He is known as Akiiki, a name that means friend in Ugandan.

“They’re so friendly, loving, so happy, joyful. I can’t think of all the adjectives,” said Jim Schmidt of Richmond. “We’re family.”

Schmidt has become quite acquainted with Uganda the past four years, primarily with its communities of Bulindi and Masindi in the west central part of the country. He and wife Jeanne accepted an invitation from Father George, a former pastor a Richmond’s Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, four years ago to see his home country. The following year, the Schmidts met Father Anthony Bingi, pastor of the 10,000-member St. John the Baptist Church in Bulindi. Their encounter brought a “joint idea,” Schmidt said – to bring clean water to the impoverished village of Bulindi.

“They collect rainwater or get water from a protected spring or collect surface water,” Schmidt said. “The spring is at the bottom of a steep hill you have to climb. Girls and women retrieve most the water; it’s quite strenuous, sometimes making two or more trips.”

The stream is the only continuous source of water. Residents normally carry plastic jugs, equivalent to 10-gallon containers, making it difficult to navigate the steep terrain.

Rainwater is plentiful during the rainy seasons, but during the dry period, like now, it is not a reliable source. Also, buildings aren’t equipped with gutters to harvest the rainwater.

Easier locations for water, an area swamp and river, are contaminated with both human and animal waste.

“We asked, ‘What could we do to make it more accessible?’” Schmidt said.

Their plan is a borehole well, one that’ll eventually have a 30,000-to-40,000-liter tank capacity. Another phase is tapping into power lines to run a well pump and bring electricity to Bulindi’s school that serves 300 to 400 children; it currently has no electricity. The final step is distribution of water.

Father Anthony Bingi, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Bulindi, Uganda, will ask parishioners in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph for help in raising $20,000 to provide a water purification and storage system for his parish’s 400-student school.

In addition to no water service or plumbing, the school also doesn’t have electricity, Father Bingi told The Catholic Key.

But no matter. It has four walls and a roof, and for that, his 12,000 parishioners give thanks to God.

“God is there,” Father Bingi said. “Despite all our problems and difficulties, we are not desperate. We have faith.”

And they have dreams.

The water project, when the funds are raised, will be administered by the Be Christ to the Poor Foundation, established by Father George Ssebadduka, a priest from Uganda who is now serving as pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Richmond. Father Bingi’s visit to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is sponsored by Immaculate Conception parishioners Jeanne and Jim Schmidt, who traveled with their pastor to Uganda in January.

Father Bingi celebrated Masses on Aug. 7-8 at St. John LaLande Parish in Blue Springs. On Aug. 22, he will celebrate at Holy Cross, Kansas City. On Aug. 28-29, he will celebrate at St. Ann, Excelsior Springs, and on Sept. 5-6, he will celebrate at Our Lady of Lourdes, Raytown.

The Be Christ to the Poor Foundation also provides piglets, at a cost of $200 a pair, to give to orphans of the AIDS and malaria epidemics. As the piglets grow and breed, the orphans are able to sell them to improve their lives.

“Sometimes, they will buy a mattress. Some of them have never slept on a mattress,” Father Bingi said. “Some of them will buy their first pair of shoes.”

And as their profits grow, the orphans branch into other livestock, including goats, chickens and even cattle, which, while not lifting them out of poverty, at least lifts them out of destitution.

“They learn that if they work hard, they can have a better life,” Father Bingi said. “When you can sleep on a mattress, you are much better off than sleeping on the floor.”

The foundation is also dreaming of bringing medical clinics to Bulindi to stem the tide of death from diseases that are easily treated and cured in the developed world.

Despite the poverty and death around them, the people of his parish praise God for everything.Father Bingi’s own rectory is nothing more than four walls and a roof, without even windows. “It is OK,” he said. “It keeps the rain off my head.”

Responsible not only for the home parish in Bulindi, Father Bingi serves 10 surrounding missions, all in a car that frequently breaks down on tortuous roads.

That often makes him late — often by hours — for Sunday Mass, but again, no matter.

“Whenever I get there, the parishioners are waiting for me,” Father Bingi said.

Sunday is God’s day, he said. All work is set aside and the focus is solely on Mass. If noon Mass doesn’t start until 2 p.m., the parishioners weren’t going anywhere else or do anything else anyway.

Catholics make up 80 percent of the population in the Diocese of Hoima, Father Bingi said, but other Christian denominations and non-Christian faiths are making inroads.

“We are working to keep up the Catholic faith,” he said. And that is why the foundation is important. Not only do people know that the Catholic Church will feed them spiritually, they know they can turn to the church for help with their physical needs, especially if they work together as a people of faith.

“Because of the generosity of people in the United States, we have really made an impact for the people of Uganda,” Father Bingi said. “Knowing that there are other people offering their generosity, that helps my people see God at work.”

Seeing the hand of God also encourages young people to educate themselves for professions that will benefit the people. Religious vocations for priestly and vowed religions life are booming, Father Bingi said. Other young people not called to religious life are educating themselves to become builders, doctors and nurses, he said.

“They are coming back so they can help the poor,” Father Bingi said.

“Despite all our problems, we have hope and we have faith,” he said. “And we have God.”

Drinking water – and water for washing, cooking and livestock – flows in what Fr. George Ssebadduka describes as a “nice protected stream†at the base of a hill in Bulindi, a community in western Uganda.
Ssebadduka, the Ugandan priest at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Richmond, says water from the stream is carried up the hill each day by the 400 or so children who attend St. John the Baptist parish school. The students – as well as the 100 orphans cared for by the Be a Christ to the Poor Foundation that Ssebadduka founded – collect the water in five-gallon containers and then climb the hill as part of their daily ritual.
Running water exists in parts of Uganda, but it’s only accessible to people who can afford it.
“If you have the money then you have the water,†said Fr. Anthony Bingi Atwooki, 40, priest of the Hoima diocese in Bulindi, “money to be connected, money (to pay) for the water.â€
Atwooki, who is visiting Richmond as a guest of Immaculate Conception and Ssebadduka, made his first trip to the United States in hopes of improving life for the children and adult residents of his Ugandan parish.
Full story is in the Thursday, July 29, 2010 edition of the Richmond News
Photo: Father Anthony Bingi Atwooki, left, and Immaculate Conception Priest George Ssebadduka display a shirt for the Be a Christ to the Poor Foundation, an organization Atwooki hopes can raise $30,000 his for Ugandan village. (Photo by David Knopf/Richmond News)