On April 2, 2026, Africa Renewal Ministries and Ggaba Community Church experienced a tragedy that is yet to heal. Four toddlers were murdered in broad daylight at the ministry’s Early Childhood Development Programme centre. The centre had long been a source of solace for mothers in the community, offering their children holistic care and education.
Yet to understand the full weight of that loss, one must first understand the sacrifice that built the place. It is the story of a man who chose to stay.
A call to Ggaba
In the 1980s, Pastor Peter Kasirivu came to Ggaba at the age of 26. He had been sent by his home church, Makerere Full Gospel Church, where he served in the Outreach Department of the Full Gospel Churches of Uganda. It was his late pastor, Joshua Kamya Musoke, who first dispatched him to visit a small fellowship that had formed in the area. The fellowship members were themselves part of that congregation.
What he found was a community defined by hardship. Ggaba was then a fishing landing site, and most residents were fishermen or fish vendors; the smell of fish was ever-present. The majority of homes were built from papyrus reeds, with only a handful having iron-sheet roofs. Roads were so poor that they ended at Kansanga, with only the Cape Road branching further. The terrain was so rough that it required a Land Rover to navigate. The sole entertainment was the small KK Beach.
His first instinct was to return home. But his spirit found no rest. He felt God compelling him to shepherd the small fellowship, and in 1988, he finally committed.
They began with 15 people. Their first meeting place was a temporary structure, measuring 20 by 30 feet, made from unburnt bricks and roofed with papyrus reeds. In time, they upgraded to a tent large enough to seat 300 people. That tent served as their sanctuary for several years before they eventually built a permanent brick-and-mortar church.
Later, Pastor Kasirivu married Irene, and together they have four biological children. From the beginning, they have partnered in every aspect of the ministry.
The birth of the early childhood programme
Even as the church took root, the poverty around it pulled at Pastor Kasirivu’s heart. Walking through the landing site after Sunday services, he noticed children who had been in worship earlier in the day now carrying goods to earn money for their families. He learned that most parents, especially mothers, could not afford school fees, forcing their children into early labour.
“Such incidents greatly touched and burdened me because of two things. One, I had met Jesus, who changed my life forever. The second thing is my parents took me to school and my mother always said, ‘My children go to school. When you go to school, you will never miss a job’,” Pastor Kasirivu says.
These were also the years before Universal Primary Education, so the burden of school fees rested entirely on families. Many of the settlers, he later learned, were migrants who had fled the Luweero Triangle War.
Moved but without resources, he found an unexpected opening when he was called to do electrical repairs for Compassion International. After completing the work, he explained that he was not actually a professional electrician but a pastor who had fixed the wiring out of a love for physics. When he then learned that the organisation worked with vulnerable children, he saw his opportunity.
“I need help with some children in my community,” he said.
Compassion International visited the church, and in 1991, the first 64 children were registered under the programme. That number eventually grew to 300. The partnership operated with a clear structure: Compassion International provided sponsorship funding, while the local church hosted the programme and administered it for its community. Sponsors globally committed to monthly contributions, and the church used those funds to pay school fees, provide lunches and uniforms, and offer the children discipleship, character formation, and regular meals. Parents were also drawn in through parenting classes on childcare and family life.
‘As the numbers grew beyond the partnership’s 300, the church began developing its own parallel programmes and secured additional partners,’ he says.
The child sponsorship initiative was the first collaboration with Compassion International, followed later by a meals programme. When Compassion’s support eventually concluded, the ministry reorganised everything into what is now called the Early Childhood Development Programme (ECDP).
The current ECDP building was constructed approximately 26 years ago, and more than 1,000 children have passed through the programme. Its mission is holistic: serving both children and their mothers. Mothers are taught hygiene and basic nutrition, such as how to prepare balanced meals using affordable local foods such as beans, peas, and mukene (silver fish).
‘We also teach them practical income-generating skills to help them sustain their families,’ he says.
Children in the programme who reach the age of three are enrolled at Maranatha Christian School, the ministry’s kindergarten.
Through Africa Renewal Ministries’ child sponsorship programme, the ministry now supports nearly 7,000 children and has impacted more than 15,000 students over the years.
Empowering women and building livelihoods
Giving donations, Pastor Kasirivu understood early on, was not a sustainable strategy. He views every person as body, soul, and spirit and believes the true cure to poverty is helping people use their own hands.
The pulpit was his primary platform. Beyond Sunday preaching, he held parenting meetings that welcomed even those who did not share his faith, addressing practical issues such as savings, childcare, and the effects of unstable family structures on children.
“For instance, we talked about how having different life partners affects their children. Regarding savings, many progressed to getting microloans of up to Shs500,000 and their businesses picked up,” Pastor Kasirivu says.
