So, back in 2009, a guy named Mubiru Bazirios emailed me— that’s ‘Basilios’ in Greek, or ‘Basil’ in English, but luGanda speakers tend to spell phonetically and have trouble with r’s and l’s, like the Japanese. The grandfather after whom he’s named was a son of Uganda’s very first Orthodox priest, and a priest himself. I understand that he’d been poisoned a few years before i arrived— I never did find out why, but it seemed especially unfortunate, the way people always talked about him. He’d even been to seminary in Russia, which is very unusual since the African church is so closely tied to Greece. Wished i could have met him.

But as i said, “our” Bazirios, the grandson, wrote in 2009:

—”am in 11th grade, in the sciences track…. I need to continue my studies. Now sir you are my saviour because i have searched from all the corners of the country and you are my last destination. Sir, please find my request worthy because i need to be a good man in future, and i beg you on my knees because the situation is worst than usual. If you consider it, i shall do my best to make you happy.”

Heartbreaking— but still— he makes you smile a bit, doesn’t he?

Well, unfortunately, we didn’t have the funds, and so Bazirios dropped out with only two years of high school to go. If the money were there, he could still go back even now— 30-year-old high school students are not so uncommon in Uganda— but what I didn’t know at the time was that, nine years earlier (2000), at age 15, he’d already gotten a wife, and that by the time he wrote they’d already had 4 kids. So failing to finish school was a serious setback for more than just himself. Still, what could we do.

But Bazirios is a cheerful fellow, despite his struggles. He likes to write songs and sing, and when he discovered me on Facebook, he took to trying out whatever random Greek phrases he’d pick up from the occasional visitor. Not always… successfully….

Well, about a year after that 2009 email, his brother Jonah disappeared. They traced him to to Ssese Island in Lake Victoria, where the locals told them that, as strangers there often do, he probably ended up getting sacrificed to the local gods. They never found any evidence, even with the police on the case, but that’s how he became responsible for Naluta Thecla, Jonah’s daughter.

You remember Thecla. About a year ago, a teacher knocked a little girl so hard, she dislocated her eyeball. We made an emergency appeal, and a couple of you stepped forward very generously and saved her eye. That girl was Thecla. I can’t remember whether I’ve already shown you her picture or not, but here she is, a real cutie:

Since 2009, Bazirios and his wife have had two more kids, so together with Thecla and sometimes Jonah’s son Mugumbya Jeremia (though he lives mainly with his mom), Bazirios now has 7 or 8 kids take care of. He also has to provide for his mom, who is severely diabetic, and his three siblings, Lukia, George, and Stavros. About George, more in a moment.

Let’s pause, though, for a little math break:

Bazirios has 6 kids of his own, 2 from Jonah, 3 younger siblings, his mother, his wife, and himself to take care of— that’s FOURTEEN people!! And— need we point out?— Uganda’s urban job market isn’t terribly kind to unskilled laborers, who comprise about 80% of the population.

But the story doesn’t begin or end there; far from it! I don’t want to make this email too long, so i’ll put the rest of his backstory (it’s really something!) here — but to tell you about the past couple of months, i’ll have to give you a couple of the highlights:

When Bazirios was a little boy, his father started beating his wife and 6 kids so bad that the mother took the kids and ran away. “We survived on cooked pawpaws [papaya], beging, picking eats from rubbish, snitching and steal the food from neighbours’ kids as they were eating, our mom could also beg for us to live”, he wrote.

But in 2013, times got so bad that they went back to his father to beg for help. Annoyed at the potential competition for her husband’s modest resources, his father’s new wife drove a nail into his brother Ssendija George’s head and swore she’d come after the rest of them as well. They fled. George survived, but he can’t do any heavy lifting; he could work in an office, but he’d need some training before he could get a job. That’s why Bazirios is still supporting him, though he’s 18.

