For 70 years, Elizabeth Kiryokya has known the world as a place where poverty and ill health lead in her life.

For a long time, her husband and daughter were her close counterparts. But in the early 1990s, Kiryokya lost her two friends.

"I remained alone. All my daughter left behind were two little grandchildren for me to bring up," she recollects. As a result, Kiryokya lost hope in life.

"I needed only a few years to find my creator. At 70 I thought I had outlived my usefulness," she says.

In 2002, Kiryokya returned from her garden with her two granddaughters carrying jackfruit for lunch.

"It was like any other day in my life. I had just instructed the children to get a knife and we share the fruit when a male stranger and a woman who looked a bit familiar entered the house," she says.

"They wanted to help my granddaughters to start school and to build me a house. I was overwhelmed."

For a moment Kiryokya mistook her visitors for government officials who had come up to help the poor elderly.

"I thought they were just Good Samaritans. I was right, they were born-again Christians with a heart to help the elderly," she recalls.

The two were Kenneth Mugayehwenkyi and his wife Miriam. Kenneth had just returned from the United States of America to join his family for Christmas when he was briefed about the plight of an elderly woman who was living deep in Bajjo, Mukono.

When Miriam led him to this poverty-stricken homestead, Kenneth knew little about the plight of old persons in Uganda.

"The first time I met Kiryokya, she was dressed in rags. She looked stressed and sick. I saw poverty, despair and hopelessness in her face. With the help of friends, I built her a house and bought her a few clothes," Kenneth says.

When he returned to the US in 2003, he realised the need to return home and serve the elderly.

In September 2003, Mugayehwenkyi, 36, quit his job in the US and returned home.

A month later, he started the Reach One Touch One Ministries (ROTOM) to cater for the elderly.

"I started off with four old persons but in just five months, ROTOM has expanded to Kabale and is now looking after 49 old persons," he reveals.

Mugayehwenkyi says because many of the old persons in the ministry have visibility problems, he recently acquired spectacles for them.

ROTOM has fixed Thursday as a day for the elderly in Mukono. On this day, old persons convene in one of the homes and Mugayehwenkyi leads them through a session of prayer, discussions and newspaper reading to keep them informed. The day is summed up with a meal before the elderly return to their homes.

"This day is an opportune moment for us to exchange ideas and recall the past," says Eriya Lubanga, 80.

Through the weekly meetings, the old persons have resolved to start a piggery from which they will raise income.

Because of his commitment towards their plight, Mugayehwenkyi, though young, is now regarded a father to the very old.

Mugayehwenkyi is planning to establish a centre for old persons in Mukono through ROTOM.

"It will not be a home for the old, sick and homeless. It will also serve as a training facility for those working and those intending to work among the elderly."

Mugayehwenkyi was born in 1968 in Muhanga, Kabale district. He went to Nyeikunama Primary School, Kigezi High School and Makerere University. He has four sons but do they understand why their parents are committed to the poor and the elderly?

Mugayehwenkyi says they have a sense of it.

"They gave out their own mattresses as personal donations to Kiryokya's grandchildren and I had to buy for them new ones. At Christmas, they packed and delivered packages to the children."