Teaching Men to Build (and Fish)

Teaching Men to Build (and Fish)

by | Feb 26, 2026 | SAMS Missionaries

Ugandan Healthcare Projects Advance thanks to Apprentices Guided by Good Leadership

For the past nine years Patrick Lutalo, a Denver-based commercial carpenter and a SAMS Bridger, has spent many nights huddled over blueprints while on a video call with his construction workers and apprentices working in Uganda. This close coordination has been the key to his leading others in the work to construct the kind of healthcare facilities that are much needed in this rural part of sub-Saharan Africa. Patrick and his team of construction workers have been so busy building its meant that Patrick travels back to his native country up to three months out of the year. In partnership with the Church, Patrick’s organization has already completed a maternity clinic near Mityana, called the Naama Maternity Clinic, a much-needed facility in a country that annually tops the ranks with some of the highest birthrate populations in the world. In its first year of operation in 2022, the clinic had already helped mothers deliver over 400 children there, and today it is in constant use.

Naama Maternity Clinic was finished in 2022. It is in constant operation today.

Outpatient Healthcare Center

Today Patrick and his team are beginning the final phase of a building project to construct the 18,500 square foot, two-story Outpatient Healthcare Center in nearby Myanzi. It’s been a three-year project that Patrick and his team of workers plan to finish in December 2026. The ultimate goal of the facility is to serve the surrounding rural communities with outpatient care in this region of central Uganda currently with a population of over 100,000 people. The Anglican Diocese of Mityana is partnering with Uganda Christian University to staff the healthcare center once it’s completed with nurses and other healthcare workers. It will provide and enable much needed preventive healthcare and annual exams, women’s healthcare combined with public healthcare, radiological and lab services, as well as immunizations and disease research.

 Water and power needs

Even though the plans are to begin occupancy of the Healthcare Center this December, water and electricity are crucial next steps for the Center to be fully operable. Patrick and his team are currently looking for those with expertise in establishing a well-water system as well as a power system for electrical generation. There is no current piped water supply anywhere near the healthcare center, but fortunately, the water table in this part of Uganda is very high and so the team doesn’t anticipate that finding water will be a problem, especially with the rivers and the Lake Wamala watershed close by.  However, they are looking for someone with the resources and the expertise to construct a well water and filtration system to connect to the hospital’s tanks.

Additionally, the healthcare center will require either an off-grid standalone Solar Photovoltaic (PV) system with battery storage or a hybrid system that combines solar panels with a backup fuel-based generator in order to reduce the size and cost of the battery bank, ensuring continuous power during low sunlight periods. Patrick and the board members of Teach Men to Fish, the non-profit enabling these projects, are seeking resources and expertise to build and install this kind of standalone power system.

Apprentices Sustain the Projects

Over the past 30 years Uganda has placed much emphasis on healthcare and education across the entire country. This has significantly improved health outcomes for many people, and the young people of Uganda are better educated now than they have ever been. And yet this has created a problem with many well-educated young people available and desiring to work and support themselves, but who cannot find jobs. Uganda’s economy simply can’t supply the kind of labor demand needed to employ its young people, regardless of their education level.

Patrick experienced this firsthand while in Uganda in 2017. He was worshipping at the Cathedral in Mityana one day and met some young people there. They were mostly teenagers with some who were in their 20’s who needed work. What they shared in common is that they hadn’t had the opportunity to go to school. Patrick listened to their stories and afterwards he asked himself, “What can I do to help? How can I begin to address this situation?” He also heard how many of these young men’s friends were migrating to urban areas in Uganda with no skills, but in search of work. Many were making the wrong choices and getting in trouble.