So then last August:

—”KALIMERA SIR! MY BROTHER KIZITO MAKARIOS MARTIN, DIED AT NIGHT, BURRIAL IS TOMOROW 2: 00PM, AT THE HOME OF THE LATE REV FR BAZIRIOS NSUBUGA TANA AT MASANAFU, BUKULUGI ZONE. PRAY FOR HIM”

Did i know this Makarios? I knew one Makarios but i didn’t know if he was the same guy.

—”He looks just like me. You never surfaced him before. But he was killed by the [second wife] my aunts brought for our father. She bewitched him.”

Africans in general have a great fear of witchcraft. I don’t believe all the stories, but I don’t disbelieve some of them. So I can’t say much about “bewitching”. But after she pounded a nail into George’s head, I can see why Bazirios might think she was a witch. Anyway, he hinted that he needed help with the funeral expenses, so I told Mambo, our Program Manager in Uganda, to give him 100,000 UgX (about $30) to help out. That’s a lot of money in Uganda, but nowhere near what a funeral costs.

A few days later:

—”WE BURIED HIM ON SUNDAY, WHICH BIBLE VERSE CAN I READ ALWAYS FOR HIM?”

I told him, “We usually read the Book of Psalms.”

—”Thank you sir. All the psalms? I have to take care and educate all his 4 children, its all my responsibility. but i feel amuch load. Mr Mambo gave me 100k [$30] and iam going to give it to the 4 orphan’s school fees. Thanks alot, God-father, good night sir.”

WAIT!—

Did Bazirios just say he now has FOUR MORE kids from Makarios, in addition to the FOURTEENpeople he ALREADY HAS TO TAKE CARE OF???

That’s *NUTS*!!—

**EIGHTEEN PEOPLE!!!**—

And he’s *UNEMPLOYED*!!

—————

As I said, he’s usually pretty cheerful and in fact he complains so little that i got the whole picture only very recently. But his latest message was unexpectedly poignant:

—”So due to all, GOD sent me to your side. But why is it me with no job, academic document, condemned to surface all the probs and responsibilities? Coz now, i have to be with all these kids by all meanz, go to sch, eat, and medical. Can i say that GOD is punishing me / making me be a man at my sufering stuation?”

Mmm. Man. What would Jesus do?!

—Well, despite having a degree in theology, i have no idea what Jesus would do, but Bazirios and I got to discussing employment. Specifically, a vegetable shop. Eventually:

—”I found a good place suitable for the seling the stuffs, it can sell coz there are many peaple [there].

——————

So ok, dear friends, I think we’ve found a way to help Bazirios and his family write new chapter— one where hope dawns like a star in a very dark cave. (Had to say that, it’s Christmas!)

If we can get Bazirios and his wife set up in a little vegetable shop (my friend Joel Ssali also suggests a popcorn machine, which is a great idea), they can live there and take care of all their kids and siblings and mother (who by the way was just evicted). *We’ve already rented the shop*— but we need about $500 in startup capital.

And that’s for just ONE of our many projects!

Would you like to lend us a hand? Whatever you contribute will go directly to Mubiru’s family or to any other project you specify. And you will seriously be helping some real people in real need!

This is the backstory that Mubiru Bazirios sent me when I asked him to clarify the astonishing situation he reported to me after his brother George’s death. I’m posting it here as background for the newsletter i will send out shortly, whose contents I’ll post in the next article:

—”My names are Mubiru Bazirios, the son of Mr Ssegane Andrew, Ssegane Andrew is a son of the late Rev Fr Bazirios Nsubuga Tana. Fr Tana is the the son of the late Reuben Ssezimugumbya, the first reverend at the time when Orthodox Church came to Uganda. He taught catechism in the Pearl of Africa as being comanded by the late bishops Spartas and Theodoros, but the church didn’t help him so his children didn’t go to school.

“His son Andrew is my father, and my mother is Nalongo Maria Nakimera. We were born 6 alive and 3 died including twins. We never had what to eat, dad neither had a job nor our mam did have. Our dad was ever frustrated with no hope.

