Refugee Response
Uganda is a natural choice of sanctuary for East Africans fleeing violence in their own nations. The country’s welcome for refugees specifically includes the provision of a plot of land to farm and access to local resources. Praised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and others, Uganda’s policies are now benefitting a total of 1,400,000 arrivals from neighbouring countries including South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are however tremendous needs among indigenous Ugandans, with 440,000 people in need of food aid. MAF flights from the capital Kampala therefore continue to shine a ray of help and hope upon whomever most needs it.
Extending the reach of Samaritan’s Purse
Besides serving isolated communities in Uganda, 5X-LDR also flies internationally to bring help and hope to vulnerable people in neighbouring countries. This quarter, one such flight brought 12 mission and relief workers into the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Staff from Samaritan’s Purse were among the six different groups represented on board, and this organisation’s ongoing ministry is part of the tremendous legacy of recently-deceased Billy Graham.
Responding to a long-term humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC, Samaritan’s Purse has established an operational base in the town of Bunia. Away from the spotlight of the world’s media, this area has seen a considerable resurgence of ethnic conflict in recent months. The spike in retaliatory violence has caused tens of thousands of people from both tribes to abandon their homes in fear.
Francis Houghton, Regional Director with Samaritan’s Purse, provides an explanation of how the organisation is assisting in the crisis. “The refugees are living in very desperate conditions, so we’ve started an initiative to provide emergency shelter (tarpaulins) and food for both tribes in different locations. We are helping to coordinate assistance, as you can imagine in a situation like this that coordination can be the first victim. We’re also assessing where organisations are not going, so we can fill in some of those gaps and go where the need is greatest.”
Rather than be discouraged by the scenes of man’s inhumanity to one another which Francis has witnessed in this current crisis, he is sustained by seeing people receive help in Jesus’ name. “I saw a woman who has 12 children and her husband is lame. She said to me ‘I’m just tired.’ To see someone like that get help and to take some of that load off and have an opportunity to tell her about Christ is so worth it,” he states.
When Francis is asked about how important MAF’s shuttle services are for the work of Samaritan’s Purse, he doesn’t hesitate to respond. “Every time I come here from North America, which is at least four times a year, I fly with MAF wherever I am. Samaritan’s Purse goes to places where others don’t like to go. We try to access the areas that are difficult to reach. Quite often they’re only reachable by air and MAF is there to take us,” he reports. “It’s because of that transport and service that beneficiaries are getting what they need.”
