Having productively lived and operated in Uganda for now 36 years, Watoto Church Ministries (KPC) founding Pastor Garry Skinner sometime back applied for the grant of citizenship status but ironically his request was rejected. The Public Lens understands that the Canadian, who responded to God’s calling to come and pioneer Ministry work in Uganda in 1984, reflected on the enabling legal framework in Uganda and put in an application to actualize his wish to become a certified Ugandan citizen. To his consternation, his request was flatly rejected for reasons he has never understood up to this day.
Efforts by some Watoto Church members, who happen to be well placed officials in the same Museveni government to seek clarification on his behalf haven’t yielded thus far. Indeed, as a Church Minister Skinner has mentored many including some who are now MPs but who started out as foster children under his Watoto Villages.
The Watoto Villages, whose activities Minister Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi wants investigated and inquired into by ISO, are well-manned and well-furnished homes where destitute children live. These are children that ordinarily would have grown up homeless. This Child Care Ministry, prioritizing the destitute homeless children, has been an active component of Garry Skinner’s Church Ministry since 1991. And a few years ago, management reflected on the successes and transformation registered under the Children Ministry and decided to re-brand the entire Church Ministry resulting into what was KPC being rebranded into Watoto Children Ministries headquartered at Bombo Road in Kampala Uganda.
Back to the rejected citizenship application. Having refused to grant him citizenship for which he considers himself overqualified, the Ugandan authorities indicated to Pastor Garry Skinner they would only grant him something called “permanent residency” status. He later learnt that in their estimation, the missionary from Canada was too much of a Muzungu to merit elevation to Ugandan citizenship. It’s something that has since demoralized many Ugandan senior citizens who began with him in the 1990s and they have never stopped grumbling and perceiving the government of Gen Museveni to be one that is too ungrateful to appreciate non-state actors who selflessly contribute to Uganda’s national development and transformation.
SKINNER’S PAST
The brief background to this Garry Skinner man (whose troubles and increased scrutiny by the state emanated from the recent development that saw 11 Watoto children test COVID positive on return from the UK) is that he is a Canadian born to Missionary parents who spent much of their adult life and time ministering among the vulnerable communities in Rhodesia which later became Zimbabwe.
Younger Skinner lived much of his childhood in Zimbabwe until 1984 when he risked the political uncertainty and violence of that time and relocated to Milton Obote-led Uganda. Back then he was a young man with a young family. His coming to Uganda wasn’t out of adventure but a response to divine instruction. The voice of God repeatedly instructed him to move to the Pearl of Africa and work among the country’s most vulnerable. His priority was the destitute children who were very many in Uganda of that time resulting from both war and HIV which was ravaging villages in rural parts of Uganda. He started his prayer group which gradually grew into a powerful Church Ministry that we know today as Watoto (formerly KPC).
He has since impacted thousands of lives through his Church Ministry and gotten thousands of children off their destitution and molded them into useful citizens. His Watoto Children Villages are scattered in Kampala, Wakiso, Masaka Road, Gulu and South Sudan. These are excellent dwellings where every 8 children are grouped to live under one home and each Watoto village has up to 50 such homes. In there are well-built schools where children are exposed to the very best education.
The children graduating from these schools are of a quality comparable to those from some of Kampala’s best elite schools. There is a lot of emphasis on the home schooling model and transparency is assured because every month management organizes familiarization tours for whoever wants to visit any of the Watoto homes to deepen their understanding of what goes on there. Those interested always travel in two coasters specifically arranged by the Church that has grown into having prayer points or branches in Bweyogerere, Lubowa, Kisasi, Kyengera and even Gulu where many war orphans have been rehabilitated under the Garry Skinner philanthropic undertakings.
Each house has two Watoto-employed foster ‘mothers’ who are caregivers of the 8 children living under one roof. There is also a volunteer godfather who must visit to mentor the 8 children at least once a week. These are wealthy Watoto Church members with means to shoulder the responsibility that comes with taking up such very demanding obligation. The children are well housed, well fed and well treated. In each children village is a school that strictly complies with the Ugandan curriculum. The children speak perfect English and learn plenty of life survival skills beyond just cramming to pass exams. Because the standards are so high, people in the surrounding communities always apply to have their children admitted to study under these Watoto schools where getting a place isn’t easy because they restrict numbers to maintain quality and high learning standards.
Contrary to what Minister Nakiwala Kiyingi fears, the Watoto management ensures children still learn even when they travel abroad to stage musical performances. They travel with caregivers, their teachers and home-schooling experts who home-school them during morning hours ahead of their musical performances that mostly happen in the late afternoons to wealthy Bazungu audiences. These performances oversees are an opportunity for the children to get exposure but to also raise money to run the relevant projects back home. In fact, some suggest the schooling model implemented at the Watoto schools is one that government should study and replicate for the rest of the country to produce better molded citizens.
The transparency with which Pastor Skinner operates is the reason Watoto has operated its child care projects for all these decades without any major scandal ever breaking out. No scandal relating to child abuse has ever been established there. And this is something that surprises many given the high number of children, staff and employees involved at the different children homes. Watoto never sells children, like some other organizations have been accused, and there is a verifiable record that every child that travels abroad returns home. Esther Nakalema, one of the Watoto publicists, maintains this is the reason they aren’t worried about the ISO investigations Minister Nakiwala spoke about because they practice transparency and open methods of work.
Besides the South Sudanese undertaking that had to be wound up, many of the things Ps Garry Skinner has put his hands on have succeeded. In South Sudan, the Watoto Ministry activities, including Child care projects, were voluntary shut down because of the war and the resultant violence that necessitated shielding lives of the children and employees hence the decision to abandon Juba altogether.
Yet the biggest problem Pastor Garry Skinner could face is lack of powerful political godfathers because he isn’t one that believes in gratifying anyone to buy their favors and political patronage in return. This is the reason many church members are afraid this impending ISO inquiry could create chaos and leave his otherwise very vibrant Church Ministry scandalized even when there isn’t much wrong that has been done. Esther Nakalema says the 48 children, still stranded abroad, are all okay with no Coronavirus but haven’t been able to fly back because of the lockdown and the resultant travel restrictions making it impossible to fly into the country as of now.
Credit: mulengeranews.com