“We struggled to join school but we ever got sent back home for school charges. So we had to grow up biologically but when i reached 6th Grade, our dad started beating us badly. Jonah the firstborn ran away due to the torture, and was murdered on Ssese Island (sacrificed in a certain shrine).

“We left home with our mam because our paternal aunts had brought a[nother] woman for our father.

“We lived on street and verandahs with our mam as we go to schools for a month. When we were chased away, we could go to another at least to learn english. We survived on cooked pawpaws [papaya], beging, picking eats from rubbish, snitching and steal the food from neighbours’ kids as they were eating, our mam could also beg for us to live.

“I am the elder brother but am next to Anna. We begged people to help us so that we could get some land and build for our mother a room and not to stay outside, but it failed. We went to the bishop, but he chased us away.

“And we continued to be like slaves to people who could give us food. We went to dad to help my brothers Stavros and George and my sister Lukia, but my father’s new wife stopped him. At that time, i had to pay rent for our mam, pay school dues for Lukia, George and Stavrios, and also, care for kids of my brother Jonah, buy food, water, soap, medical and etc.

“2013, my father’s wife pierced a 6-inch nail in the head of my brother George but god helped the doctors to save him. But the doctors said he could not lift any thing more than like 5 kilograms. The step mam started to hunt us as she had promised to kill us with our mother. So we ran farther.

“2014, [my sister] Anna was bewitched and she ran insane, we suffered as we prayed to God to save us.

“One day but this year, 13th august, she killed my brother Makarios. He had 4 kids and now they are my responsibility.

“i don’t know where i can put and give them but now i am responsible for 14 kids including my 6. i have to cater for their food, school, medical, water, acommodation, including my mother because, i do not have land to cultivate or business to suport me or a plot to build for them a house. Anna, Bazirios, Makarios, Theodora, Lukia, George, Stavlos. My mam takes medical of 500,000/month [$150] but am job less…. she has never in 15 years had a full dose. I have not paid two terms for feas [because] the kids have to eat and drink, plus compulsory needs.

“Good night.”

So i asked, “Let me understand properly— How many people are you actually having to take care of (names and ages)?”

—”OK sir,
Nalongo Maria Nakimera:  my mother, she has diabetes,
Ssendija George: my brother, 18 yrs, who was pierced a nail in the head.
Namubiru Lukia: my sister, 17 yrs, S.6,
Nsubuga Stavros: my brother, 11 yrs, P.6,

Mutebi John: my son, 1yr,
Nansubuga Sharon: my daughter, 5 yrs, nursery,
Mukasa Jonah: my son, 5 yrs, nursery,
Namukasa Jacky: my daughter, 6 yrs P.2,
Mubiru John: my son, 3 yrs, nursery,
Namutebi Maria: my daughter, 3 yrs, nursery,

Naluta Thekla: Jonah’s daughter, 7 yrs, P.3,
Mugumbya Jeremia Edmondi: Jonah’s son 9 yrs, P.5, stays with his mother, but she asks school fees etc

Ssegane Makarios: Makarios’ son, 5 yrs, nursery,
Mukalazi Andrew: Makarios’ son, 4 yrs, nursery,
Ssendija Nectarios: Makarios’ son, 3 yrs, nursery,
Nankya Sophia: Makarios’ daughter, 2 yrs,

Then he added

—”My brother (dead Makarios) appeared in the dream he was crying to me while saying miserably that he died while I am just sitting and doing nothing.

“Can he be dangerous to me? Am not just sitting and doing nothing! Also i have to be with his children, now am stuck.

“He said i just sit around and do nothing yet we struggled together with our mother when we had been chased away from home by our aunts and our father, but the woman who they brought for our father, killed him with demons and that I did not save him.

“The woman promised to trace all of us and kill to have space. She spoke that when she had pierced a 6 inch nail into the head of my 2nd last brother george. Peaple tell us to hide far away to remain alive.”

