Rose's Journey: End Child Sacrifice. Join us for the 10K walk in Kampala on August 24th 2013: April 2009

Uganda: Child Sacrifice Goes Beyond Poverty: Ganzi Muhanguzi, 4 March 2009: opinion Kampala — AS Christians countrywide observe the lent period and pray against the evil of child sacrifice that has gripped our land, I remain troubled by our perceptions concerning its cause. Several people, the Police included, seem to believe that most of these hideous acts are due to the poverty. This theory, however, is both shallow and misleading. Don't get me wrong, poverty has made people do some unthinkable things - human sacrifice among them. But is it really the underlying cause of this deplorable act? I think not. If statistics are anything to go by, eastern Uganda is the poorest region in the country. I recently visited several districts in the region and witnessed firsthand, the biting poverty fellow Ugandans endure, with no assurance of a better tomorrow. Yet poor as the region is hardly any case of child sacrifice has been reported. If the arrest of city tycoon Godfrey Kajubi is to teach us anything, it must be that the search for riches may cause us to do strange things, but at the end of the day it is one’s belief in the effectiveness of his means that really drives him. What we believe dictates what we do. People’s faith, value system and religious dogma dictate their actions. And so a tycoon will sacrifice a child, not because he is poor, but because they believe in the potency of the act. The problem with associating poverty to human sacrifice is that we unwittingly excuse the offenders criminal beliefs and instead blame in on his/her material status. Witch craft then, with its dehumunising rituals that erode the sanctity of human life, is the cause of human sacrifice. In a country that is deeply religious, we must be aware of the spiritual bearing of child sacrifice. Trying to explain it away in purely material terms just won’t do. Those who practice it deeply believe in and practice occultism and witchcraft. They may be poor, but it is not poverty that drives a man to kill his own flesh and blood. If that were the case, up to 30% of Uganda’s population would kill their children to be relieved of chronic poverty. And no millionaire would want to behead a child. And so we pray. We pray for the man whose belief system convinces him that his gods must be fed on the blood of his own child. We pray for the mother whose faith, or lack of it, causes her to believe that the gateway to riches is through selling a child she painstakingly begot. We pray for the man who, after being blessed with twins, vies them as capital for sh 12m. We pray, not so much that they may lose faith in a better tomorrow, but that they may f=gain a faith in the dignity and sacredness of the human soul. We pray for the children, whose only crime these days, is to be born to heartless mothers and cultic fathers; for the parents whose irresponsibility is in their faith that society will protect its own. We pray, not so much that their faith shall be revoked, but that it shall be fulfilled. And yes, we pray for the nation. This country whose history is entrenched in bloodshed, sectarianism and selfishness. This motherland which for far too long, has had her daughters and sons sacrificed at the altar of greed and unjustifiable sacrifice. We pray that Christ, in whom all things find perfect unison, will heal our land and make us truly live for God and our country. The writer is the in-country communications specialist for Compassion International, Uganda

Dear friends, this summer, I plan to retrace my steps to take the same journey I took in 1989 from Bamunanika to Kiwoko where I first met my Irish parents. In 1989 when I first made that journey, I was a desperate young girl, without a home, stripped of all dignity, unwanted, and despised by the people I loved and trusted the most. I had lost everything except perhaps my life. That journey led me to Ian and Robbie Clarke, two people who took a wild chance at loving me. It led me to the beginning of my nursing career, it lead me to a place of hope. It was the beginning of my restoration as a girl, and it was a second chance at having a family and hope for the future. That journey set me on a path of discovering a new me. It gave me wings to fly and to live out my faith in a manner that was liberating.

For more on this story

Please visit: http://www.narrowroadintl.org/

OR: http://www.justgiving.com/rosenanyongac

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To learn more about the University please visit: http://www.ihsu.ac.ug/

To learn more about child sacrifice in Uganda, please follow this link to a recent article by Mubatsi Asinja Habati (The independent): http://www.independent.co.ug/index.php/society/society/37-society/620-ugandas-epidemic-of-child-sacrifice.

To walk with me, please send me an email: 52kilometers@gmail.com

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for standing/walking with me in this Journey.

Always Rose