Haggai Revival Teaching Ministries (HARTM) is a Faith Based Organization registered as a non profit making organization, which began in 2003 with its head office located in Busia District in Eastern Uganda. The main goal of HARTM is to evangelize, address needs of the vulnerable people and advocate for their human rights in Busia District.
Busia District is located on the South eastern part of Uganda. It’s 196 kms from Kampala the capital city of Uganda. It’s is bordered by Tororo in the North, Bugiri in the West, Lake Victoria in the South and Kenya in the East. The district lies approximately between longitude 33º 5” - 33 º 1 East and latitude 0 º 10 - 0 º 35 North covering a total area of 743 Sq Km. It has a population of 255,008 people with one county, 10 Sub counties, 58 parishes and 534 villages.
In Busia, according to Busia local government statistics, (District news letter, June 2007), HIV/AIDS prevalence is at 14%, which is just far above national average of 6.4% (Uganda AIDS Commission latest report), a district located at the Border between Kenya and Uganda where several commercial activities take place including most dangerously commercial sex exploitation involving the girl child, hence putting many people in risky behaviors and hindering the promotion of girl child education.
Religious leaders team up to confront HIV and AIDS in Busia
For long, Faith Based Organizations have been playing a very low profile on curbing the deadly disease of HIV and AIDS but now, the future looks bright.
Churches and mosques had felt the impact of the disease but were reluctant to take action until recently when Rev. Herbert Tigateege managed to mobilize and brought them together to jointly plan to confront the challnges of HIV and AIDS, Child Abuse, Gender Violence and Poverty begining with their congregations first and hence the entire community. Our religious conflicts were trampled as we elected a committee from different religious sects which will be responsible for planning, monitoring and evaluating the activities to be carried out by the Busia Faith Based Organizations cluster, he reported.
The Busia Faith Based Organization cluster executive committee is as follows;
1. Chairperson - Rev. Herbert Tigateege from Anchor organization
2. Vice-Chair-person - Dr. Patrick Barasa - Catholic Church
3. Secretary - Sheikh Maskin Ali - Muslim Supreme Council
4. Treasurer. - Ven.Rev. Martin Luther Ofwono - Church of Uganda
5. Coordinator - Rev. Silas Kenyi - Fellowship of Born Again Churches
6. Two women representatives to be confirmed in the next siting
Is there hope for OVCs and PHAs in Uganda?
Mr. John Engole and his wife Teddy are residents
of
Busia
who have been married for 25 years and
knew
their PHA
status in 2003. As a PHA couple,
they decided
to overcome
despair, anxiety and public opinion for their
lives and happily
stay together. John serves in the community
as a volunteer
in Home Based Counselling whereas Teddy represents the PHA
women beneficiaries on
our ministry board.
