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Forty years ago I arrived in Uganda, which
at that time was quite peaceful and prosperous. I was full of misgiving
as I didn’t know what to except and was appointed to one of the most rural
areas you could imagine. For a city boy, born in London, this was quite
a challenge. However I felt a lot of support from my missionary
confreres from Mill Hill, and from SPICMA, the charity which was started
by my brother Patrick together with other members of the family, and
friends like Sam Ewing, with whom we grew up in North London. I never
forget seeing a crowd of people streaming past our house in my first
parish, Toroma, carrying sacks and basins. They were going to the
sub-county HQ to collect relief food and obviously happy at the
prospect. In the late afternoon I saw a dejected crowd dragging
themselves back with empty containers. The food had not arrived. Maybe
it had been diverted as tends to happen here. It was to SPICMA that I
turned for help to assist these subsistence farmers who were near to
starvation. This was the beginning of SPICMA’s involvement in addressing
life threatening problems. In those days they raised funds through
jumble sales, collection boxes, and selling Christmas Cards. Later there
were charity shops, a charity business in Church items, and direct
appeals. A SPICMA group in Derry also became closely involved.
1971
was a turning point in Uganda, as in January of that year, Idi Amin Dada
staged a military coup. Life became increasingly dangerous for everyone
as the true nature of Amin’s evil rule became clearer. The sudden
expulsion of the Asian community in 1972 with all the human misery that it
entailed for many of them who had never known any other home, led to the
immediate break down of all the infrastructures. The most life
threatening was the collapse of the health services. SPICMA moved into a
higher gear to help us on the ground provide medical help to people in the
East of Uganda. We were very grateful to the then Overseas Development
Aid department of the UK government who paid for SPICMA’s freight costs
for a number of years.
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