A women’s ministry was also established, teaching skills such as tapestry, crocheting, and basket-weaving, accompanied by a programme through which the women could sell their products. Though that trading arm is currently on sabbatical, the vision behind it endures.
“The idea for us was: ‘Can you give me a hand up instead of a handout?’ With that, many businesses were started and several lives were transformed,” he says.
A community SACCO
Tackling poverty also meant reshaping financial habits. Savings were taught consistently in parent meetings, but the idea truly came alive when Pastor Peter and Mrs Irene Kasirivu participated in a dfcu Bank promotion.
‘We were asked to keep a certain balance on our accounts at a 12 percent interest rate per annum. After two years, we were amazed by the amount of money we had accumulated,’ he says.
That personal experience inspired them to establish a savings and credit cooperative (SACCO). Fifteen years later, it has 700 active members with approximately Shs2.5 billion in savings. This comes from Africa Renewal Ministries staff, church members, and the wider community.
“Beyond business loans, members borrowed to build houses and purchase cars. All this was buttressed by continuous savings classes,” Pastor Kasirivu says.
Medical care for the community
Disease was a persistent reality, particularly in a lakeside settlement. Pastor Kasirivu and his wife saw it daily. Their initial response was nutritional education, teaching mothers, for instance, that a balanced diet did not require expensive chicken or meat.
“Many had thought they needed to have chicken or meat for a good diet. They ignored the silver fish (mukene), which was close at hand, as many called it the poor man’s food. We advised mothers to smoke it, pound it, and add it to their children’s food. Gradually, their health improved,” he smiles.
In 2002, they opened a sickbay for school children as the nearest hospital at the time was Nsambya, approximately eight kilometres away, and medical fees were prohibitive.
“With no health care facility around, we rented a house, hired a nurse, and paid for it through our sponsorship. Soon, the community was bringing their sick to us, and we treated them at a small fee,’ he recalls.
Then a miracle came their way through Samaritan’s Purse, which donated money to buy a piece of land. Another donor, Dr Wentz, helped them to build a two-story building to house the clinic, whose doors opened in 2005.
From there, the ministry extended its reach through weekly community health outreaches into Ggaba slums, including Kisenego and Katoogo. Here, staff offered treatment for malaria, fevers, and respiratory infections, and distributed mosquito nets, especially to young children and the elderly.
Water-borne diseases, such as bilharzia, were also an issue as children loved swimming in the lake water. The ministry partnered with a local community leader to discourage children from swimming in the lake, reducing exposure to bilharzia.
Africa Renewal Ministries is currently constructing a seven-storey building adjacent to the original clinic. When it opens in August 2026, it will expand the facility from an eight-bed unit with one theatre to a 55-bed hospital with three surgery rooms, X-ray, CT scan, and MRI capabilities. Additional clinics are already operational in Mukono District, two locations in Mubende District, Wakiso District near the university campus, and Pader District.
Schools and a university
As the child sponsorship programme grew, there was a need to put children in Christian schools that could provide comprehensive, holistic care for the children.
The ministry then began establishing schools attached to the various churches that Gaba Community Church and Africa Renewal Ministries had planted across the country.
Initially, the ministry managed the schools centrally. Over time, they shifted to a model in which local churches take ownership and management of their own schools. The move was designed to reduce dependency and increase community investment.
By the time this transition was complete, eight schools had been transferred. Today, with many more churches in the network, more schools exist; some are self-built, while the ministry assists others.
“This approach was adopted to reduce dependence and encourage more buy-in from stakeholders. It also decentralised operational work, which had become considerable,” he says.
The ministry’s current role in the schools is to support sponsored children, equip teachers, and provide various resources. These schools serve both children sponsored through Africa Renewal and those from the general community.
In 2013, a university emerged from a Bible college that had been running at Ggaba. Recognising that a holistic educational approach would better serve the nation, the ministry worked with the National Council for Higher Education to begin offering certificate and diploma courses, then applied for a provisional licence to offer bachelor’s programmes. In 2024, the university received its official charter.
Africa Renewal University is located in Buloba, on a site that was originally a secondary school and has since been extensively renovated and expanded. Today, it offers 25 bachelor programmes spanning theology, child development, education, special needs education, information technology, social work, social administration, community health, film, and business. Three master’s programmes are offered, and a doctoral leadership programme has also been launched.
‘Plans are underway to introduce science programmes, though these require greater capital investment,’ he says.
The ministry currently sponsors 7,000 children at the primary and secondary level and 200 at university.
Loving Hearts Baby’s Home
“I often tell people that being a pastor is more than opening the Bible. You wear many hats, such as parent, social worker, community development officer, health care professional, and more,” Pastor Kasirivu smiles.
