Tag Archives: Uganda

Noted health communicator is new School of Journalism, Media, Communication Dean

March 17, 2025Faculty, Journalism, News, UCU School of Journalism, Media and CommunicationHIV/AIDS, Journalism, Kiwanuka-Tondo, UCU, UgandaEdwin Byarugaba

Prof. James Kiwanuka-Tondo in the UCU Deanship gown

By Eriah Lule
“To see the school prospering among the best schools of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMC) in Africa.”

Such is the vision that drives the new Uganda Christian University (UCU) School of JMC dean, Professor James Kiwanuka-Tondo.

In January 2025, he took over from Prof. Monica Chibita, a dean who for over a decade steered the then journalism/communications department under the School of Education into its own school.

Kiwanuka-Tondo’s determination for the school’s potential to excel as a model in the Media and Communication space is a manifestation of UCU’s motto of A Centre of Excellence in the Heart of Africa.

Prof. James Kiwanuka-Tondo, new dean, UCU School of Journalism, Media and Communication

“The school runs programs from diploma, bachelor’s and master’s degrees and PhD,” he said. “If well marketed and positioned, we can’t fail to be a model school since there not many universities with programs in Media and Communication cutting across from undergraduate to PhD level.”

Kiwanuka-Tondo argued further that there is a need to highlight the expanding opportunities in media and beyond traditional journalism that will keep the school relevant.

According to the changing employment landscape, he believes that the school should explore private and public opportunities such as media specialist or spokesperson for government and non-governmental organizations, communication campaign designers, digital and social media experts and campaign managers for political, health, environmental and others issues. University curriculum needs research, basic skills and alignment with real-world careers.

But who is Kiwanuka-Tondo?
Professor. James Kiwanuka-Tondo is a household name painted on the walls of the Ugandan and Global Public Health sector; his main area of research is health communication campaigns with particular emphasis on HIV/AIDS.

The number of infections and high mortality rate of HIV/AIDS registered in the early 90s led many academics like Kiwanuka-Tondo and government to research and join the fight.

He has a reputation as a health communication expert/consultant. His research in Uganda and elsewhere in East Africa has provided literature for key stakeholders worldwide to take necessary measures to curb the HIV/AIDs spread for over 20 years.

He has published an edited book on HIV/AIDS in Uganda, 18 peer-review journal articles, four peer-reviewed book chapters, one peer-reviewed conference proceeding, and four peer-reviewed research reports and has been a principal investigator (PI) on several research grants.

Because of his efforts in academia, Kiwanuka-Tondo received the prestigious Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal from the Board of Trustees at North Carolina State University (USA) on May 4, 2021. He also was acknowledged as the Outstanding Graduate Professor 2021/2022. In 2019, he was recognized as a member of the Academy of Excellence in Global Engagement for outstanding achievements in international education and research, North Carolina State University.

Work Experience
The son of the late Abraham Shamrock Ntanda Tondo and Esther Namayanja of Mukono District in the central part of the country, he pursued his Bachelors of Arts in Literature at Makerere University in 1978. After graduation, Kiwanuka-Tondo worked with the Ministry of Information in the Publication Section, which is currently the Public Relations Department.

In 1986, he was transferred on promotion to the Uganda School of Journalism at Uganda Management Institute as a senior lecturer and later course director.

In 1987, Kiwanuka-Tondo received a scholarship for his masters from the British Council at the University of Leicester, England, where he pursued his Masters in Mass Communication and graduated in 1989.

He later was appointed as the Acting head of Uganda School of Journalism and later substantive head in 1990 at Uganda Management Institute (Kampala).

In 1992 Kiwanuka-Tondo received a Fulbright scholarship for a PhD; he pursued his PhD in Communication Sciences from the University of Connecticut (USA) and graduated in 1999.

“After graduation in 1999, I was invited back by the Department of Communication Sciences at Connecticut as visiting assistant professor for three years,” he said.

In 2002, he was appointed as an assistant Professor at the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University and later promoted to Associate Professor in 2006 and full Professor in 2021.

Kiwanuka-Tondo, age 71, serves as the Vice President of East African Communication Association (EACA) and Editor for the Africa Journal of Communication. Tondo and Dorothy Kiwanuka, his wife of 40 years, have three children.

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To support UCU 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.

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‘Starting with just two goats, I realized the potential…’

March 5, 2025News, UCU Alumni, UCU School of Social SciencesAgriculture, goats, UCU Alumni, UgandaEdwin Byarugaba

John Lufafa having a light moment with a “kid” at the farm

By Eriah Lule
According to the Tridge agri-food data and intelligence website, New Zealand was the top goat meat exporter in 2024.

