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COMMUNITY HEALTH PROJECT
The Abayudaya leadership have requested assistance from the Institute for Jewish & Community Research in building community infrastructure, including health, sanitation, education, water, electricity, and small businesses.
The overall health of the community is fair to poor. During a four-day assessment by a United States medical team, numerous severe and neglected diseases were noted among the population. Patients came from great distances in order to be seen by the visiting physicians.
In 2004, the Ugandan Ministry of Health initiated a health program with the goal of regularly reaching the general population for vaccination, deworming, vitamin supplementation and other services as needed. These services are normally conducted through a health center. However, in the area where the Abayudaya reside, neither the “parish” nor the “sub-county” has a health center. Mbale Hospital, the nearest hospital to the Abayudaya, is strained to the limit, and not conveniently accessible to all the local residents of the region.
The administration of Mbale Hospital and the Ministry of Health both agreed that the creation of a health clinic to serve the Abayudaya and others in their region would better serve all the sub-county's citizens—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim—than the overburdened Mbale Hospital.
After two years of feasibility research In coordination with the Abayudaya leadership, the Ugandan government, JDC, doctors, engineers, and contractors, we created a five-year community health plan. The Institute for Jewish & Community Research has established a philanthropic fund at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
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ABAYUDAYA JEWS OF UGANDA 
The approximately 750 members of the Abayudaya Jewish community live in six villages spread over 70 kilometers. The closest city is Mbale, the third largest city in Uganda. The Abayudaya Jews live among their Christian and Muslim neighbors, supporting themselves through subsistence farming and small businesses.
The Abayudaya trace their roots to Semei Kakungulu, the local agent of British imperialists at the turn of the 20th century. Kakungulu was to be a missionary for the British, converting the people of Mbale to Christianity. However, Kakungulu favored the Hebrew Bible. In 1917, the community began practicing the biblical Judaism they maintain to this day. They are referred to as “Abayudaya,” a local term that means “the people of Judah.” They have persisted even though in 1971 Idi Amin came to power, banning Jewish practice and ordering Jews to convert to Christianity or Islam. In 2002, at the request of the community, a Conservative Beit Din went to Uganda and formally converted the Abayudaya community to Judaism. |
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