The Robert Kayanja Ministries has scooped the prestigious international humanitarian award for feeding people in Karamoja and conflict-riddled South Sudan.
The Global Humanitarian Award recognizes and celebrates influential non-profit organizations committed to community service and societal advancement.
This year, among the honorees, Pastor Robert Kayanja and his ministry received international recognition for their humanitarian efforts, specifically for aiding the food-insecure Karamoja and South Sudan which has witnessed years of conflicts and bad weather.
“A special thanks to the partners and friends of Pastor Robert Kayanja Ministries. This award is a global humanitarian award and is in recognition of the food aid given to needy areas like Karamoja and the Sudan. We thank you very much. Karamoja belongs to you,” Pastor Jessica Kayanya (Pastor Kayanja’s wife) posted on her social media accounts.
This was after she received the award on behalf of the ministry on Friday.
Pastor Kayanja and the founder of the Robert Kayanja ministries, for over four decades of the ministry, has not limited his gospel to spiritual redemption, but entire well-being of humanity by among others supporting the education of needy children, encouraging Christians in social-economic initiatives and humanitarian support.
As the chairman of Afri-Aid a non-profit organization under the Kayanja Ministries with support from the coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation (Owc), Gen.Salim Saleh, and the businessmen in Kampala, raised millions of money and delivered several tons of food to South Sudan capital, Juba to feed millions of the war affected persons.
This, among others, attracted applause and recognition from President Yoweri Museveni who stressed it was well in line with the gospel of Christ.
“I congratulate the congregation and General Saleh for having the noble idea of helping our brothers and sisters in South Sudan who are in need,” Museveni stated in a statement which was carried on the Robert Kayanja Ministry website.
According to the President, they had made the aid in line with the teachings in the Bible that require man to love his neighbor as he loves himself adding that they were making the right move in standing by ‘our’ brothers in South Sudan.
To date, over seven million people per the global humanitarian reports are still enduring hunger-related difficulties across South Sudan, a country of roughly 12 million people that seceded from Sudan in 2011.
Kayanja has also since 2022 been implementing a campaign to feed Karamoja which has suffered food insecurity among others occasioned by cattle rustling occasioned instability and drastic weather coupled with erratic rains and floods.
The campaign has since transitioned from the donation of food ferried to Karamoja in aid caravans to growing food on Karamoja soil
“If Ugandans really want Karamoja to change, we need to get into farming,” Kayanja said as he launched the campaign to grow food in Karamoja.
The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) coordinated emergency measures among others by distributing food in several parts of Karamoja, but they were overwhelmed by the demand.
However, harvest is now being witnessed in Karamoja, with the great contribution of the Kayanja Ministries which has since planted thousands of acres of food in the region.
Karamoja is the only semi-arid region of Uganda bordering western Kenya. It covers an area of approximately 27,528km, with a projected population of about 1.4 million people.
It is made up of the Abim, Amudat, Moroto, Kotido, Kaabong, Karenga, Nabilatuk, Napak, and Nakapiripirit districts.
Due to his efforts in Karamoja through the Yeshua Ministries, in October 2023, Kayanja was recognised and a warded during the UBLs Annual Farmers Symposium for contributing to food security in Karamoja.
The agriculture state minister, Bwino Kyakulagha while handing over the award to Kayanja at Hotel Africana in Kampala commended him calling on other players in the private sector to emulate Kayanja by among others supporting farmers access markets for their produce.
According to the global acute malnutrition (GAM), a World Health Organisation (WHO) indicator, due to acute food in Karamoja between 2021-2022, malnutrition hit a record high in decades prompting humanitarian organisations to warn that the threat of thousands of children wasting was undoubtedly in the region.
It indicated that the rate of under-five malnourished children in the region increased from 9.7% in 2020 to 10.7% in 2021 and 13.1% in 2022.
Relatedly, the Kayanja Ministries was outstanding in bailing out Ugandans who were affected by the anti-COVID austerity measures with food.
The ministry donated several tons of food in low income and highly populated slums of Kampala and other areas to feed the people affected by the lockdown protocols announced by the government to curtail the wide spread of the novel virus that was confirmed in the country in March 2020.
Kayanja’s humanitarian actions can also be traced even right from after the 1986 the Luweero-Triangle bush war that ushered in the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government.
Effective post-war, Kayanja launched the Kapeeka Orphange home in Nakaseke district that to among others offer home to children affected by the Luweero-Triangle liberation war and support their education.
According to Kayanja, Kapeeka Orphange has produced thousands of professionals including; doctors, lawyers, judges among others who are serving both in Uganda.
At a recent event Kayanja hosted at the Rubuga Miracle Centre Cathedral to honor God for enabling Dr. Henry Kamugisha one of the beneficiaries of the orphanage, to attain a Master’s Degree in Global Health from Notre Dame University in the US, implored all those who have gone through his hand to impact their local communities.
“We started the Kapeeka orphanage way back in 1986 soon after the bush war that brought in the NRM government. Though we started small, we were able to educate a number of young orphans and other underprivileged children,” he said.
