Mercy Link Foundation Africa: DAILY BREAD

Mercy Link Foundation Africa: DAILY BREAD: THE SECRET OF GREAT SPIRITUAL STRENGTH “There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God...

ABOUT US 

Mercy Link Foundation Africa  is a Christian, non-denominational and non-sectarian Organization  seeking to equip and empower the  local Church,Grass root organization and individuals with a passion to reach the lost and vulnerable  in Africa. 

Vision: Our vision is to transform communities and create a legacy of peace through equipping the church in Africa for relevance, responsibility and sustainability.  

Mission: The organization’s mission is to help and develop the distressed, needy, neglected and vulnerable people in Uganda and Africa spiritually, socially and economically by empowering them through capacity building and providing necessary knowledge for relevance, responsibility and sustainability.

We liaise with local churches, Grass root organizations, schools, Christian groups and prisons in order to carry out evangelistic missions, preaching and teaching in various forms, social interactions and outreaches aimed at bringing communities to the full knowledge of the Lord Jesus Chris

Bible Church is one of Mercy Links major community projects. The church adopts the name from the fact that it is set within a community to operate in and serve that given community. The church operates in three distinct yet unified entities namely

1.   Children community Bible Clubs

1.   Youth Community Bible Clubs and

1.  Adult community Fellowship Groups

children community Bible CLUBS 

FIRM FOUNDATION 

The Bible says in Colossians 2:7 "Plant your roots in Christ and let him be the Foundation for your life."

People who do not understand God's purpose for their lives end up living for the Moment and so do the children.  Before we can begin to show children how to live their lives and what principles to build their lives upon, we must first lay a foundation. The only way we can lay a foundation in the lives of our children is to show them that God created them for a reason. 

He made them:

1. In His Image

2. To Know Him

3. For a Purpose

That foundation must explain their purpose In life. The children must understand that God made them for a reason. If this Foundation is not laid, the children will think that Christianity is just a bunch a rules they have to follow, and will not understand that they were created to live for God.

Once this foundation is laid, it can be built upon. We can then Focus on Christian Living, Following God's Commands and Facing Life's Battles.

One place where this can be effectively administered is in the Children community Bible Clubs.  At these clubs our aims are as follows.

OUR AIMS

• DEVELOP CHILDREN TO BE WHAT GOD CREATED THEM TO BE. Proverbs 22:6

• CHILDREN TO BEAR FRUIT John 15:5

• CHILDREN WILL GROW TO KNOW JESUS AND TELL OTHERS ABOUT HIM. Mathew 28:19

• TRAIN AND EQUIP CHILDREN TO BE DISCIPLES. 2Timothy 2:2

In one of the programs called Samuel’s Association; we train Sunday school teachers, Youth workers and Pastors on how to evangelize communities through children’s and youth ministries. We train Children’s facilitators on how to effectively run children Ministry and particularly a Children community Bible Clubs, tell the Gospel to children, How to communicate to different age groups, Lesson planning and how to develop their own curriculum, Teaching Life Skills to Pre-teens and Teenagers, Child Protection, Advocacy and Wellbeing. Through these trainings we have established over 40 Children and Youth community Bible Clubs to help establish a crime free and God fearing generation.

As children come to Christ, they often open doors for the Gospel to be shared with their families, as well. In many resistant areas, this opportunity must be handled with great prayer and respect. But children often bring their entire families to Christ shortly after believing in Him!

Children can also learn to share the Gospel with other children! Their friends are also reachable, teachable and connected to families. They have their all lives ahead of them and can be part of reaching future generations for Christ if we reach them now. Children have amazing potential to not only be the future Church but the church today!

youth Community Bible Clubs 

Many Children community Bible Clubs over the years have had been formed after trainings in different communities along side Churches, organizations, schools, prisons and community leaders sensitizing them on the value of children and how to engage and transform communities through children. As a result we have seen communities slowly being transformed. Being that Mercy Links focus is not only on the children alone but on the person as a whole. Our dream is to see that this person is catered for through all the stages of his/her life that’s to say from being a child, to a pre-teen, to a youth, to an adult and finally to the old age. As children become Pre-teens and youths, they tend not like to be associated or put together with children as a result when no special program is set for them, they end up finding alternative programs else where. Knowing this very well, we have been preparing to launch these rather fast growing children to the next phase which is the Youth community Bible Clubs.

