Stars Ministries Uganda (SMU)

Stars caregivers returning home with food relief  As we have come to learn through personal experiences, the COVID-19 Global Pandemic has ravaged the entire world. Uganda has been no exception. As cases began to increase in the East African region in the month of March, a partial lockdown was declared on March 25 th , followed by a total lockdown with a twelve-hour curfew on April 1 st , 2020. The lockdown has impacted the country greatly. Some of the lockdown effects will remain with us for a long time. To the Stars (children with disabilities that are supported by Stars Ministry Uganda - SMU)’s caregivers, the impact of the lockdown was almost immediate. Most of the caregivers do daily jobs from which they earn a living to support their families; the very reason they leave their children at the Stars Day Care and Learning Center, during those critical working hours. To them, the lockdown meant no work, and more critically, no or very limited food. At the start of th...

Amuge and her fifteen-year-old Star Imagine the life of a mother of a fifteen-year-old child who still needs the care and support given to a newborn baby. Imagine a mother who still feeds a sixteen-year-old, changes their diapers, and carries them everywhere they need to go. This is Amuge’s daily experience, and indeed the experience of many mothers with children with disabilities (Stars moms). Every mother dreams about giving birth to a child who grows and becomes independent. It is any mother’s joy to see their child learn to hold a cup on their own or learn to go to the toilet on their own. It’s the joy of every parent to see their child taking care of themselves as they grow towards independence. Many mothers of children with disabilities (Stars) that come to the Stars Day Care and Learning Center have not lived the dream of every mother. Many have been abandoned by their husbands because the husbands have failed to put up with the needs and stigma of having a chil...

Welcome to the Stars Day Care and Learning Center located at Mutungo hill, near Luzira, in Kampala. The Stars Center also serves as the Ministry Center, for Stars Ministry Uganda (SMU). The Stars Day Care and Learning Center is the place where children with disabilities (who we call Stars) come, are cared for, accepted and loved. At the Stars’ Center, the Stars get training for basic skills in reading, writing, drawing, counting and self-care. The Stars take ‘walks’ and rides in the community, to interact with the world around them. Occasionally, they also get physiotherapy. At the Stars Center, the Stars interact with loving caretakers who teach them songs, poems, God’s Word and play with them while their parents and siblings are away for work and school respectively. The Stars’ Center started out of the realization that there were children with disabilities who stayed at home without care, while siblings went off to school, and parents went off to look for work to support ...

Jordan and Tamara, at Stars Daycare & Learning Center One of the twenty-six stars (persons with disabilities) that come to the Stars Day Care and Learning Center each day of the week is Jordan Sirira. Jordan is 18 years old, with a look of a twelve-year-old. Jordan lives with his Auntie, who has been taking care of him since the passing of his mother. Jordan has been in a wheelchair since he was 8 years old. The first time I met Jordan, I saw a young boy like any other. He was very handsome, brilliant, with a cute smile and a calm spirit. As I learned about his disability, I discovered that his Auntie had two theories about his disability. One of the theories was that Jordan had fallen off a swing and broken his spinal code when he was eight. The second theory was based on a belief that Jordan’s mother had been cursed by her relatives because Jordan's father did not pay the bride price for their daughter before giving birth to Jordan. For some time I believed that ...

Rogers (left) & Zawadi Band at the charity concert for Stars Have you ever wondered what can come out of one volunteering moment? It is true, God takes our small efforts and turns them into big things, often beyond our imagination. On one of the working days, Sylvia, the Executive Director of Stars Ministries Uganda (SMU) was stuck, needing a driver for the Stars’ Van. Stars are the people with disabilities that SMU serves. The SMU driver had quit without notice. The only person that came to mind was Mr. Rogers Ssekirime, because of his manual transmission driving skills. Sylvia called Rogers to come and volunteer for this one day and he accepted to come and drive the Stars for that day. As Sylvia and Rogers drove around, picking the Stars from their homes and dropping them off at the Stars Day Care and Learning Center, they met a mother of a child with disabilities, whose child was not part of SMU, at one of the pick-up points. In tears, she asked if her little Star ...

Stars (PWD) participating at a recent awareness match in Kampala Welcome to Stars Ministries Uganda (SMU) blog. Here, you will find updates of our work and information on how to get involved. Stars Ministries Uganda (SMU) is a non-profit organization working with people with disabilities (PWDs), children especially, and their families, in the Luzira area of Kampala district, in Uganda. The organization started its ministry operations in 2016 with formal registration of its first beneficiaries in March 2016 and had its very first program activity in May 2016. Currently, SMU is working with thirty-six Stars (PWDs) and their families. The ministry’s aim is to share the love of Christ, by encouraging and supporting families that have people affected by disability and create awareness in the church and the community about disability. The ministry desires to see local churches embrace Disability Ministry by accepting PWD as part of the community and support them to be involved in ...