“No Sleeping in the Fight Against Poverty, Use Pulpits to Preach Wealth Creation,” Minister Babalanda Tells Pastors

BUYENDE- The Minister for the Presidency, Member of Parliament for Budiope West Constituency and Director for Busoga SDA Women field, Hon. Babirye Milly Babalanda, has urged SDA church pastors to use their pulpits and platforms to preach and mobilise communities on Government wealth-creation initiatives as part of efforts to fight household poverty and accelerate national transformation.

The Minister made remarks at the closing ceremony of a nine-9-day Seventh-day Adventist Camp Retreat at Nkondo SDA Church Zone, Buyende District, which brought together hundreds of believers from across Buyende District.

Addressing the congregation, Hon. Babalanda conveyed greetings from H.E. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Kataaha Museveni, the Permanent Secretary Office of the President, Hajji Yunus Kakande, and the entire staff of the Office of the President.

She applauded the SDA Church leadership of Buyende District and believers for dedicating nine days to prayer, Bible study and fellowship.

The Minister said the NRM Government under H.E. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has given Ugandans freedom of worship and recognises religious institutions as key partners in national development, unity and moral transformation.

“As the government pushes for transformation to upper middle-income status, faith must go hand in hand with work to meet the target of ending poverty and contributing to national development,” she said.

Minister Babalanda noted that the government has established several programmes like the Parish Development Model (PDM), Emyooga, Youth Livelihood Programme, Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), GROW, and others, injecting a lot of money to defeat poverty.

“Our role is to ensure these resources are used with proper financial discipline and hard work to create wealth and jobs at the household level,” she emphasised.

The Minister urged believers to embrace the 4-Acre Model Concept championed by President Museveni to help rural families escape poverty. She broke it down as follows: Acre 1 Coffee, a long-term cash crop with stable income- Acre 2: Fruits – oranges, mangoes, cocoa – Acre 3: Food crops – maize, beans, cassava, sweet potatoes and vegetables for food security – Acre 4: Pasture for zero-grazing dairy cows.

She also urged them to adopt home-based projects like farming vegetables and poultry for eggs in the backyard, especially for SDA and Muslim communities and piggery for non-Muslims as per H.E the President’s guidance as the champion of wealth creation.

Minister Babalanda informed the congregation that this term, H.E. the President has tasked leaders and Ugandans with two things: fighting corruption and working hard. There must be “No Sleeping”.

“As Christians, our hands must work as much as our voices praise; that is how we shall defeat poverty,” she said.

In a show of support, the Minister contributed Shs 1.2 million towards the construction of the Church.

She concluded with a spiritual call, rallying them to stick to God so that the work of their hands can be blessed.

The SDA leadership thanked Minister Babalanda for her continued support of the church and for always standing with the people of Budiope West and the entire fraternity of SDA across Busoga.