Just like the Children community Bible Clubs, Youth Hubs are created to cater for the physical and spiritual needs of the participants. However, unlike the children’s community Bible clubs, the members are basically Pre-teens and youths from the ages of 14-27 years. The purpose of the Hub is three fold.

1.  Leadership Development

1.  Discipleship

1.  Crime Prevention

The activities in these Hubs differ greatly from those in the community Bible clubs since they are more engaging. The participants are more engaged in the running of the Hubs along side the facilitators’ since the activities are more practical that oral. Some of these activities include.

• ·        Outreaches

• ·         Short Discipleship courses

• ·         Seed projects

• ·         Voluntary work

• ·         Life skill lessons

• ·         Counseling

• ·         Evangelism

• ·         Clubs

-          Music

-          Art

-          Dance

-          Readers and writers

-          Drama

• ·         Camps and Rallies

• ·         Sports and indoor games

• ·         Civic and Vocational Education

• ·         Exposure Tours

Through these hubs, we believe to cub down crime in these communities being that over 90% of crimes committed in communities are by pre-teens and youths. This has basically been because the young people have not be engaged in activities that allows them to effectively put their energy into practice. These hubs will also cater for talent/skill development, leadership and human resource development among other benefits. As we develop this concept, we believe to see communities transform and the young generation grow to be great men and women who will in turn change the world.

Adult community FELLOWSHIP GROUPS 

These churches operate in communities and Prisons. Run by prisoners in prisons and potential church planters in communities, Mercy Link undertakes a six module training course for potential church planters before churches get planted n these localities. The churches are operational especially in the prisons. Setting these churches on proper foundation shaving children and the youth in mind, these churches are set to accommodate the young generation of believers from the children and youth community churches. With the settings of these small churches in mind, the adult community church are  set up to nature and support the other two churches as the believers grow and mature in their faith.

The churches are still more operational with in the prison settings.

Prison MINISTRY

 One other Major area of our major areas of operation is the prisons in Uganda. God has granted us full leverage and access to all prisons in Uganda. This has so far given us access to over 12,000 prisoners in different districts since the year begun and over 5,130 committing and rededicating their lives to Christ.

Across the globe, prison systems are a male-dominated area of society and Uganda is no exception to this. In fact in Uganda, 

 The prisons have a total of over 30,312 inmates 

• Women make up only 5% of the inmates in Uganda Prison

• Children in women's prisons in Uganda make up about 10 per cent of the population. Added to the number of imprisoned juveniles under the age of 18, the reality is that children make up closer to 20 per cent of the prison population in this region.

• Over 161 innocent children are languishing in Uganda Prisons because of crimes committed by their mothers.

This therefore posses as a huge opportunity to reach the lost in these institutions yet untapped. Most of the inmates about 70% are youths below the age of 40 meaning if not well rehabilitated, still have much potential to come out and cause much more havoc in the communities where they come from. This therefore calls for an establishment of a preventive measure to cub the problem before it happens. This has been our goal even as we reach out to these prisons.

We have effectively done this through the establishment of Prisdon churches in the prisons and establishment of discipleship programs in these prisons. To date such programs run in six prisons of Lizira Remand and women Prison, Murchison Bay Prison, Kauga Prison, Kigo Prison Men and women Prison, Jinja Kirinya women and  Main Prison, Kasangati Prison, Kitala Prison and now expanding to different prisons in different communities.

 This strategy also encompasses prison warders from whom potential church planters are identified and commissioned to over see rthe prison churches. One such officer is Mr. Opolot James who over sees two churches in one of the prisons in the country.

Safety top

“Advocacy for Children’s Rights and Safety”

SAFETY TOP is a product of Mercy Link Foundation Africa which promotes Child Safety, Children’s Rights, Development and Protection.

Safety top promotes child well being and safety by empowering children, parents and local leaders on keeping Children safe and providing a hazard free environment.

According to the United Nations Convention of Rights of the Child, ALL children are born with fundamental freedom and ALL humans have some inherent rights.

Children are innocent, trusting and full of hope.

Their childhood should be happy and loving.

Their lives should mature gradually as they gain new experiences.

But for many children, the reality of childhood is all together different. It’s estimated that about 64.82 deaths/1000 live births (2009 estimate) in Uganda will die before they celebrate their first birthday. Right through Uganda’s history, children have been abused and exploited. They suffer from homelessness, hunger, physical abuse, high infant mortality, limited opportunity for basis education, deficiency in health care, and work in harmful conditions.

