Many children in Africa still sleep hungry and suffer malnutrition despite the golden opportunities surrounding them. Our goal here is to provide holistic, Buddhist-centered care for orphaned and impoverished children by providing them nutritious food and enabling them create sustainable food solutions.

As part of our Hunger Relief Program, we provide food monthly to children from Bulega village as we slowly build sustainable solutions for food security for communities. On November 3rd, the Sri Lankan community led by Mr. Nilanga purchased and served food to 100 children, while on November 17th, Ms. Moe Moe served food and clothes at the temple, thus meeting the immediate needs of the hungry children.

As we move forward, we are soliciting for donations so that we can purchase large quantities of food. Our current focus is to provide food packs to especially orphaned children living along the landing sites in Bulega village. Furthermore, our long-term strategy is that each of these children will be able to produce the food they need so that they no longer rely on us. This is why much of our efforts goes into developing sustainable food solutions for communities.

We would like to thank those who have generously contributed to this program including Moe Moe and her friends, Nilanga, Kamal, the Sri Lankan community in Uganda, and many.

We appeal to everyone to take part in our efforts to eliminate hunger, poverty and the quality of life for children in the different communities.

Please contact us at Ugandabuddhistcentre@gmail.com to see how you can use your resources to be part of this growing effort.

As we join the rest of the world to overcome hunger and malnutrition, the UBC organized its campaign of the “Third Walk to Feed the Hungry” on Sunday, August 18, 2019.

The walk was led by Bhante Buddharakkhita and over 500 people including UBC members, people from the village, children from 3 local schools, and distinguished guests participated in this campaign.

Hunger and malnutrition are a very big global challenge. In the villages surrounding the UBC, many children including orphans cannot afford a square meal.  Some children in schools cannot afford lunch and yet they have to study the whole day. The causes of hunger include endemic poverty, wastage of food and lack of knowledge of the potential foods available in Uganda. Poor people cannot afford food rich in health-sustaining nutrients. According to the Buddha, “Hunger is the worst diseases, conditioned things the worst suffering. Knowing this as it really is, the wise realize Nibbana, the highest bliss.” (Dhammapada 203). Certainly, if one is hungry, one cannot listen to the Dhamma thus hindering one’s spiritual growth and development.

To overcome this challenge, Uganda Buddhist Centre started a program called, ‘Hunger Relief Program’, which offers nutritious food to over 50 children monthly from Bulega village.

Purpose of Walk to Feed the Hungry

The “Walk to Feed the Hungry” campaign is intended to create awareness about global hunger and resources to develop sustainable food security system. The gift of food is the gift of life.”

The walk campaign was started by the Buddhist Global Relief (BGR) chaired by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi in New York, USA. Ven. Buddharakkhita is a Spiritual Advisor at BGR and he has led a couple of walks since their inception. Ven. Buddharakkhita introduced these kind of solidarity walks in 2015 in Uganda. Since then, the number of participants has been increasing.

This year’s walk featured the feeding of over 500 people by the Sri Lankan community in Uganda. Furthermore, Kamal and his Sri Lankan friends demonstrated the number of foods wasted in Uganda such as potato leaves, banana flowers, cassava leaves and green papaya.

Part of the cultural show included a poem presentation on how hunger affects mental and physical health by Bugabo Primary School. Finally, Venerable Bhante Buddharakihtta gave a brief talk on the significance of the walk before he flagged off the walk.

We work to meet the physical and spiritual needs of people in our community through the hunger relief program, which includes nutritious feeding of children, provision of meals for orphans and sharing food with families in our neighborhood.

With support from our friends and supporters, we fed over 150 children in this month. We also distributed food to some families in our neighborhood. The food came from our own garden. A couple of months ago we announced about our hunger relief program with the aim of ensuring food security, distribution of food to children and families that are hungry. This can only be sustainable by growing our own food. We acquired two acres of land, where we now cultivate a variety food. We use it for our own consumption and the rest we distribute amongst people in our neighborhood. We also encourage people to be self-reliant.