Thoughts From the Field: Reflections From My Most Recent Trip to East Africa

I’ve just returned from two weeks in Uganda and South Sudan, where I had the chance to visit all of our projects, spend time with our incredible local team, and meet many of the people we support.

As always, there were moments that reminded me exactly why we do this work. I met families who took part in our agriculture project back in 2023 and are still farming today - feeding their families and building small businesses from what started as a one-off intervention. I met women who had safe pregnancies and healthy births with the support of our midwives. I met people in remote parts of the settlements who have been reached, for the first time ever, with wheelchairs and prosthetics through our outreach clinics.

There was joy - real joy - in those conversations. The kind that comes with dignity being restored,with people being able to provide for themselves, and with inclusion becoming the new norm in communities.

A Growing Gap Between Need and Support

But alongside that, this trip felt different. It was my first time back since the widespread international aid cuts last year, and the change was obvious. The level of need has deepened, and, honestly, in some moments, it felt overwhelming.

One woman I spoke to now walks four hours each way to reach our centre for physiotherapy, after losing the transport support she once relied on. I spent time with a father caring for twenty-two children - his own and his late brother’s - with no food rations to support them. And in Bidibidi, a healthcare leader shared that some people are choosing to return to South Sudan, despite the insecurity, because “they would rather die in their home country than in a foreign land.”

These aren’t isolated stories - they reflect a wider shift. And being there, hearing them first-hand, I was so saddened by the injustice of it: that these people, who have already experienced such hardship, conflict and displacement, are now facing even more suffering. 

Ready To Respond

But more than saddened, I felt incredibly frustrated - and I know this is a sentiment that many of my colleagues in our local team feel too. Because, in many cases, we already have most of what we need to respond. We have a dedicated, experienced local team who are still there, still showing up every day. We have the relationships in the community, the trust, the infrastructure. We know what works.

But we don’t always have the resources to meet the need in front of us.

We have patients who need the care we can provide, but can’t afford to travel to reach it. We have an agriculture programme that we know can work, but not enough funding to provide seeds to everyone who needs them. We have outreach clinics ready to go - but only one vehicle shared across two countries, meaning clinics are sometimes cancelled. We have a huge waiting list of children in need of wheelchairs, and a team of experienced technicians able to fit them, but currently no supply of pediatric chairs.

Where Hope Can Take Root

I wanted to share this honestly because, while we often tell stories of hope and transformation - and those stories are real - they are not the whole picture. As a fundraiser, I'm often tempted to fit stories into a neat, happy, hopeful narrative, but the reality is much more complex. 

But this doesn’t mean hope is lost.

If anything, it makes it clearer where hope can take root. Hope is not about pretending everything is fine, or simple sunny optimism, but recognising that these challenges are not insurmountable. The foundations are there. What’s missing is the support to keep going and to reach further.

So I share this not to diminish the impact we’re having together, but to invite you further into it. There is still so much more to be done - and the opportunity to make a tangible difference is right in front of us.

If you’re able to stand with us at this time - whether through giving, prayer, or simply staying engaged with this work - I want you to know that your support is deeply needed and genuinely matters. It helps ensure that people are not left behind, and that the hope we see glimpses of can continue to grow.

Thank you for being part of this with us.