Humble meal of rice and beans will help Ugandans finish clinic

From Canada-

At first it was a feast, and now it's a famine. Whatever the menu, the people of a St. James church are determined to amass cash to build a medical clinic in an African village.

"No, it's not a fun meal," explains Paul Hazelton of tonight's fundraising dinner of beans and rice at St. James the Assiniboine Anglican Church.

"The bottom line is you're going to go home hungry. But hopefully, you go home feeling you did something right."

That something right is completing a medical clinic in Mayungwe, Uganda, a village that's a two-hour's drive southwest of Kampala. Hazelton says half of the proceeds of the $35 tickets are earmarked for the clinic project, and the rest is designated for Winnipeg Harvest.

Three years ago, the church and the local Muslim community co-operated on an interfaith dinner, raising about $12,000 for the $40,000 clinic, which will serve both Christian and Muslim patients. That effort was thought to be the first time Christians and Muslims in Winnipeg worked together on a common overseas project.

The initial funds paid for the brick walls and part of the roof, but since then, the villagers in Mayungwe have had to borrow money to finish the roof to avoid water damage, explains Pat Stewart, the Winnipegger who initiated the fundraising project.
The retired nurse was asked by the villagers to build a clinic for them when she visited Uganda four years ago with a delegation of local Anglicans.

More here-

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/faith/humble-meal-of-rice-and-beans-will-help-ugandans-finish-clinic-117847853.html