Group capacity building in Mbale

On my way to Tanzania in mid May, I had the opportunity to stop off in Mbale, in eastern Uganda. Aida, my colleague from Buddukiro, had asked me if I would be willing to travel there to visit a few projects that her friend Joseph was working on. I stayed at Joseph's place in the village, about a 10 km boda ride from town. We had a whirlwind Saturday where we met with a youth group, a women's group, and a church group one after the other to take them through some strategic planning. Here's a few pics:

Youth Group - Because a lot of the youth are out of school and/or unemployed, delinquency can be a problem. This group was formed to give the youth around Mbale a productive outlet for their time an energy. They've done a lot of dramas to educate the community about HIV/AIDS, and have several income generating projects to raise money for schools fees for their members and other needy youth in the area. These include things like raising chickens and cultivating seedlings. As with each of the other groups, I took them through an exercise to identify the main accomplishments of their group so far, the areas of needed improvement, and their goals for the future. We then identified some key goals and made a more detailed workplan to flesh out a strategy for achieving them.


Women's Group - These 40 ladies gave me pretty much the most energetic welcome of my whole life when I arrived to the field where they usually meet- singing, dancing, hugging... the royal treatment! They were so excited to have an outsider show interest in what they've been doing- who can resist the urge to show off a bit when you've been working hard?! They formed to save money together and do income generating projects. They've also had some other training, such as in the production of energy efficient stoves.


Church Group - Joseph is the pastor of this awesome little village church. Though small in number and themselves poor, they have started up a project that helps dozens of orphans in the area. One of the things we discussed with them was their desire to build a bigger henhouse to house their chicken rearing project. They are also trying to build a new church, so we hit on the idea of focusing first on building the new church, and then using the old church as the henhouse. It was a special experience on Sunday worshipping with them in that little mud building, listening to the African drums during worship. After Joseph finished his sermon on 'Who is God?', I got to deliver a little 'word' myself about 'Who am I?' (basically about how we very beautifully and wonderfully made, and loved by God, the maker of the whole universe!)


Building God's House - Sunday morning after the service, the pastor asked the whole congregation (about 40 adults, kids and babies), to help out with the new building by helping to move the brick pile over to the building site. Even the little ones got their hands dirty helping out!