Nowadays, Uganda Christian University (UCU) graduate John Lufafa is watching these statistics with a goal to bring Uganda up on the list with his adult goat meat, also known as chevon. He knows that goat loin is the most desired cut, followed by leg and shoulder.

He never started out to be a goat farmer, but now that he is, he wants to be the best.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown led to a closure of many income-generating activities, a gap that opened many people’s minds to the need for a sustainable source of income. At the same time, the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu famous quote “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” haunted Lufafa and drove his vision of goat farming. The years 2020 and 2021 were the perfect time to begin.

“Starting with just two goats, I realized the potential of livestock farming for long-term financial growth,” he said. “Goat farming has reinforced my belief that small and well-managed initiatives can grow into significant economic ventures.”

Lufafa, who now has 60 goats, focuses on scalability, reinvestment and sustainability. He shunned goat farming as just an immediate source of his livelihood.

“I noticed it as a long-term investment, growing the herd, improving breed quality and exploring better feeding and healthcare practices to maximize productivity,” he said.

The UCU graduate of a Bachelor of Development Studies in 2015 learned this process as a university student. The UCU course exposed him to principles of sustainable development, resource management and economic empowerment – all of which are essential in agriculture and livestock farming.

Lufafa ventured into local goats with a particular interest in Mubende goats that originated in Uganda and are known for their hardness and disease resistance. He also has the South African breed called Boer.

He has learned that selective breeding improves herd quality and productivity over time with regular veterinary check-ups for disease prevention and early detection. Additionally, proper nutrition with balanced feed and access to clean water helps to ensure sustainability and profitability.

In a media interview, the Rev. Associate Professor John Mulindwa Kitayimbwa emphasized UCU’s theme statement, A complete education for a complete person.

“We are determined to producing a graduate that can compete in all walks of life and be of great service to the community” he said “Our major aim isn’t educating our students but preparing them for the world ahead of them and how better to tackle it for better lives.”

Lufafa affirmed that the university shaped his perspective on sustainability, economic empowerment and self-reliance. Through coursework and field experiences, he gained a deeper understanding of how small-scale enterprises can create lasting impact, especially in rural communities.

He acknowledges value addition, market linkages and community-based development as some of the factors that have influenced how he has managed to grow from two goats in 2020 to 60 goats in 2025 on his farm in Iganga District in the eastern part of the country.

Lufafa, 35, is the first born of five children of Duncan and Justine Lufafa of Jinja District in the eastern part of the country. The goat farmer and his wife, Nakidde Patience, have two children.

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UCU’s health and safety response to Mpox

February 28, 2025COVID-19#Covid-19, Ebola, Mpox, UCU, UgandaEdwin Byarugaba

By Jimmy Siyasa
Typical weekend activity at the Uganda Christian University (UCU), Main Campus, has a temporary lull.

Usual Saturday nights are filled with laughter and the sound of cheerful play echoing from Nsibambi Hall, named after a former Ugandan Prime Minister and designated as a male resident common; the students consistently meet there to watch the English Premier League soccer match. The mood is mirrored on a typical Friday evening in Sabiti Hall, the female residence named after a former Ugandan archbishop. There, girls have an impromptu movie night, watching Spanish telenovelas and sharing shawls and snacks as their carefree spirits light up their cubicle-size rooms.

On some weekend nights, there is a “Worship Night” organized by the Chaplaincy in Nkoyoyo Hall where no less than 500 students engage in vibrant musical praise and worship. Across campus, it is not uncommon to spot a group of friends squeezed into a crowded Toyota Vitz after a late study session. Within a sub-compact car, shoulders brush as they chatter about the week ahead.

These scenes of vibrant, social life—hallmarks of university culture— took a turn in February when UCU determined added vigilance was necessary. For students whose days involve handshakes, hugs and shared spaces, such a contagious disease could be fertile ground.

Just as with Covid-19, the emergence of the Mpox (commonly called monkey pox) virus in Uganda sparked a united response at UCU and across the country to protect the community and curb a threat.

Mpox spreads primarily through close, personal contact, including skin-to-skin contact with someone who has an infectious rash or by touching contaminated objects or materials.

Uganda’s fight against Mpox began with its first case on July 24, 2024, in Mpondwe, Western Uganda. On Feb. 11, 2025, the country confirmed 2,896 cases. This outbreak follows Uganda’s triumph over Ebola, contained in just 69 days thanks to a swift, coordinated intervention in 2022. Today, that same resolve drives the Mpox effort.

