land on which the family lives.
Lamin Kemba Manjang, the bank’s CEO, handed over the house keys to an elated Nakitende on June 19.
“I can’t believe this. Sometimes I think I am dreaming. God bless New Vision, Standard Chartered, Annette Brooks and her church, Maureen Baziwe and all that have helped in many other ways,†she said amid tears of joy. “My children now have a blanket and a roof over their heads. My husband’s soul must be well-rested. I don’t even feel like I have AIDS any more.â€
Nakitende now plans to rear poultry in the mud house. The Rescue Mission International, a local church headed by a Nigerian pastor, Job Obasanjo, also helped, spending about sh2.5m on food, house effects and building a pigsty. They started Nakitende off with two piglets.
There were also individual contributions from the family of Edward Katama and anonymous persons who gave clothing for the family at the New Vision reception. The Mildmay Centre, which is now offering healthcare to some of the children, also contributed five bags of cement towards the construction of the house and latrine.
And on September 9, a day after Nakitende commemorated a year after her husband’s death, the staff of Uganda Revenue Authority came through with sh2.41m, clothes, kitchenware, two tarpaulins and mosquito nets.
Nakitende is happy. She has a better home, and if she must die, it will not be in vain. She equates herself to one who just came back from the dead. “This can only be God’s will,†she says.
Editor:
New Vision would like to thank all those who helped
Nakitende and her family
This Mukono family, which lived in a shack about to collapse, had given up hoping and was waiting to die. Three months after New Vision published her story; a new amazing story has been born. Nigel Nassar brings you Nakitende’s journey.
Agnes Nakitende stares blankly into space and cries. Only this time they are tears of joy. Nakitende’s journey has been one of uncertainty, and at some point, only waiting to die. Her husband, police constable Alfred Malinga, succumbed to HIV/AIDS in September last year. None of his relatives came to her aid, and in fact, one of Nakitende’s in-laws confiscated the deceased’s death certificate, hoping to process any money the deceased might have left behind.
Most who came to know Nakitende and her nine children had written this family off.
Nakitende lives in Kirwanyi village in Seeta Nazigo, Mukono district.
When I first did her story in May, I hoped it would stir some Good Samaritans to come to her rescue. And, it did. Organisations and individuals gave their all to help. One such person was a prayerful Ugandan lady called Annette Brooks, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Brooks says she cried upon reading the story online. Then she went to church at Global Evangelical Ministries in Boston and nagged her pastor, John Baker Katende, to read the story. They immediately set in motion a fundraiser, and on that same day, sh560,000 was sent to Uganda through Brooks’ relative Joseph Musumba, to buy this family food and other necessities.
Two week later, Brooks sent another sh2m in bits, to help take all the children for medical care, buy food, pay a milkman for daily supply and pay school fees. Brooks and her church, also got Musumba to mobilise masons and build a temporary mud house for the family. In three weeks, Nakitende and her children were living in a real house. It cost sh1.9m. Altogether, sh4.5m has been spent by this church. Brooks says they are to build Nakitende a business after she visits this village on Christmas Day this December.
At about the same time, Maureen Baziwe, a young Ugandan student in the UK sent Nakitende sh200,000. She says when she comes home festive season, she wants to visit Nakitende.
Meanwhile, Phiona Nampungu of Standard Chartered Bank, through the bank’s employee volunteerism scheme, collected sh5m, and the bank doubled it to make sh10m. On June 5, 2010, work commenced on a 4-roomed brick house for Nakitende. On this day, about 50 staff members of the bank went to Nakitende’s home to build the house along with the masons.
There had been a two-roomed house that the local church, Zion Church Community, had started building for the family but had left off at window level. It is to this structure that the bank added two rooms. Within two weeks, the house was complete.
They also delivered beds, blankets and mattresses for the family, and also helped pay off an outstanding loan Nakitende’s late husband had takes to buy the plot of land on which the family lives.
Lamin Kemba Manjang, the bank’s CEO, handed over the house keys to an elated Nakitende on June 19.
“I can’t believe this. Sometimes I think I am dreaming. God bless New Vision, Standard Chartered, Annette Brooks and her church, Maureen Baziwe and all that have helped in many other ways,†she said amid tears of joy. “My children now have a blanket and a roof over their heads. My husband’s soul must be well-rested. I don’t even feel like I have AIDS any more.â€
Nakitende now plans to rear poultry in the mud house. The Rescue Mission International, a local church headed by a Nigerian pastor, Job Obasanjo, also helped, spending about sh2.5m on food, house effects and building a pigsty. They started Nakitende off with two piglets.
There were also individual contributions from the family of Edward Katama and anonymous persons who gave clothing for the family at the New Vision reception. The Mildmay Centre, which is now offering healthcare to some of the children, also contributed five bags of cement towards the construction of the house and latrine.
And on September 9, a day after Nakitende commemorated a year after her husband’s death, the staff of Uganda Revenue Authority came through with sh2.41m, clothes, kitchenware, two tarpaulins and mosquito nets.
Nakitende is happy. She has a better home, and if she must die, it will not be in vain. She equates herself to one who just came back from the dead. “This can only be God’s will,†she says.
Editor:
New Vision would like to thank all those who helped
Nakitende and her family