Tara Henson

Hi, my name is Tara Henson. I have been living in Jinja, Uganda since April 2021. The ministry that myself and my Ugandan partners lead works with street-connected youth. Street youth are often homeless and can be as young as age 5 and can be as old as late 20s, having lived on the streets their entire life. Most have either been chased away from their homes for various reasons or chose to leave to live on the street for what they deem a better life. Some reasons for leaving that have been given to us by the young men we work with are abuse, step-parents kicking them out, alcoholic parents, too many kids in the home, their choice to leave because of defiance, etc, and death of primary family members/caretakers. When these young men come to the streets they are usually quickly introduced to alcohol, huffing fuel, and other drugs to become numb to their situations. Many of them become thieves, always begging and “borrowing”, fighting, and even sometimes killing to survive. They are the outcasts of the community. The police here are very corrupt and violent and often beat street kids, sometimes even to death, simply because they’re street kids. The young men are dirty, hungry, sick, and just trying to survive.

At our organization, we welcome all street connected youth and show them the love of Christ above all. We try to teach them their worth and their value in Christ alone. We work on reconnecting the young men with family if we can find them, and we disciple them and train them through Bible studies, church services, medical care, counseling, housing, and education. We have a very strict program of rehabilitation where if we see positive change and true change we will help the young men get housing and jobs. We don’t want to just take someone to school to check a box, we want them to be ready and willing to go. We offer the ability for primary or secondary level schooling, vocational school or apprenticeships, seminary, and small business training.

As part of our program, we have also provided medical care for hundreds of street kids, even those not registered in our organization, surgeries for over 20 young men since I moved here, and dental care such as cleaning, tooth removal, and procedures, for many. We have a dispensary at our project managed by a Ugandan nurse where we treat minor cases that do not need hospital visits, and even now some more complicated cases and recovery situations.

The foundation of our organization is not to change the young men by our power, but by showing them that with God anything is possible. I have had one of the top police officers in town come to me and tell me that the violence has gone down so much and he can’t figure out why, which led me to tell him about Jesus and for him to give his life to Christ! It’s nothing that any of us are doing, it’s all God! We praise HIM alone for the work that's being done, here in Jinja!