I’m Ssebuufu Costa, born 12/12/1985 in Wakiso District, Central Uganda. I’m married with two children and a lovely wife all living in Wakiso District.
On 16th January 2011, I left my home district and travelled north of the country to Gulu District to do business as a hairdresser. Since then, I’ve been based in Gulu. Along the way, I got an idea of doing commercial farming from the savings I had been making from my business.
I made a friend with a native who would later introduce me to his grandmother from whom I was to hire land for the farming. In October 2018, I got the land. During one of my trips to the farmland, I met two old people who narrated to me their ordeal, what they had been going through. They were on their own and needed help, any kind of help.
I was so touched by their plight that I immediately bought for each of them two kilos of sugar. They were so grateful about it they prayed to God for blessings for me and for God to open the way for me in each and everything I do. And God listened to their prayers; I started earning more from my hairdressing business than before.
These two beneficiaries told other old people living in their village what had happened to them. Eight other elders living with the same plight came to me and I promised them sugar, soap, maize flour and I took those items the next day. In total, I took;
- 10 Kgs of sugar
- 10 Kgs of maize flour
- 10 bars of soap
They all received something and their appreciation was similar to the first one I got; that God open for me the way so that I visit them every month.I continued helping them the best way I could but it got harder financially for me to proceed alone. So I went to my dear friend Umar for assistance. Without any hesitation, he accepted. We worked together from November 2018 till March 2019. During this time, the number of old people needing our assistance kept on growing until it reached 30, all from different families, at which point it got even harder for us to continue supporting them. We knew we need more help
Enter Social Media
We enlisted the help of social media, specifically Facebook to tell the plight of these suffering elders and seek well wishers. We kept on using Facebook for two months looking for support and it started paying off. Donations started coming in from $50, $100 from kind-hearted strangers through Western Union. This is really helping us top up on our already strained resources to keep on helping them monthly.
The number has grown steadily and as we speak, we have over a hundred old people under our care. Our goal is to spread countrywide in Uganda, before eventually going international wherever we can to help with feeding, building wells and other infrastructure. We are grateful for the support we’ve got from Save a Life Foundation (USA).
We still welcome help from any other donors and well-wishers to put a smile on the faces of the old and orphans.