Since he’s the oldest male, he’s responsible for his mother, who has diabetes— and was just evicted, by the way— and for his disabled brother, a sister, and a younger brother, as well as his wife, and himself, in addition to his 6 kids, the 2 of Jonah, and the 4 of Makarios. That’s EIGHTEEN people!

Lukia his sister brings in a little money from doing domestic labor, and George, who took the nail in the head, could work if he could find a desk job, but he needs at least to get some training before he’ll be qualified for that.

So here we are at the intersection of Christmas and desperation. Some of this money will come in, over time, if all of you continue as you’ve been doing.

But we need your help. Actually, we don’t need it—  good people like Bazirios need it.

Please be generous by contributing through Paypal:

—or by sending a check to the address on our contact page.

“Amen I say to you, to the extent you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”— Jesus.

“When you give alms, God himself becomes your debtor.”— St John Chrysostom.

The St. Nicholas Africa Fund is a Charitable Works project of St Nicholas Orthodox Church in San Anselmo, California, a 501(c)(3) organization. Contributions are fully tax-deductible.

What do we do?— We directly help some of the poorest people in the world— mainly in Uganda, Kenya, Congo, and South Africa— all of whom are personally known to us— to finish high school, start businesses, and to meet their education, housing, nutrition, medical, and vocational needs.

People have to eat, NOW— hunger doesn’t wait! 
Medical care often can’t wait either.
But beyond the emergencies, the goal is always an income.
Education and training lift out of poverty.

That’s our whole philosophy, from beginning to end.
And we bet it’s yours too.

You can give life, health, and prosperity. You can stop the hunger and pain. You can help people stand when the world is beating them down. The only question is, can you do anything more meaningful? Okay then. Let’s start.

It takes work to organize, and we end up sending out a lot more appeals than we wish we had to— but if your help, getting results is actually pretty straightforward. People know what they need. What they lack is usually just a little money to get going. They need school fees. Capital to open a shop. Basic nutrition. How hard is any of that?? You want to help, but the problem is, you just don’t know anybody there.

Well, we know lots of people, and we know them directly. Of course not everybody— but in our experience, when one person has an income, about eleven people eat. So when you send us a gift— BOOM!— people eat. people go to school. people get over typhoid. It seldom takes much, when the money goes right to the person who needs it. And that’s what we do. We send your money right to their phone. We work directly with our clients. We know what they’re going through. And they send us their receipts. (Well, when reasonable). So YOU accomplish your purpose in giving.

Can you help us?—

or click here!

A thumbnail sketch of how it began . . . and continued

From the start of the program in 2003 through December 2022, we’ve sent more than $558,000— over half a million dollars— in direct assistance to Uganda, the Congo, Kenya, and South Africa, helping scores of students finish school, saving lives, training engineers, and creating jobs. We’re even sponsoring a medical student, the very first from his entire sub-county. He and his sponsors are beginning to think about building the first clinic in his area.

You probably wonder how much of your charitable gifts actually land on the people you want to help. But what if you knew you were directly paying school fees, or curing a case of typhoid, or feeding someone right now, today? That’s what we’re all about— you send $100 and Kasirye eats, Okello pays his school fees, and Margaret has her operation. It’s that straightforward!

The Africa Fund got started in 2003 when longtime St Nicholas parish member John Burnett went to Kampala, Uganda to work for a couple of months as an education consultant for the Orthodox archdiocese there. Not long after, he returned and worked for several years as Dean of its seminary. At that time, he started to support, and then to organize support, for high school students he knew who were in danger of dropping out for lack of fees. Later on, he became Dean of the seminary in Johannesburg, and found himself working with many Congolese and Zimbabwean refugees in a very deteriorated and crime-ridden but lovely slum known as Yeoville. Thus he expanded the program to serve some of his new contacts as well. The fund still supports one university student in South Africa, the son of a Congolese refugee, who expects to graduate in 2024.

