Tag Archives: Gulu

A crowd under Ojok's exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year

‘Choose to see the good in the bad thing’

COVID-19, Students, , , , , , , , , , ,


A crowd under Ojok's exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year
A crowd under Ojok’s exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year

By Maxy Magella Abenaitwe

For most Ugandans, the COVID-19 lockdown has been a financially painful time of watch and see. The presidential speeches have been a wave of hope whose flap never settles. Lives have come to a standstill.

For a few, however, it has been a time of growth and development.

Denish Ojok, a second-year Social Work student at Uganda Christian University (UCU), is among those few. Being alone since childhood presented him many challenges to sail through storms at their worst. The lockdown with the inability to attend UCU classes was yet another to overcome. For Denish, of Gulu, the answers came through food, fitness and market deliveries with a bit of radio inspiration on the side.

Income from his Rock of Ages fitness club helped pay his tuition. When the club was shut down through government orders, he moved workouts online. Clients subscribed at a daily fee of 80 cents (Shs.3000), accessing exercise through such platforms as Go to Meeting and Facebook.

Ojok preparing a traditional dish for delivery
Ojok preparing a traditional dish for delivery

Realizing this wasn’t enough, he thought about how his other skills could be used. Ojok, who is good at boiling a cow hooves, started making door-step deliveries of a much-prized dish known as Mulokoni. Most days, this brought Ojok a minimum of $9 profit.

Ojok’s third idea related to helping people obtain food when they weren’t allowed to travel. With the suspension of public and private means of transport but allowance of motorcycle deliveries, he took orders and made deliveries of sugar, rice and other market goods. Business was so good that he was able to employ a handful of youth to help him.

This voice of hope – one that resonates with biblical scripture – has been echoed by Ojok on Rupiny FM radio. His encouraging words on youth radio talk shows are about growth during a pandemic, thinking “beyond the nose” in a positive way to overcome circumstances, and continuing good sanitation habits after the COVID-19 virus is controlled. Such habits as handwashing will solve other problems such as diarrhea, he said.

“Exercise financial discipline, spend less and learn to cope with any condition that comes your way,” the 24-year-old student entrepreneur said. “Choose to see the good in the bad thing. Stay positive.”

Despite the great work progress, Ojok is dissatisfied with the fact that a large portion of his potential clients are unable to access his services due lack of communications through smart phones and the Internet. This is a circumstance he is working to resolve.

Much as the lockdown has kept him away from people who inspire his spiritual journey, Ojok has disciplined himself to read and understand scriptures. Before he does anything he prays, as inspired by his UCU lecturer, Peter Nareba, who begins every lecture with prayer.

Ojok plans to maintain his online business after the lockdown. He believes post lockdown will be an era of innovations since it was a shock that left the world with so much to learn, think about and take action.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org

Olum Douglas playing a horse puzzle game at home

My experience with the COVID-19 outbreak in Uganda

COVID-19, Students, , , , , , , , ,


Olum Douglas playing a horse puzzle game at home
Olum Douglas playing a horse puzzle game at home

By Douglas Olum

I wish COVID-19 had consulted me before breaking out in Uganda. At the time it came, I was at a near zero financial balance. As the virus label moved from an epidemic to, by late January 2020, a pandemic, I knew this meant worldwide and my country was likely not to be untouched. With a wife and two children to provide for, I worried about how I would save my family from starvation should our Government order a lockdown to keep us from working and traveling to the store.

When? I didn’t know.

I had spent the whole of February attending lectures for my MA program at Uganda Christian University. Within that time, I had not contributed any stories for the Uganda Partners organization, which is my main source of finances. My car selling business also had gone down since December 2019, when I made a commission on the last sale. I had spent weeks since the beginning of March, trekking between Kampala and Mukono, trying to revive the business. I had a few cars at hand for sale, with a few promises from prospective customers but none was materializing.

On Saturday, March 21, Uganda announced in her first case of the coronavirus infection. The victim was a 36-year-old businessman who had returned from a three-day trip to Dubai in the United Arabs Emirates.

I anticipated very tough times ahead if the numbers of identified cases increased. I thought that if I could just sell one car for a dealer, I would use the money to transport my wife and children from our apartment in Mukono to my village of Gulu in the far north. Personally, I couldn’t go because I had periodical course assignments to do and submit until late June. I knew that going to the village – far away from electricity and Internet access – would hinder my studies. Besides, I still felt we might avoid being swept deeper into the pandemic.

