KAMPALA, October 28, 2026 — Poverty sits in the front row of every meeting,
We invite it, we photograph it, we pray about it,
Yet it refuses to leave,
Because we made it famous but never priced it. Politically we have manifestos, we have elections, we have promises,
But programmes die every five years and the poor wait for the next launch,
We fund the speech, not the system,
If poverty must end, let its plan survive politics,
Let it be locked for ten years, not eaten in five. Economically we work from sunrise, but money works against us,
We borrow at twenty four percent and sell at thirty percent loss,
We earn in seasons and spend every day,
Land rich, cash poor, asset rich, bank poor,
If poverty must end, lend not alone but with insurance and market,
Loan plus cover plus buyer, then default dies. Socially we have normalised survival and forgotten thriving,
A child drops from school and we say God will provide,
A girl marries at sixteen for bride price and we say culture,
Shame has left us and dignity has left with it,
If poverty must end, return the child to school,
No loan in a home where a child sleeps during school term. Technologically there is a phone in every hand,
But data for betting, not for learning,
Tractor in the district with no fuel, no driver, no spare,
Innovation lives in city while poverty lives in village,
If poverty must end, let the phone check price, rain, and savings,
Train two youths per parish to be the digital voice of the village. Environmentally we cut a tree to sell charcoal to buy food,
Tomorrow we have no rain to grow food,
We farm the same tired acre for twenty years with no rest,
We punished the soil and now climate punishes us,
If poverty must end, plant trees that pay while standing,
Farm with compost, rest the land, trees are retirement. Spiritually we pray for money and sleep till nine,
We pay tithe from a loan and default on the loan,
We say God helps those who wait, yet scripture says those who work,
Faith without work is poverty carrying a Bible,
If poverty must end, pray and wake up,
Let pulpit preach Monday work, not only Sunday miracle. Yet we have not failed completely,
We have SACCOs where we had nothing,
Mobile money where we walked twenty kilometres,
Solar light where kerosene smoked our lungs,
Girls finishing school where none finished before,
We survived, and survival is a seed of success. Opportunity stands at the door waiting to be welcomed,
Parish funds are closer than ever if not stolen,
African market of one point four billion wants what we grow,
Our youth are many and energetic if skilled,
Internet is cheaper and YouTube teaches better than absent extension,
World now pays for carbon and our standing trees can earn dollars,
We still trust and pray together, social capital is not yet dead. So this is the way forward,
Let technical hands run poverty programs, political hands launch them,
Let no seasonal loan go without cover and without buyer,
Let school attendance be the stamp for family credit,
Let one village phone become market, weather, and bank,
Let every farm loan carry ten trees,
Let faith be taught with discipline,
Let every family write a will while alive, for poverty loves confusion. Until we insure it, market it, digitise it, green it, and discipline it,
Poverty will keep sitting in the front row,
Clapping as we remain poor. Let it not clap again.
By Mukundane B. Albert
Cooperative Agribusiness Management Specialist and African Poet
Box 1340 Kampala, Uganda
Tel +256772416201
Email: mukundanealbertb@gmail.com
https://thecooperator.news/lira-city-journalists-urged-to-embrace-poverty-eradication-programmes/
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