But one Johannesburg family— Patrick, Christelle, and their infant son Blessing— returned to the Congo a few years ago. Through a series of disasters, accidents, deaths, and other catastrophes, they soon found themselves running what is now effectively an orphanage with 13 kids, from age 16 down to 3. As of January 2023 it costs about $3600 per month to keep all of them in a very crowded house, in school, fed, and healthy. We’ve helped Patrick and Christelle start a little restaurant, and they manage to defray a small part of their costs, but otherwise, there’s no way they could keep the whole program going. The kids themselves are from four different families, none of whom knew each other before Patrick and Christelle took them in— only Blessing and two-year-old Julianne are their own.

The Fund focuses on helping poor students get an education, but because we have a fairly close relationship with them, we’ve always provided medical, nutritional, and housing assistance as well. We’ve sponsored some of our graduates in vocational or even university programs, and we’ve helped some of them to start small businesses. Our vision and our goal is for them to become self-sufficient. Our experience has been that in Africa, when one person has a job, about ten people eat. Most of the small businesses that our clients have started have proven successful, and one or two at a time, the kids are graduating.

Administration and oversight

The Fund is directed and administered by Mr Burnett himself. We do pay a Program Manager in Kampala to keep an eye on each of our recipients personally, and to make sure that every cent remitted reaches its intended purpose. At home, the program is also overseen by the Parish Treasurer at St Nicholas in San Anselmo.

Because remitting money abroad has gotten very easy since Covid forced everyone to go online, we can now send funds directly to many recipients, or to their parents if the kids are young. Doing this is cost-effective and eliminates paying mobile-money fees inside Uganda. But sometimes it’s still expedient to batch funds and send them through the Program Manager, and he either pays the schools directly, or sends the money to the client so they can buy clothing, food, books, etc. We get receipts whenever possible (Africa’s economies are largely informal, so it’s often not possible), and we keep a strict account of all money transfers.  Mr Burnett submits quarterly reports to the St Nicholas Parish Council, and the account is professionally audited and a report submitted to the Parish at the end of each year.

We can’t always avoid money-transfer and bank fees, but those and communication costs are our only overhead. We know each of our recipients face-to-face, and communicate with many of them often. The whole operation is very person-to-person. With us, you’re basically looking into someone’s eyes as you take care of their need.

To sum it up

We strive to support our recipients at least through the end of high school or vocational training, but some kids are definitely university material, and we try to help them, especially in medicine or STEM subjects. Azizi recently got an IT degree in Turkey, and has just completed an internship in Belgium. Samuel is now the manager of a hydroelectric power station on the Congolese border (!), and is paying for his own siblings’ education. Moses graduated from Kampala International University, got a job running the security system at a large business, and just bought a piece of land. Richard is currently a full-time medical student. Typically, we help our kids for about 10 years.

Do you know a charity where you could have a more direct impact? If you do, then please let us know— we want to find out how they do it, so we can do it too!

More than half a million dollars of direct assistance has made an incredible difference in the lives of some of Africa’s poorest people since 2003. A high school certificate is the minimum requirement for most employment, and we’ve sponsored scores of them. The apprenticeships we’ve arranged, the business grants we’ve given, and the emergency food, housing, and medical assistance we’ve provided have helped entire families to stay afloat and even to thrive. We’ve directly saved many lives by taking care of accidents, serious operations, and emergency medical care.

Can you think of anything more amazing than saving a life?

Or than giving the gift of life?

Now that you have an idea of the kind of impact we have, would you be averse to helping us out today?

Would you hesitate even to set up a monthly contribution, if you could?

Click on this Paypal button. You don’t have to have a Paypal account, and it’s safe and secure—

—or just send a check to

Africa Fund
St Nicholas Orthodox Church
102 Ross Avenue
San Anselmo CA 94960 USA.

https://stnicholasmarin.org/africafund/

And contact us from the link at the bottom of this page if you have any questions, comments, or wish to sponsor a student or address a particular need.