The Statement of The Rt Revd Enock Lee Drati

I am Bishop Enock Lee Drati, the Bishop of Madi, West Nile Diocese bordering with Sudan and Congo.

At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, Anglican bishops asked for the worldwide church to work with their governments to cancel the debts of the world's poorest countries. Since Lambeth, debt relief has become a priority for the Episcopal Church in the United States and throughout the Anglican Communion.

Like many other countries in Africa, Uganda is struggling under the burden of decades of debt owed to creditor nations and international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and IMF.

In Leviticus, God calls on us to observe a Year of Jubilee every fifty years in which slaves are set free, land returned to its original owners, and debts are cancelled. The Lambeth resolution calls for these debts to be cancelled in this Jubilee Year, and instructs us to use the funds for programs that help to alleviate poverty, such as education, health care, or the provision of clean drinking water and sanitation.

Because the Diocese of Madi is so far away from our capital city, Kampala, it is one of the poorest areas in Uganda. However, Uganda was one of the first countries to qualify for the international debt relief program. As a result of having some of our debts cancelled, many more of our children have been able to enroll in primary school, from grades 1 - 7 with no tuition charged to the parents or relatives.

Since Uganda first qualified for debt relief in 1998, the money freed by Uganda's debt cancellation has been used to increase primary school enrollment. The percentage of children enrolled in school has increased from 53% to 90% over the past two years.

Debt cancellation has also allowed the orphans created by the AIDS epidemic to be enrolled in school, through the free education program known as UPE.

Therefore, I am here to tell you that debt cancellation can truly benefit poor countries and help to lift poor people out of poverty.

I am the chairman of the health board for the Province of the Church in Uganda. In that regard, we are trying to build clinics in rural areas to care for all kinds of sickness, including tropical diseases and AIDS, and care for disabled people, the elderly, especially from polio. We are also providing education for women, as well as men and youth. We hope to build places for street children who have left home in a false pursuit of wealth. These children end up begging and go without food of proper care, contracting deadly diseases.

Poverty is also the cause of many wars and conflicts in Africa. Many people's lives are improved by projects to reduce poverty, because they can foster peace. There can be peace because people will have the opportunity to work and have food to eat. Empty stomachs cause people not to relate to each other, which manifests conflict.

My government and church leaders are keen to use the benefits for programs for the poor and to account for all of the money that would be freed by debt cancellation. In Uganda, we have shown how the government and church can work together to make debt cancellation meaningful.

I ask for your help with your political leaders to make this a Jubilee Year for millions of poor people around the world. I hope my appeal will be taken in consideration.