My confidence was rooted as far back as the year 2000 when Ebola first hit northern Uganda. Christ the King Demonstration Primary School, where I studied back then, was among the first institutions to be affected. One of our teachers contracted the virus disease and succumbed to it within the first four days. The Government moved to close schools only after his death. But none of us was ever infected.

My home 20 years ago was located near Lacor Hospital, a private hospital in Gulu that handled most of the Ebola cases. Many of our neighbors worked there to take care of the victims. Our market and public transports remained functional. We interacted without being distanced and without negative consequences. Thinking of that earlier survival time that was not as life changing as the COVID-19 restrictions, I was not discouraged.

Even when I had heard of death cases in China, Italy and Spain, I had the impression that the COVID-19 infection was not as dangerous as the Ebola that took a life in less than 72 hours.

Olum Douglas in his mask, walking in Mukono Town during the lockdown
Olum Douglas in his mask, walking in Mukono Town during the lockdown

When a Norwegian newspaper/magazine journalism friend asked me to accompany her in collecting data for a story she wanted to do about the COVID-19 situation in Uganda, I didn’t hesitate even though we planned to work in the business hubs in Kampala. We were supposed to carry out the survey on a Monday. But a cough and cold hit her, necessitating postponement. While I was a bit anxious, she assured me that her condition was not the coronavirus because she had largely been at home, with very minimal trips to buy groceries and no contact with any person who had just entered or returned to the country. We re-scheduled our work for the next day, Tuesday, March 24th.

As I travelled to Kampala that hot, sunny day, I learned of eight new cases of confirmed infections. March 24 was my last trip to the city – at least for a while. That night, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni announced a ban on all public transport means, with private means limited to carrying not more than two passengers. The ban eventually was extended for everything except for trucks transporting food.

At this point, the virus threat became a reality. Most people were wearing facemasks. Hand-washing containers were at all entries and exits of markets, large buildings, taxi parks and supermarkets. Shop owners and operators were sanitizing the hands of their customers. Unlike the usually welcoming market environment, the traders themselves were barring those who resisted hand washing.

Money to feed my family was uppermost in my mind. With a slight headache and enough shillings for a few days of family meals, I headed back to Mukono. But fear grew with the headache pain as I understood this to be one symptom of the COVID-19 infection.  The anxiety lessened when my temperature taken at the UCU gate registered a normal 97 degrees Fahrenheit.

Douglas and his children, Daphine and Victor, feeding their chicken during the lockdown
Douglas and his children, Daphine and Victor, feeding their chicken during the lockdown

While financially crippling, the government curfew since March 24 has meant more family time – singing, playing, teaching and learning with my children. And while I didn’t have access to computers on the locked-down campus, I was able to complete some long-overdue writing assignments on a phone donated to me by an American last year. Many times, I did the work just outside the UCU gate where the university wifi was weak but reaching.

At 53 infections and zero deaths as I write this on Easter Sunday, I remain optimistic that Uganda may escape the huge numbers experienced by much of the rest of the world.

How deep, when and where else will COVID-19 strike? I don’t know.  But surrounded by my wife and children, I’m watching.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

Conrad Oroya displays some accolades at his office in Gulu

‘…thank you note from a poor person is more worthy than a Mercedes-Benz’

UCU Alumni, , , , , , , ,


Conrad Oroya displays some accolades at his office in Gulu
Conrad Oroya displays some accolades at his office in Gulu

By Douglas Olum

In today’s Uganda, the pursuit of a law degree is a top choice of school children and their parents, largely because of the career path’s reputation for securing private and public jobs that yield money. Most law schools receive overwhelming applications. For the 2019 intake, for instance, Uganda Christian University (UCU) received more than 1,000 applications, but only admitted about 400 due to capacity limitations.

For many, it’s about the money.

UCU graduate Conrad Obol Oroya
UCU graduate Conrad Obol Oroya

For Conrad Obol Oroya, a 2011 UCU Bachelor of Laws graduate, it isn’t. He channels his knowledge to pro bono (free legal) services. His journey along this path started from UCU where one of his professors, Brian Dennison (now living and working in Georgia, USA), included community legal support training. During his legal profession preparation, Oroya says he participated in land conflicts mediation and helped people to write their wills, among other free services.

