“The night before I came to write, I woke up at 3:00AM and practiced up to 5:00AM..”

The ongoing Handwritten Bible project has attracted people from all walks of life. We have seen the young and old write and have been wowed by the dedication that these people have put into this project.
Helen Namuwawu’s story is one of the unique ones we have come across on our Handwritten Bible Project journey.

Every mother is happy to bring forth a child and so was Hellen’s mother. At three months however, she realized that her new born could not see. She did what any other mother would do by seeking medical attention. So Hellen went through a number of surgeries to try and restore her sight.

At 9 months, one of Helen’s eyes gained partial sight and the second followed suit at 1 and a half years.
When it came to school, her mother did not know about special schools for children with visual disability so Hellen attended ordinary schools. Luckily, her teachers were trained to give her special attention and mostly used aural methods of imparting knowledge.

It was particularly difficult for her to learn how to read and write as her partial sight could not allow her to learn these two arts at the same pace as other children. The teachers labored to teach her how to write but she struggled to read what she wrote so she was totally dependent on the teachers.
After her Primary Leaving Exams, the doctors told her mother to take Helen to Iganga Girls which is an inclusive school that takes in children with visual disability and that’s where her journey with braille began.

In 2011, Helen found out that The Bible Society of Uganda has a PVD unit (People with Visual Disabality) and since she had always loved God, she decided to become an ambassador by ministering and facilitating whenever sent out. The Church Relations office eventually began to send her to churches to minister or take readings using a Braille Bible.

In November, Helen had gone to minister at one of the churches when she heard about the Handwritten Bible. She became determined to write as she found this very exciting. She then began to save money to contribute towards the one of the causes for the project and she also began to practice how to write on normal paper that isn’t Braille.

When she had saved enough money to write a verse, she came to Bible House and asked to practice before writing in the Handwritten Bible material. What got touched our hearts however was what she said as she practiced,

“I woke up at 3:00 AM and practiced up to 5:00 AM. I did not want to make a mistake when I eventually write in the Handwritten Bible. I wanted to be perfect.”

She uses magnifiers at the moment to help her to see what she has written. When it came to the actual writing in the Handwritten Bible, Helen did not make any single mistake.

“I feel very good because I have participated in this project. I am going to be part of history. I thank God for enabling me to get money to write a verse and I am after this I am working towards becoming a Bible Society Life member,” said Helen when we spoke to her after she wrote.

There are many people out here in Uganda that would like to take part in the Handwritten Bible Project but do not have the means to.

For just 30 USD or 100,000 UGX, you can sponsor someone to write a verse in the Handwritten Bible project which aims to celebrate 50 Years of Bible Translation work in Uganda and also raise funds for the New Bible House which will help us to expand Translation and distribution work in Uganda. We still have many languages without a Bible Translated into their language.

You could also take part individually. Click here to take part.