I AM A DEDICATED MOTHER

At 16 years old, Susan, who lives in northern Uganda, left school. “Me and my siblings were 12 in number… It was my elder brother who had to pay our school fees, which was difficult for him, especially after he got married.”

Susan always hoped she’d get to go back to school. But in rural Uganda, life isn’t often that easy. Instead, Susan soon found herself on a very different path: that of a wife and a mother. Now, she’s committed to making sure her children get to finish their education. Working and saving for them.

“I have a dream for them,” Susan admits. “I don’t know what each of them would love to study, but I’m thinking the first one should study law and become a lawyer, and [all of them] should achieve some good level of education.”

Susan’s eldest son, Joshua, has a problem with his lungs. It means he’s often sick. The treatment he needs is expensive. Susan and her husband David are saving for it – but with school bills to pay, food to put on the table, and everything it costs to run a home and raise a family, it’s going to take a long time to save enough.

“It always breaks my heart,” says Susan, speaking about the times Joshua gets sick. “Especially when he’s staying at home, when others are studying. He’s supposed to be at school, and I feel bad.” Farming is the source of Susan and her family’s survival. But every year, it gets harder for farmers like Susan to grow the food they desperately need. People in northern Uganda used to be able to predict, almost to the day, when the rains would come. The devastating effects of climate change mean that now, the rains are unpredictable – and sometimes they don’t come at all. Just last year, in northeast Uganda, hundreds of people tragically died of hunger due to famine.

The BMS World Mission team is working to make sure farmers like

Susan have the skills and seeds they need to keep growing food in this rapidly changing climate. And to look after the earth as they do it. This training has equipped Susan to grow more food. Food she can use to feed her family. And food she can sell to help raise her children – paying for their education, their medical fees, their day-to-day life.

“I want to thank God so much for the project that has come,” says Susan. “[Before], I would prepare my field and I would lack the seed to plant.” After receiving seeds and training from BMS worker Genesis Acaye and his team, this year, Susan has grown a bountiful harvest!

She has bags full of beans, ready to sell and eat, as well as peanuts, onions, maize and African eggplant. “I will take some to church for my tithe,” she says. “I will sell others to pay for my children’s school, and also keep others for food.”

Susan’s able to make the money she earns from farming go further by being part of her church’s savings group (which was originally set up almost a decade ago with the help of BMS supporters!). Through the savings group, Susan and the other members save money together, so they always have some reserves to draw on when they have an innovative business idea, or when an emergency strikes.

“The savings group has helped us in a lot of ways,” says Susan. “I’ve borrowed money several times. For example, when my firstborn was sick, I had to rush and borrow money to take him to the hospital. Or sometimes the children will be chased from school because of school fees. So you run to the savings group and borrow money to send them back to school.”

Susan loves meeting up with the women in her savings group on Monday afternoons – her neighbours, fellow businesswomen, friends –finding out how they’re doing and encouraging them. Some of the women in the group don’t belong to churches, so Susan invites them to join her at church, too.

“As a Christian, the main thing that you should do is to make sure you show God in whatever you do,” says Susan. “How you live with people, how you relate to people... People should see that you have God with you, so that they are encouraged.”

It’s not only her four children Susan is working hard to support. She’s