His passion to help the less fortunate continued as he received his postgraduate certificate in legal practice in 2012 from the Law Development Centre, where he took a job at the institution’s Legal Aid Clinic. He was soon employed as the Court Reconciliator. He later joined Legal Aid, a pro bono legal service provider in Uganda where he served as the Assistant Legal Officer before he was promoted to Legal Officer. After that, he worked for the International Justice Mission, another pro bono legal service provider.

Oroya says he is passionate about helping the economically disadvantaged get justice. He believes that poor communities like those in northern Uganda really need his services. A 2016-17 report by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics estimated that at least 10 million of the estimated 37.7 million Ugandans live in poverty.  People in Eastern and Northern Uganda, depending largely on subsistence agriculture, are the poorest of the poor.

“It would be fancy to work in Kampala and make a lot of money but that would be serving personal desires without impact on the community,” Oroya says, “To me, a thank you note from a poor person is more worthy than driving a Mercedes-Benz.”

Oroya is a full-time lecturer at northern Uganda’s Gulu University. He also owns a law firm, Conrad Oroya Advocates in Gulu, and is a Regional Counsel Member of the Uganda Law Society, representing lawyers from northern Uganda. But he continues to offer free legal service both at a personal level and through his previous employer, Legal Aid.

Every Wednesday, he travels to a court in the neighboring Nwoya District as a lawyer on State brief (without pay) to defend individuals caught on the wrong side of the law. In his office, there are two huge piles of files – one for paid services and the other for free services. He says most of those pro bono files are for poor men and women who generally have only the clothes on their backs and a small piece of land being grabbed by wealthy individuals.

“I am happy to be serving in this community because I am making some impact,” Oroyo said. “I have won at least 300 cases and restored more than 400 families to their land after wealthy individuals grabbed them. My pro bono services also have greatly helped to decongest the Gulu Prison.”

A call to servant-hood was so strong that Oroyo turned down a prestigious opportunity to work in Europe. In 2016-2017, he got the Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue a Master in International Human Rights and Criminal Law at Bangor University in the United Kingdom (UK). Of 29 Ugandans that year, he was the only Ugandan legal scholar. And he emerged as the best Master of Law student. His dissertation was titled, “Law Reform Examination and Property Rights and Gender Equality: Women’s rights to property upon divorce and separation, a comparative legal study of Uganda, England and Wales,” also was voted as the best dissertation in 2017.

Those achievements earned him two accolades and he immediately got an offer from a professor to work with him as a Research Assistant, a position that would have automatically earned him a teaching job – and more money – in the UK. But Oroya says beside honouring the terms of agreement he had with his then employer, International Justice Mission, he knew that the poor in northern Uganda needed him more. So he turned down the opportunity.

Upon his return to Uganda, Oroya embarked on a move to try and reform the systems in place. He trained fellow lawyers, prosecutors and police officers on best practices of investigation and the need to respect individual human rights during arrests and detention. Detention without trial, torture, and grabbing of land that deny individuals the right to own property are the most common forms of human rights abuses meted by law enforcers in Uganda.

Many times, suspects are arrested before investigations are done and they are held in custody for weeks or months beyond the mandatory 48 hours as police investigate. Besides, it is a common practice for the wealthy to buy favors and win cases against poor individuals who cannot afford the cost of legal representations.

For Oroya, there is much more to be done. And he feels led to help do it.

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Rev. Canon Odora interacts with a member of the congregation outside St. Phillip’s Cathedral in Gulu shortly after a service on January 1, 2019. (UCU Partners photo)

Rev. Canon Odora: Ministering in post-war Northern Uganda

Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology, , , , , ,


Rev. Canon Odora interacts with a member of the congregation outside St. Phillip’s Cathedral in Gulu shortly after a service on January 1, 2019. (UCU Partners photo)

Rev. Canon Odora interacts with a member of the congregation outside St. Phillip’s Cathedral in Gulu shortly after a service on January 1, 2019. (UCU Partners photo)

By Douglas Olum

(In the morning of Thursday, December 6, I took a walk through a small town called Lacor, about three miles west of the larger and better-known Gulu Town in Uganda. I was on my way to meet a clergyman to write his story. It was only 9 o’clock, but already I saw men, both young and old, most of them dressed in torn, dirty clothes flocking alcohol shops that line the road. Many are people who lost their property to wealthy land grabbers. All are languishing in chronic poverty, thereby using alcohol as a mean of escaping unemployment and other stability problems. This, then, is an account of one pastor doing his work in Northern Uganda.)