Patrick’s Call

Patrick realized that the Lord had blessed him with a family and a good job in the United States. He’d had an opportunity to go to school, acquire skills, and even apprentice in the U.S. Yet he had continued to travel back to his homeland to visit family and friends. One day while in Uganda he found himself in the town of Mityana where God began laying in front of him an opportunity to help those in need. God didn’t ask Patrick to start something he didn’t know how to do. He called him to start the same kind of relational apprentice program that brought young men into fellowship with one another centered on the Gospel and learning a trade together. He began the program in 2017 and designed it so that it took three years for the participants to complete. They began by learning the fundamentals: How to use a carpenter’s square and a tape measure, and they progressed from there learning how to use power tools, work with concrete, masonry, rebar, to conduct field surveys, read blueprints, render plaster and many other skills. They took field trips to building sites. In their third year they put their skills to the test by building the Naama Maternity Clinic, and with just apprentices and other workers and with Patrick travelling back and forth to train and oversee, they completed construction in 2021.

The fruit of all this vocational training is the Lord’s doing. The Diocese of Mityana benefits the community with new healthcare capacity. The people of the region benefit with better health outcomes. Healthcare professionals benefit from gainful employment by treating the sick. The young apprentices benefit by learning skills as part of a trade that will help them become self-sufficient. And Patrick – how does he benefit? Patrick says, “The Lord led me in all of this, and has surrounded me with people who have been willing to help me. It has been the highlight of my life. Hard work, travel, and many long hours, yes, but to see young people come alive to Jesus and to make fishers of men themselves while learning how to build with skill, integrity and hard work in supporting themselves and their families – that has brought me such joy and gratitude to God. All glory to him! He has been so, so good to me, and I know he has many, many more good things in store for his faithful people in Uganda.”

 

Patrick Lutalo is called to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission by spiritually mentoring young people as they learn construction skills. He moved to the United States for higher education and began a career in the construction industry. As he reflected on the poverty and hopelessness of many youth in Uganda, God inspired him to share his skills in his home country in the context of Christian discipleship. With the support of his church family in Colorado, of which he has been a part since 1993, Patrick started the non-profit Teach Men to Fish. The program focuses on spiritual growth of young people to bless their community with hard work. As he equips young people to live a responsible life, he exhorts them to share with others instead of accumulating wealth. He does not want them to miss out on understanding the inheritance of the kingdom of God. Patrick travels to Uganda for three months annually. He is husband to Miriam and father to Edith, Jennifer, Abigail, and Isaac.

Learn more about Patrick 

Teach Men to Fish website

Donate to help support healthcare and young apprentices in Uganda

 

Exterior wall plastering, windows and roof truss construction underway last year (2025) of the Outpatient Healthcare Center

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In October last year the Diocese, workers, community leaders, and people from the area celebrated the topping off ceremony when the final roof panel was placed. In 2026 workers are concentrating on all of the interior finishing work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Topping Off” ceremony October 2025 where the US and Ugandan flag and the cross of Christ are placed on the Healthcare Center

 

 

Architectural plans of the Outpatient Healthcare Center

Uganda update

by | Apr 23, 2020 | Uganda

Greetings from rainy Mukono! I wanted to give you an update on how we are in Uganda here. Like the rest of the world, we are watching with somewhat bated breath to see what the next developments are. 

As of 22 April, Uganda has 61 confirmed cases of COVID-19. 41 have recovered, 20 are active cases, and there have been 0 deaths, thanks be too God.

PBS published this 5 minute video about how Uganda is a model for containing contagious diseases like Ebola and Marburg; I very much appreciated their reporting. For context, when the woman speaks about the increase in the price of beans, the kilo (2.2 pounds) for 4000 shillings (~$1.08) increased to 5000 shillings (~$1.35) overnight. All food prices have increased, some nearly doubling. And we’re just a month in to the pandemic. 

In line with taking swift action, the president closed schools and churches as of 20 March, and the driving ban kicked in about a month ago (I think; time is super fluid these days), so that means that few people are working unless they are essential, or they can walk to work. I’ve talked to some friends in the village, and since they can’t drive, it’s hard to get food. There are reports of women delivering on the side of the road because there was no transportation, so the president relaxed that rule so that the pregnant women can be driven for medical attention.

The list of the government’s actions is now 34 items long, but please don’t ask me to list them. In short: there’s a curfew from 7pm-6:30am, no driving vehicles, bodas (motorcycles) can carry cargo, but no people. Of course, the airport and borders are closed, but thankfully, cargo is still coming in.

