The bag is always green. The shirt is always the map: food, hygiene, beds, medical, hope, houses, education, dignity. Director Nalubega Fausta walks it from one packed-earth yard to the next.
On some days the lane itself fills. Neighbours lift the hampers over their heads. Children crowd in. A boy in a red football shirt holds a plate of rice, matooke and stew as if the meal were a feast — because for that hour, it is. On other days the courtyard itself is the harvest: green bags of bananas covering the tiles in front of the canteen, a queue in a timber compound with bowls of posho.
In one compound she kneels. An elder takes the hamper with both hands. Matooke is already in a basin. At a thatched hut the children come to the door. Later, in a banana garden, the same staff lift the lids on two great pots.
Hunger in the ghettos has an address. We cook, we pack, we send people home with something that will last the week — and we keep a place at the table for whoever arrives next.
From the field
The photographs and films of this story.
Food ministry
Green bags in the street
Director Nalubega Fausta and the team hand out green hampers in a neighbourhood lane. Children crowd in. Neighbours lift the bags over their heads. Hunger in Makindye has an address, and on this day the address was full of joy.
Food ministry
A green bag at the mat
Director Nalubega Fausta kneels in the Africa-map polo and places a hamper into an elder’s hands. Matooke in a basin, greens on a sack, family on the brick. Food ministry is a visit, not a drop-off.
Food ministry
He carried the bag home
A boy in the orange Africa-map shirt holds the green hamper beside his mother, while a staff member in the grey polo stands with them against a brick kitchen. The child is part of the errand, not a prop in it.
Food ministry
At the timber door
Staff stand with a hamper among children at a timber-and-iron house. A radio on the ground, Crocs in the red soil, a dog at the edge of the frame. Hunger in the ghettos has an address.
Food ministry
A hamper at the hut
Staff kneel at a thatched hut with a green bag, matooke already in a basin. Food ministry is a visit, not a drop-off.
Food ministry
The map on her back, walking
The official shirt, photographed from behind: food, hygiene, beds, medical, hope, clean water, houses, sanitation, shoes and clothing, education, dignity — and a green bag in her hand, walking an elder home through the coffee trees.
Food ministry
A plate, held with both hands
A girl in a red velvet dress holds a blue bowl of rice, matooke, stew and pumpkin. The kitchen is behind her. This is what the food ministry is for — a child who eats, and grins about it.
Food ministry
A plate, held with both hands
A boy in a red España shirt grins over rice, matooke, cabbage and stew. This is what the food ministry is for — a child who eats, and grins about it.
Food ministry
Rice, matooke, a grin
A boy in an orange shirt holds a red plate — rice, chicken, matooke, cabbage. Food ministry is not a speech. It is a child who eats, and looks up.
Food ministry
The pots in the banana garden
Staff lift the lids on two great pots — posho, stew, banana leaves. A meal for a school or a compound starts here, over charcoal, before it reaches a plate.
Food ministry
Another plate, another child
The same kitchen, another neighbour. A red shirt, a red plate, stew and rice. The queue at the gate is how a compound knows the house came.
Food ministry
Lifted from the dust
A staff member in the Africa-map shirt lifts a toddler at a tomato stall. Food, hygiene, beds, medical, hope — the map on the shirt is the week’s work, held in two hands.
Food ministry
The courtyard, full of matooke
Green bags of bananas cover the tiles in front of the canteen and the mural of mercy. Staff in the Africa-map shirts stand in the middle of it. Hunger in Makindye has an address, and on this day the address was a harvest.
Food ministry
A bowl in a compound
Staff in the map shirts serve posho from a basin while children wait with plates. A timber house, a queue, a green bowl. Food ministry is this close, and this ordinary.
Food ministry
A bunch, a green bag, a gate
A neighbour carries a bunch of matooke. A staff member in the yellow map shirt carries the green bag. The black gate of the house is behind them. The walk home is the ministry.
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Rice, held close
A boy in an orange shirt holds a plate of rice and stew. The grin is the whole report.
Food ministry
A plate, a yellow dress, a grin
A girl in a yellow dress holds a plate of rice, chicken and greens. Food ministry is not a speech. It is a child who eats, and looks up.
Food ministry
The same kitchen, another child
A girl in a cream jumper holds her plate and looks straight at the camera. The queue at the gate is how a compound knows the house came.
Food ministry
Head down, eating
The work does not always wait for a photograph. Sometimes a child is already eating.