Hope Mafaranga

 By Hope Mafaranga   When     Saturday Vision published my story, it never occurred to me that it will lead me to meet the president of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, nor did it cross my mind that I will go back to Kampala after 50 years, Yohana Ahuruma 131, who recently met President Museveni. I never imagined the impact of a newspaper.   In fact now I treasure newspapers more than anything, unfortunately my eyes are gone and I can’t read. The first time Saturday Vision visited and asked me about my age, I did not take it serious and my follow locals here in Busunga village, Bundibugyo district wondered how a national newspaper could visit a poor person like me. But now my friends wish to be published in the papers after seeing it is impact.   News of meeting the president When Fr. Bainekanama broke the good news that I was slated to meet the President,   I got mixed feelings.   One of the things that came into my mind was that may be I was going to be arrested

Prince Kijanangoma of Toro unveils his bride Prince   David Kijanangoma 49, of Toro, who has been   giving the king of Toro Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV sleepless nights   over the throne has finally got Omugo( Queen) to warm his cold nights. Hope Mafaranga caught up with the couple having a good time at Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala. Kijanangoma’s side. Agatha Namara has really melted my heart. She is so special to me and close to my heart, soul and body. In fact I cannot take a day without talking to her. Honestly she is the true missing part of my body.   I miss her every second that I am not with her and I cannot wait for December 23, 2017 the day we will be declared husband and wife. That day, my heart will be at peace because it will make a seal that she is mine forever. One first day I saw her at her uncle’s place, my heart missed a beat, I immediately knew that she is the one I have been longing for. Her natural beauty, cute smile, communication s

By Hope Mafaranga When I tested HIV positive in 1991, I wanted to end of my life. I came from St. Mary’s hospital Lacor determined to end my life and that of my children. I cooked food, crushed radio batteries and mixed it and fed my five children so that we can all die and end my suffering on earth. These are the words of Evelyn Lakot 50, a resident of Opit village, Odek sub-county in Gulu district who has lived with HIV since 1991. She got to know about her HIV status following the sickness of her husband who was admitted at Lacor hospital in Gulu. “My husband presented strange rushes, had diarrhoea and he eventually died. The health workers attached from Comboni Samaritans attached to Lacor hospital advised me to test. I never liked the results,” she said. Lokot was depressed and devastated because of the virus. She is one of the many whose mind was destroyed by the HIV virus at an early stage. However God saved her family and the mixture did not work and none

Hope Mafaranga It is quite disturbing when you listened to a moving testimony from Eddy Okello, a widow who was displaced by Karimojong cattle raiders and later three of her kids abducted by the Lord`s Resistance Army (LRA). Life is not stable, there is ups and downs part of it, a person may not imagine at certain point in time he or she will overcome the psychologically stress inflicted in his or her life and become very success in life.   “We migrated from Olilim Sub County in Otuke district 1986 by the Karimonjong cattle rustlers,” she narrated.   “We were displaced to Lira town and again the LRA insecurity invaded the region and ended up in Internally Displaced People camp in Lira town,” she added.    Never would Okello expect to be the chairperson of prominent cooperative society with 6,250 members, both men and women. She is the chairperson of Acwec Omio Women Group suited at Acan Pii in Loro Sub County, Oyam district. “Two of my girls were kidnapped by the L