Nine years ago a young lady by the name of Juliet Najja had an encounter with God and received instruction regarding a call to comfort the orphans and widows. This happened on an ordinary night, which became an experience to be remembered for a lifetime. Prior to this Juliet was leading an ordinary life until she was persuaded by her friend to go to her prayer group. Juliet accepted to go just to please her friend and she did not expect much to happen at all but on that night, she had a revelation which unexpectedly changed her life and gave her a different perspective. She felt her burdens lifted and a great peace overwhelmed her. In just an instant, her focus changed and she started believing in God. That led her to change her priorities and she chose to seek and find out more about God.

In 1997 she had 2 visions, one was about a man on the cross who she believed was Jesus and three weeks later she had another vision in which she comforted a widow and her children. At that moment, she understood that God wanted her to comfort orphans and widows. She could not understand why God would give her such a big task, but He did any way.

Today, Juliet would like to share this vision with millions of people all over the world putting emphasis on God’s word from the book of James 1: 27 Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us. God has inspired Juliet to create a charity named “Abba Fathers House” where children can have a place of residence and be assisted with their day to day living needs like education, feeding, treatment, nurturing and encouragement to have hope regardless of their circumstances etc.

James 1:27 "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world."

ABBA Father's House is an orphanage/children centre under construction in Jinja, Uganda's second largest town. It is a Christian charity formed to create homes for disadvantaged children, especially orphans who have lost both their parents, to give them hope and to encourage them to positively look forward to the future by putting their trust in Jesus Christ, the only one with power to save and to help children as well as the widows to develop a God dependence attitude so that Christ may be formed in them too.

Juliet’s heart’s desire is to rescue disadvantaged children and widows from the oppression and depression caused by poverty which comes as a result of the death of their loved ones. We have a passion to build homes where disadvantaged children can live safely and have the chance of a better life and we purpose to give the children and widows love, spiritual and practical care, skills training and the encouragement to hope for the future and the vision became a reality in March 2006. Depending on God’s leading and availability of funds, we hope to extend our branches across Uganda and into all nations by the will of God according to the vision God gave Juliet.

In December 2004, Juliet purchased a 2 acre piece of land and registered the charity in Uganda and started putting things together. She started constructing phase 1 (a) in August 2005 and as the building continued, Juliet started receiving some financial support from friends and the building work for phase 1 (a) home which can accommodate up to 35 children was completed in February 2006. We have also constructed 3 other building; the poultry house, mushroom house, the bakery and a forth one for the widow’s project will be constructed next to enable us equip children with different skills and to also generate some income locally.

This is a picture of what life means to a disadvantaged children and a widows

• The HIV/AIDS virus has claimed lots of lives in Uganda leaving many children orphaned. Life for such children means great emptiness as there is no one to look to for support or guidance of any kind. All children have needs in order that they can grow and develop but for an orphaned child in Uganda, the situation is dire. It means continuous hopelessness, deprivation, physical and emotional distress, enduring pain with no comforter and absolutely nothing to look forward to and most of the time, these young people end up becoming useless citizens or public nuisances as they resort to prostitution, thieving and drug abuse in their quest for survival.
• The HIV/AIDS epidemic has also left many women widowed and infected by the disease and yet the majority of the women in Uganda are unskilled house wives. This means that when a woman loses her husband, her whole world crashes down. She does not only grieve for the loss of her husband but she is also frightened of the huge burden she has to take forward on her own, especially the expenses involved as she has no income at all. Without our help, widows face daily the problem of having no food, clothing or saleable skills and are unable to care for themselves and their children and many die very young of trauma and treatable diseases due to poverty.

This is how AFH is making a difference to children and Widows

Our vision manifested into a reality in March 2006 and real business of placement begun with little Doreen now aged 6

• We have 16 children in placement at the moment with about 19 vacancies awaiting sponsors. The children under our care are now living in a safe environment and they receive all the care and nurturing they need to enable them to grow in every way. We are able to provide a safe, comfortable environment, good education, nourishment, skills training, medical care and a variety of staff who are able to meet their emotional and spiritual needs.
• We help children and widows to understand their needs and we encourage them to adapt and apply the skills and knowledge that we give them into their individual circumstances and that gives them courage and motivation for the future.
• Our aim is to fully equip the children raised at AFH with knowledge and skills to enable them to live independent lives so that by the time they leave us we hope they are ready to become responsible adults who could also carry this vision to the next generation.
• 90% of our services are offered voluntarily apart from the salary given to the 5 members of staff based at the children centre and that has enabled us to make much progress within the last year.
• We have established connections with the local authority to ensure support for various children’s and widow’s needs and we recently had a visit from the Mayor of Jinja and he donated 15 mattresses to us.
• We send school reports and letters from children to their individual sponsors letting them know of how the children they support are getting on.

Future phases will include:-

Phase 2 - Construction of third & fourth wings

Phase 3 - Construction of the fifth and sixth wings

Phase 4 - Construction of the main building

Phase 5 - Multiplication

God has been, and is still, absolutely wonderful to Juliet. As the bible says in Genesis chapter 1 that God made the world and everything in it and commanded every seed kind to produce fruits of its kind, this vision is a product of God’s seed of love working in Juliet and her partner’s lives which has already started bearing fruit of God’s kind of love by helping orphans and "proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to the poor".

Reason for increased need for aid in Uganda

Historically, since independence in 1962 political instability hit Uganda up to 1986. Many people were killed during this time and many children were left without parents or guardians. To-date people are still being killed from political wars and riots caused by struggle for power. To-date insurgency in the North continues to claim lives, hundreds of children have no shelter, and hence no education or hope because their parents are either dead or lost. The Aids epidemic has also claimed over 500,000 people and caused helplessness to over 1,500,000 orphans in Uganda since 1981 and more people are still dying to-date because there is no cure for the ADIS/HIV. Although Uganda now has a stable government and God is awakening the church to do something to help the situation, poverty is still rampant in Uganda, yet there is no Government welfare fund to assist unemployed people and lots of children are leading very rough lives even to the point of death.

How can this vision be possible? This vision is being made possible by people choosing to become partners with Juliet to help the needy children and widows by giving them support and teaching them skills that enable them earn a living and become independent. As the Bible says

2 Corinthians. 9:8-9 "And God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written, he has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor, His righteousness endures forever."

Juliet