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In the face of poverty, trauma and alcoholism, Christian preachers in Northern Uganda are faced with double-edged challenges as they strive to balance their ministry and the dire circumstances under which their flock live.

The situation is worse in rural areas where illiteracy is at its peak. In many sections, children cannot access schools. The health facilities, if any, are non-functional. And, due to the subsistence nature of agriculture, which is their only source of livelihood, people cannot afford decent lives. But these are the flocks that clergymen and women in the region herd.

“As a priest in this area, many people come to you to ask for food stuffs, financial assistance and other issues such as conflict resolution and mediation, addiction and failure to meet personal needs,” Reverend Canon Francis Willy Odora says.

Rev. Canon Francis Willy Odora, delivering a message at St. Phillip’s Cathedral in Gulu
Rev. Canon Francis Willy Odora, delivering a message at St. Phillip’s Cathedral in Gulu

Rev. Canon Odora is the Vicar at St. Phillip’s Cathedral in Gulu, about 275 miles north of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. His daily chores include: ministering at the Cathedral, office planning, counseling, praying with the sick, weekly ministering on a local radio (102 Mega FM) station, teaching at the Janani Luwum Theological College and pastoral visits to churches, families and elderly people who cannot walk to the church.

As he sets out to go to work in the morning, his wife, Mrs. Grace Odora, also leaves for the garden. She does most of the farming, but sometimes her husband accompanies her before he goes to work.

Residing in a small, one-level, two-bedroom house within the diocese’s premises, Canon Odora and his wife often are approached by needy persons. They seek food, school fees and other basic necessities. They only give food.

“Those that ask for what to cook, we give them food stuffs because we do not buy our food. We produce it. And it is easier for us to give because that is the only thing we have,” Canon Odora says.

Following the more than two decades of insurgency in the region, Canon Odora says, the level of desperation among Christians is extremely high. Besides the relief syndrome that has left the people constantly expectant and dependent, they are also faced with social and emotional injuries among the community, including trauma among those who returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) captivity and those who lost their dear ones to the conflict. These victims of what is also known as the “bush war” need reparation.

“People who have lived desperate lives and are socially injured demand a lot of attention,” he says. “The good thing is that we had a partnership with a group called ‘Healing the Orphaned Hearts,’ that trained us, the clergy and catechists on trauma healing.”

At 58 years, Canon Odora feels exhausted, yet the demand for his service among the community is continuous. He wants to retire from priesthood. However, his greatest worry is the replacement.

Like him, tens of other senior priests are in the evenings of their service as they are counting down years before they clock their retirement age of 65. These older clergy do not match the number of new entrants into priesthood.

Many of the younger men and women coming on board are pursuing only Certificates and Diplomas in Divinity. Canon Odora says clergy with lower credentials are sometimes undermined by some members of the congregation. They are deemed incapable of analyzing, interpreting or preaching the word to congregation expectations.

“We have had instances where some parishes have rejected some clergy because of their education background or their fluency in the English language,” he says. “These are common especially in the urban areas. You know, society has changed today. The level of understanding of the people has also changed. So, they now require clergy who are highly educated who meet their standards.”

He thinks having more people pursue theological education at higher levels will keep the Church abreast of the changing society and also save it from losing believers to the mushrooming Pentecostal Churches that preach prosperity and wealth instead of true evangelism.

But, while his reasoning could be a necessity for the continuity of the Anglican Church of Uganda, the Diocese of Northern Uganda, where he belongs, is faced with a huge financial challenge: it cannot support the education for its current and future clergy. A huge reason for the gap is the financial status of most Christians that affect not only tithing but also weekly collections.

Patrick Lumumba, the Diocesan Secretary, says many times they have secured half-scholarships from Uganda Christian University (UCU) for their clergy to upgrade but have failed to raise the other half of the tuition to push them to conclusion. As a result, many of them have dropped out.

The need is great. Uganda Christian University and UCU Partners are doing what they can by offering half-scholarships to students from every diocese in Uganda. While there are still many who need help, this scholarship program graduates dozens of new clergy every year.

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