Addressing the public on February 18, Uganda’s Minister for Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng noted that the ministry continues to “monitor and contain” the disease with much hope of overcoming it.

“Uganda remains safe, and we have the capacity to manage the outbreak,” she said, reassuring both natives and foreigners.

The management involves tracing, diagnosing and educating.

The Ministry of Health deployed investigation teams, like Mukono’s Surveillance Department, to trace contacts on UCU’s campus during the last week of February.
Mobile labs, once key to rapid Ebola testing, were converted to diagnose Mpox swiftly.
Nationwide education campaigns, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), teach millions about prevention including impact of vaccination.

Uganda’s history—from pioneering Yellow Fever research to ending Ebola outbreaks — demonstrates safety. USAID’s $22 million boost during the 2022 Ebola fight, funding labs and treatment centers, laid groundwork that aids the Mpox response, proving past investments endure.

While the UCU campus is not impacted by widespread Ebola or Mpox, the Directorate of Medical Services, hosted at the Alan Galpin Health Centre, is proactive – sharing facts, safety tips and calling for vigilance.

Dr. Geoffrey Mulindwa, UCU Director of Medical Services

“If you or someone around you feels unwell, promptly notify health workers for assessment and care,” wrote Dr. Geoffrey Mulindwa, the Director of Medical Services, on Feb. 25, 2025. “Let’s all do our part to prevent Mpox at UCU.”

Their plan targets habits that define student life. Handshakes are out; frequent handwashing with soap or sanitizer is in. Sharing clothes and piling into close quarters are discouraged.

“Limit unnecessary physical contact,” the Directorate urged.

Students feeling unwell were instructed to call the Directorate’s hotline for immediate care. With Mukono’s contact-tracing team arriving soon, UCU is fully cooperating, ready to isolate risks. This blend of discipline and care reflects UCU Christian values, turning a wake-up call into a collective stand for safety.

Ironically, this action occurred a week away from the Easter Semester 2025 Health Awareness Week. To assist with disease mindfulness, the normal weekend wind-down at UCU has been replaced by quiet and a mantra of “health first.”

While assistance through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been halted, Uganda and the WHO are engaged in efforts to combat Mpox and Ebola.

“Controlling outbreaks is about saving lives,” Dr. Aceng said.

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School of Medicine pediatrician: ‘I felt I had found my place’

January 25, 2025Faculty, News, UCU School of MedicineDoctors, Medical School, Mengo Hospital, pediatrics, UCU, UgandaEdwin Byarugaba

Dr. Rhoda attends to a patient as the mother looks on

By Eriah Lule
From 6am to 6pm, one can’t fail to notice Dr. Nakiriba Rhoda Mayega within the in-patient Paediatric Wing (children’s ward) at Mengo Hospital, a private, faith-based teaching facility in Kampala, Uganda.

As many embraced medicine as a career, for Mayega it was more. She holds it as a deeper calling with the passion to both heal the sick and to pass on her 10 years of medicine experience as a lecturer within the Uganda Christian University (UCU) School of Medicine (SoM). During her 12-hour days, five days a week, she can be seen with patients and SoM students at what many call Namirembe Hospital, which was founded by Sir Albert Ruskin Cook, a British medical missionary in Uganda.

Growing up as a young girl, Mayega excelled in science, leaving her at a crossroads of being either an engineer or a doctor. The late Richard Wabwire, her former sciences teacher at Trinity College Nabbingo, an all-girls boarding school, counseled her to lean further toward medicine.

Having finished her Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery at Makerere University, she did an internship at Mulago National Referral Hospital in 2009. As a trainee doctor in an emergency ward handling many fragile cases, her love for adult medicine was ignited.

Dr. Rhoda supervises UCU medical students in the ward.

“For adults, diagnosis was easy, but in the Paediatric Ward, cases needed thinking fast and hard as most of them were a life-and-death situation,” she said “I didn’t like the Paediatrics Wing at all.”

Later in 2010 after her internship she applied in a private clinic within the former Louis Medical Centre in Kampala. It was a job that excited her while causing some dismay because she saw a major gap of services in the Paediatric ward.

“After three months of working, I felt the environment wasn’t stimulating,” Mayega recalled. “I felt underutilized.”

She took her credentials to Kayunga District Hospital in the central part of the country. There were two medical doctors on staff with one being the medical superintendent and another, Dr. Sabiiti Perezi, engaged in administrative tasks more than patient care.

No sooner had she started her conversation with the hospital’s Human Resources, than an emergency happened in the labor ward; an operation had to be done to save a mother and child.