In Uganda more than a third of inhabitants live below poverty line. Children are the primary victims. Their families can not ensure their health or their wellbeing particularly in the remote regions of the country.

Some children are sent to live in towns and cities as it is thought that they will be better off living in urban areas. Instead they often end up living on the streets. Their rights are neglected as a result of poverty, access to education for example in a privilege from which only the most fortunate children benefit.

Najjembe    is one of the communities where we have undertaken the safety Top project. With the escalating child abuse threat in this community, through the local council leadersh, we were able to engage the parents on a sensitization campaign on child protection and rights.

The local council team together with the parents selected have so far set a team called “The Child Rights Team” that would monitor and address child abuse cases in the community. They also proposed for more outreaches to the different schools and families in the community more so door to door outreach, crusades and movies to empower the locals. The Local council leaders pledged to help in any way possible in as far as mobilization and allocation of the places is concerned. The team selected were commissioned and given the responsibility to curb and address such cases under the supervision of the Local council leaders.

Like the training in Kitigoma, this program was organized to create awareness on the children rights. Through our program called “Safety Top” that advocates for children rights and safety, we educated the children on what their rights are and what is expected of them. This came as a shock as most of the children came to learn some of their rights. As the opportunity was given to share the children could not help but identify areas were they believe their or friends rights could have been abuse.

In line with this after the training, the children agreed on the proposal to form a rights group that would advocate for their rights. A team comprised of more that twelve children was formed to educate and advocate for the rights of the children in the school and the community. This is to take effect immediately as the team and the children agreed after commissioning.

Hidden children

  She was neglected by her father and denied the right to education...we rescued her got a her wheel chair and took her to school ... now she attends school. at one of  the best schools for  children with special needs ...The doctors say she can walk again if operated ...for more information  on how to help please contact using the information below.

Children with disabilities are among the most neglected groups in the policy domain as well as in the private sphere. The majority of these children face enormous economic, political, and social barriers that have an adverse impact on their physical, social and intellectual development and wellbeing. Many of them do not have access to the most basic needs such as health services and education; experience multiple deprivations even within their family and are invisible in the national policy agenda. This is due to the fact that some people still considers disability as inability and hence, some people with disabilities are kept away from the public.

About 80% of children with disabilities in Uganda are not getting education because of their disability. However education and training for people with disabilities is made possible in a few organizations. For people with disabilities’, going to school is hard but getting a job is even 10 times harder. The disabled just make 0.2 % of the work force despite of the income tax makes a provision of tax incentives for employers of 5% or more people with disabilities. This is basically because of shortages of jobs people with disabilities traditionally qualify for.

Various factors have been attributed to the increasing number of cases of disabilities in the country among which include; Violence, HIV/AIDS and diseases such as polio, Birth defects, Malnutrition, Population growth, Ageing population, Environmental degradation, Injuries at home, workplace and roads, wars.

Project Overview:

Mercy link believes that people with disabilities are an integral part of the society. We believe children with disabilities have the potential to lead a fulfilling life and to contribute to the social, cultural and economic vitality of their communities. This belief has therefore build a foundation to support and advocate for children/people with disabilities through its arm called “Hidden Children”.

We will  Protect and promote the rights of children  with disabilities by providing Formal Education , community sensitization , wheel chairs, teaching and promoting vocational skill education to empower them to become self reliant, and also helping them overcome some of their common challenges which include stigmatization, lack of proper communication to the blind, the deaf, competition for seats with able students in lecture rooms, to lack of enough money to buy some material things they need for their education, which are more expensive than the tuition paid by the government yet such things are not covered by the policy.

  Mercy Link Foundation Africa

is a registered Charity Under the National NGO Board

 Reg #  S.5914/10122

Account Name: Mercy Link Foundation Africa

Account Number: 03054650005

Bank of Africa (Uganda) East Africa

Swift Code: AFRIUGKA

For more Information please contact us on 

P.O.BOX 28698 KAMPALA UGANDA EAST AFRICA

Mercylink2@gmail.com

mercylinkadmn@yahoo.com

Mobile Line +256 772314262 (MTN)

Mobile Line +256 704927362 ( Warid)

Office line: +256 790913402 (Orange

Links: https://twitter.com/mercylinkafrica

            https://www.mercylinkfoundationafrica.org

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mercy-Link-Foundation-Africa /212454875452484