Covid-19 in Uganda

COVID-19 has tremendously impacted the entire world over the last several months. As many companies and organizations have had to halt operations of their businesses, we are grateful that Simone’s Kids has still been able to operate. We have continued to minister to the students, their families, staff, and the community of Nakaseke. 

We are humbled by the response to the coronavirus, and beyond grateful for the unwavering commitment of our donors to Simone’s Kids’ students. Over the past two months, our staff has delivered bags of posho and beans to 56 families and 156 students! Our staff wanted to be sure that the most vulnerable and in-need families were provided for during this time. Food in Nakaseke is often a day to day issue and is even more difficult during this shutdown. Thanks to you, we were able to make sure our students have food and resources during this time away from school! 

Uganda has been under a countrywide lockdown now for two months. Many people have been out of work due to schools, businesses, shops, and transportation services being forced to shut down. For the foreseeable future, Uganda is going to continue with lockdown and will start its phase one reopening hopefully June 2nd. The government will provide every person over the age of six with a mask, which will allow some restrictions to be lifted. Some people will return to work as shops and public transportation slowly begin to open. The country will continue a mandatory curfew however, from 7 pm to 6:30 am. 

The first step for Ugandan schools is to allow candidate classes to resume. Candidate classes are grade levels deemed essential due to government testing at the end of the year. For Simone’s Kids, this means that P7, S4, and S6 will be the first classes to resume at God’s Hope. For the rest of the school, a return date is still unknown. We look forward to easing back into school and allowing some of our staff and teachers to return to work again. God’s Hope may not be at full capacity for a while, but we are excited to start the transitioning process to opening back up. 

Please join us in prayer for Uganda, the leadership, and our community of Nakaseke as we navigate this time together.