“First head to the ward and save them, then we can talk later, HR told me,“ she remembered. “I carried out a successful Caesarean section. In me, I felt I had found my place.”

With such tidings and talent, the District Service Commission (committee in charge of hiring civil servants at Local Government level across all sectors/departments) held an emergency meeting and agreed that Mayega should join the Hospital. In 2010, she was confirmed into Government service.

According to the Analysis of Health Labour Market in Uganda report 2022, the total stock of health workers in Uganda was estimated at 158,932 in 2022 with a density of 25.9 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people. The highest number of health workers were nurses and midwives (106,915), followed by laboratory technicians (16,098) and clinical officers (13,627).

With such statistics and few skilled medical doctors at the time, Kayunga Hospital had no doctor attached to obstetrics and paediatrics, leaving Mayega no option but to join the ward and serve.

The smiles from children after a relief of their medical challenges, along with the prayers and thank yous from their parents, was the beam of hope that further cemented Mayega’s service in paediatrics.

Dr. Rhoda, at right, attends to a patient.

“A child’s smile and a relieved parent spoke directly to my soul,” she said. “This is what I am going to do for the rest of my life.”

Mayega credits her supervisor, Dr. Edson Mworozi, a senior consultant paediatrician from Mulago who visited Kayunga every two months, for much of her success. He told the Medical Superintendent not to “let the young lady go… her talent is a living testimony for the people of Kayunga.”

“I was in paediatrics but we still collectively managed emergencies as the three doctors,” she recalled.

In 2013 and despite insufficient human resources at the hospital, the District Service Commission granted her a study leave, allowing Mayega to leave Kayunga to pursue her Masters of Paediatrics and Child Health at Makerere University for three years.

In 2016, she worked part-time at Mengo’s Paediatric Ward while serving at Kayunga.

The District Health officer of Kayunga District at the time retired, and the Hospital Medical Superintendent was appointed to the position. Dr. Sabiiti, who was more senior, had advanced in age so he couldn’t replace the Superintendent; Mayega was called to fill the position to steer the hospital leadership, an opportunity she turned down.

“I wasn’t going back to Kayunga,” she said. Being married with children was part of the reason.

Mengo Hospital wrote to the Government asking Mayega to join there. She first served as a visiting paediatrician at the out-patient ward later transferred to the in-charge of the Paediatrics Ward to today.

Before joining, the hospital Paediatric Ward was referred to as a “death bed” as it was difficult to go a day without multiple mourning for the loss of children. When Mayega joined, the mortality rate dropped.

“The department was well known for not generating any income for the hospital,” Mayega said. “It is now recognised for its tremendous efforts.”

UCU journey
When the UCU SoM started in 2018, Dr. Edward Kanyesigye (the first Dean) sought to leverage on the experts of the hospital to champion a holistic education for the students – a goal he achieved. Mayega was among the experts who invented her own style of passing knowledge. She highlighted the course’s rich communal transformation in a unit called Maternal and Child Health, which requires students to go into communities and learn about a child.

In one of his engagements, the UCU Vice Chancellor Prof. Aaron Mushengyezi, highlighted the need of academic staff to advance their careers by pursuing PhDs that would help them to get grounded in research, partnerships and grants.

This statement is an affirmation of Mayega’s aspirations.

“I want to advance for my PhD to get grounded in the area of research to add onto the literature around Paediatrics in the country,” she said.

Her continuous encouragement and influence for further studies has led two of her subordinates at the hospital to pursue their Masters in Paediatrics. After them succeeding, she could have time to focus on research and hospital supervision.

Background
Mayega is married to Dr. Roy William Mayega, a medical doctor and a senior lecturer at Makerere University School of Public Health. The couple, married for 15 years, has four children.

Mayega is the last born of four children of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Baptist Buyisi.

Mengo is the first hospital in Uganda, established by a missionary and physician Dr. Sir. Albert Cook with his wife who belonged to the Church Missionary Society in 1897; Mengo is owned by the Anglican Church.

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Uganda Christian University has many stories like this one. To support 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.

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Regional law moot competition unearths talent at UCU

November 18, 2024News, Students, UCU School of Law#Kenya, #Moot, #News, #students, School of Law, UCU, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Stacy Angel Ndawula and Jude Mulumbye at the moot competition

By Pauline Luba
Personal data is a key driver of an election cycle in any country. From the time of registration, voters leave personal information that becomes useful during the campaigns, as well as during the elections. The data provided by the voters is useful in determining where the rallies are organized and how the campaign messages are tailored.

