Families come every day asking for food. We share what we have — maize, beans, matooke — with dignity.
Hunger is not seasonal in the ghettos; it is a daily knock on the door. Mercy For Life Africa packs and shares food with households in crisis. We do not photograph empty plates for pity. 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
Every photograph and film here can be recaptioned, re-ordered, or moved to another ministry from the staff desk.
Food ministry
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
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
Staff in the Africa-map shirts deliver a food hamper on 25 December 2019. The woman at the centre holds the bag with both hands. Hunger is not seasonal in the ghettos; a feast day is when we make sure the table is not empty.
Food ministry
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
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
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 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 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 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
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
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
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
Children line the metal gate while a cook works the pots. Food ministry is often this ordinary: a queue, a kitchen, a meal that will be eaten standing in the yard.
Food ministry
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
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
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 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.
Food ministry
A boy in an orange shirt holds a plate of rice and stew. The grin is the whole report.
Food ministry
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
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
The work does not always wait for a photograph. Sometimes a child is already eating.