I’m immensely grateful for my little protective bubble on campus. For me, the restrictions are mostly an inconvenience. I can walk to the supermarket outside the gate for basics and veggies, and there are supermarkets who will deliver out here for about $10, for which I am immensely grateful.

Most of all, I miss my students. Several have called or texted to say hello and check on me, which is sweet. But the campus is too quiet. We had planned to have our students have take-home exams, but the government nixed that. We had hoped that schools would reopen 5 May, but that has been postponed indefinitely. We are all concerned for how this will play out. 

Please continue to pray for us as we pray for you as well.

Ugandan quarantine

Ugandan quarantine

by | Mar 20, 2020 | Uganda

I must say, it has been quite surreal to read the news about Coronavirus in the world, especially in the US, mostly because it’s hard to see the people I love being affected, and it’s hard to be so far away and not able to help anyone.

On Wednesday, the President of Uganda announced that he was closing schools and churches for 32 days, effective noon on Friday. This wasn’t a huge surprise; there had been rumors floating around. Yet Wednesday was still rather tense on campus until the official announcement came at 5:00pm.

For our finalist students, this is their last semester, and they will graduate in July. Happily enough, we were in our discipleship groups before the official announcement, and I was able to check in with the students in my group. They were obviously stressed, and were very concerned about the future, especially graduation. I’m so glad that I was able to debrief with them a bit and pray with them.

It seems like the university is doing all it can to be able to reopen in May for the new semester. Students will take their exams as take-home, and will return them to Academics, who will give them to us for marking. Fortunately, I only had one lecture remaining in my classes, and the students were able to finish their courseworks, though one was due on Friday, so I encouraged them to finish it before they left.

It’s been eerily quiet near my flat. Usually when the students move out there’s a lot of noise; perhaps that will come today when they leave. But otherwise, they’ve been doing wash and preparing to go, though a lot more quietly than usual. The students I’ve seen have been fairly upbeat, though the uncertainty of the future, especially how to do their exams, is weighing on them.

I am physically fine, though I’m also wondering what the future holds. The State Department sent an email last night basically telling Americans to come back now or risk not being able to come back for some time. This isn’t a surprise; the USPs ended their semester early and will fly home this weekend. Several countries around have closed their borders, and several days ago, Uganda instituted a self-imposed 14 day quarantine on all visitors from highly impacted countries, though that seems to have now changed to visitors immediately being taken to a hotel in Entebbe (removing the self-imposed part).

Emotionally, I’m also fine, I think. Aside from crowds being banned, it seems as though life is continuing as usual here. I have some things to do in town, but I don’t venture off campus much, so that is good. I’m hoping to use the time to really make some good progress on my dissertation. 

The very good news in all this is that Uganda is the model for how to handle an epidemic, such as Ebola, Marburg, etc. The breakouts that have happened in the last ten years have not gone far because of this, for which I am grateful. I am hoping this holds true.

Continue to pray for us, as I continue to pray for you.

Abbott and Costello in Uganda

by | Jan 30, 2020 | Uganda

It’s always fun when I can bring a bit of Americana to my students.

Yesterday in class with my Master of Divinity I students, one of them asked me a question, to which I responded, “simanyi,” or “I don’t know.” A student who was sitting in front of me asked what that meant, and I said, “I don’t know.”

The look on his face barely changed, and said, “but you just said it.” I missed his nearly imperceptible look, and replied, “I don’t know.” So he repeated, “what did you say?” And I said, “I don’t know.” Poor guy. He must have been frustrated.

He finally rephrased the question to “what did you just say?” I finally got it, laughed, and told him that I said that I had said “I don’t know.”

Then I asked the class if they were familiar with baseball, and tragically, they are not. So I did what any red-blooded American would do: I drew a baseball diamond, and explained the basics of the classic Abbott and Costello sketch. It’s impossible to do it justice in only a minute, but I certainly tried. Fortunately, they seemed to enjoy it.