Meet Jars of Oil Mission Africa

Jars of Oil Mission Africa (JOMA) ministers to elderly widows (affectionately referred to as grannies) who lost their children to AIDS and now take care of their grandchildren. As these families endure grief, JOMA steps into the pain by providing the support and hope required to keep moving forward. The ministry compassionately breaks through the shame and stigma associated with AIDS to meet physical and spiritual needs with the hope of the gospel.

These grannies live in deep poverty and can barely meet their own needs, let alone the unexpected needs of grandchildren now in their care. JOMA feeds families by delivering food packages and helping the grannies start gardens. The gardens provide a source of food, income, and dignity. Many of the grannies suffer from HIV or other illnesses, so JOMA arranges medical treatment for them. JOMA also helps the grannies enroll their orphans into local schools and has established a program to improve housing for recipients.

Uganda is an Eastern African country about the size of Great Britain. It shares borders with South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Lake Victoria. Its population is 50 million people, nearly half of whom are under 16, and around three-fourths of the population lives in rural areas.

Uganda, and especially the children of Uganda, experienced decades of conflict and terror under the threat of Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army, and the country is still recovering. Entire communities were displaced, families were destroyed, and children were left with physical and emotional scars.

Uganda’s HIV infection rate remains one of the highest in the world. According to UN estimates, Uganda is home to a quarter of all AIDS orphans in the world, around two million children, who are often cared for by their elderly grandparents. The plight of the rural poor is especially dire. There is often not enough food, access to medications, or secure housing for these grandparents, and they worry about what will happen to their grandchildren when they die .