Being a parent is the hat that birthed the baby’s home. Pastor Kasirivu shares that one day, he heard that community members brought a newborn baby they had found in a dumpster to their ECDP. The baby did not survive. When he learned that such abandonment was not uncommon in the community, the seed of a new vision was planted.
In 2009, with the support of friends and partners, the ministry rented a building and opened Loving Hearts Baby’s Home. Some of the babies come off the streets of Kampala; others are brought by government community workers or the police, some as young as three days or a week old. The home is licensed to care for 30 babies at a time, and children are kept until the age of three.
Where possible, babies are reunited with their biological relatives. Others are placed with loving Christian families through a formal legal adoption process. In the early years of the programme, 46 babies were adopted by families in the United States, and Pastor Kasirivu has visited several of them.
Bethany village
Around 1998, Mrs Irene Kasirivu, who then headed the children’s programme, identified the need for a permanent residential home. This came as a result of a need to house sponsored children who had become orphaned or whose guardians had moved away from the community. What began with 12 children in a rented house grew to 50, and a lasting solution became necessary. The result was Bethany Village in Mukono, set on 60 acres.
‘The village was designed around the model of a normal family home. We built 12 well-furnished four-bedroom homes, and the dream was to have one mother, with or without biological children, to take care of up to 15 children per house. At its peak, Bethany Village had 170 children,’ he says.
The land also accommodates a school, a church, a clinic, a camping site used for youth gatherings, and a garden, all open to the surrounding community.
However, a government directive, aligned with a UN push to move away from the orphanage model, required a reduction in residential children. Pastor Kasirivu understands the concern behind the policy, where large, impersonal dormitories fail children who need human connection and a family atmosphere. But he challenges the blanket nature of the directive when applied to well-structured family homes.
“When we were creating a children’s home, our mind was a home with a family setup, not an orphanage. The blanket move to close these homes without thinking of street children who lack a home, or the abandoned babies who continue to be brought to us by social workers and the police, is not good,” Pastor Kasirivu says.
In compliance with the directive, the ministry ceased admitting new children and reduced the residential homes from 12 to four. They repurposed the rest as teachers’ quarters for the school. Children who could not be reunited with their biological families were placed with vetted Christian households. In each case, the ministry provides start-up support and continues to fund the child’s education through its sponsorship programme.
Governance and accountability
As Africa Renewal Ministries is doing all it takes to serve the community, the institutions are aimed to outlive the founders. Therefore, the ministry operates under a formal governance structure that Pastor Kasirivu considers essential. That is both to prevent the abuse that has plagued some church-linked institutions and because the ministry stewards resources from donors in Uganda and internationally.
The umbrella organisation has a board of directors and is registered with all relevant government bodies. This structure extends to every entity under it, including Gaba Community Church. A secretariat, led by an executive director, oversees all programmes. These are leadership development, child care, and community development, supported by departments covering human resources, internal audit, finance, communications, and fundraising, plus an outsourced legal team. The executive director reports to Pastor Kasirivu as President and CEO of Africa Renewal Ministries.
At the heart of all this, Pastor Kasirivu points to the local church itself as the foundation.
“Without Gaba Community Church, we would not have all this. When other church leaders ask me how we have done all this, I remind them that the church touches almost every Ugandan. But it can only create a good impact if it is holistic. The leaders must not enrich themselves but be visionary servant leaders, sold out to empowering their communities. All the institutions we have created came because we saw a need and the church members supported the vision. When God finds people who are willing to serve their communities, He will provide the resources,” he notes.
Recovering from the dreadful events
The murder of four toddlers at the ECDP centre on April 2, 2026, is a wound that will take years to heal. In 27 years of the programme’s existence, nothing like it had ever occurred.
In the immediate aftermath, the church mobilised its counselling department, staffed by professional counsellors, to provide trauma healing support.
‘Sessions began with the bereaved parents and ECDP staff and will soon extend to the broader community,’ he says.
Security across the ministry campus is being comprehensively reviewed. The perimeter wall is being raised, the main gate is being repositioned to better protect all ministry institutions, and CCTV cameras will be installed. The ministry is also engaging government authorities to provide additional security presence.
The ECDP building itself will be demolished, a step that coincides with long-held plans to construct a new facility. By the time of the attack, the ministry had already raised Shs200m towards a new building estimated at Shs800m. The remaining balance has since been raised. The new two-storey structure will be positioned further from the current site, with access to the children’s area restricted solely to ECDP staff.
The lakeside boundary of the property, previously patrolled on foot, will have a permanent security post to ensure round-the-clock monitoring.
‘The ministry is also installing fire alarm systems, recognising that security extends beyond guarding against intrusion,’ he says.
For Pastor Kasirivu, the response to tragedy is the same as the response to every other need he has encountered in nearly four decades in Ggaba: assess what is broken, mobilise every resource available, and rebuild for the sake of the community God called him to serve.