The theme of personal data during elections was the subject of a recent law moot (simulated) competition in Kenya, where students of Uganda Christian University (UCU) not only participated, but also returned with honors.

Stacy Angel Ndawula and Jude Mulumbye showcased their debate prowess in the competition, both relevant and timely, given the rise in the use of biometric technology in developing countries, including Uganda, and its implications on privacy of the data of the voters. Biometric technology is the science of using automated methods to recognize people based on their biological and behavioral characteristics.

Ndawula and Mulumbye are year-three students pursuing a Bachelor of Laws at UCU.

The moot focused on a hypothetical case involving the East African Civil Liberties Union against the Electoral Commission of Umoja. The case touched on issues of data privacy in elections, specifically addressing concerns about the security and the use of personal data collected through biometric systems.

According to Ndawula, the challenge was to find a balance between ensuring electoral integrity and protecting individual privacy rights.

“Moots expose you to what to expect in the legal field,” Ndawula noted, adding: “They help you grow skills in research, speech and analysis.”

For four months, Ndawula and Mulumbye worked on their memorials (written arguments), researching extensively and preparing for the oral rounds.

“You sacrifice a lot for the moot,” Ndawula said, emphasizing the long hours and the pressure to perform well at the regional stage. Despite never having participated in a moot before, she was determined to challenge herself and improve her confidence.

The path to Kenya was no easy feat for Ndawula and Mulumbye. They were among a select few chosen from class moots held at UCU in their second year. The students were then evaluated and encouraged to apply for various moot competitions. Ndawula had qualified for the Unwanted Witness Privacy Moot, and Mulumbye had his eyes set on an international platform to test his skills. After four months of preparation, they both stepped up to represent Uganda in one of East Africa’s most competitive moot events. Daystar University of Kenya won the competition, beating Africa Nazarene University, also from Kenya.

One of the unforgettable moments for Mulumbye was the impact of their team work. He credits Ndawula for keeping him aligned during the arguments.

“There were moments where I would forget a provision or a case, and Ndawula would write it on a sticky note, and vice versa” Mulumbye recalled. This didn’t go unnoticed by the judges, who commended their seamless teamwork and legal knowledge.

The competition wasn’t without its challenges, though. The team often stayed up all night, reading through cases and legal provisions as they prepared for each round.

“The stress was overwhelming,” Mulumbye admitted.

The draws for the semifinals again pitted UCU against Daystar University. This time, however, the UCU team was edged out, with a narrow score of 58 to 57. While they didn’t make it to the finals, the performance of Ndawula and Mulumbye earned them the title of the best Ugandan team in the competition.

Ndawula, who was ranked the best oralist in the overall competition, encouraged her fellow students to participate in moots, adding that though the preparation is time-consuming, the skills one gains, from research to time management, make it worthwhile.

Mulumbye highlighted how the moot sharpened his oratory skills and gave him invaluable insight into court procedures.

“Now I know how to submit and raise preliminary questions in court,” he said. “This experience has also taught me time management and the importance of teamwork.”

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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.

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Bishop Chorey’s rise amidst Karamoja’s turmoil

October 1, 2024Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology, News, UCU AlumniKaramoja, Theology, UCU, UCU Alumni, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba of the Church of Uganda introducing Bishop Michael Chorey to the congregation.

By Kefa Senoga
Before he was ordained deacon in 2003, Bishop Michael Chorey, the newly consecrated bishop of Karamoja Diocese, was already involved in Christian ministry, serving in different capacities as a missionary and lay reader. During one of his ministry assignments while he was serving at the Church of Uganda Hospital in Amudat district, he was shot and sustained a bullet wound on the left side of his face.

“While we were transporting a patient from Amudat to Moroto, our vehicle was ambushed by an armed group,” said Bishop Chorey, an alum of Uganda Christian University (UCU). “I was shot, and the driver was also shot in the chest. Thankfully, we all survived.”

Bishop Chorey waving at the congregation

The Karamoja region in northeastern Uganda, where Bishop Chorey was born, raised, and served in Christian ministry, has long experienced tensions and rivalries among its ethnic groups.

Conflicts over resources, territory, and historical grievances in the region often escalate into violence and armed cattle raids, given its status as a nomadic pastoralist area. This has led to significant loss of life, particularly due to gun violence. Reports indicate that illegal firearms are commonly smuggled into Karamoja from neighboring countries, such as Kenya and Sudan, due to its proximity to these borders.

Bishop Chorey attributed the ambush to the insecurity and gun violence prevalent in the region at the time. Despite this, he remained undeterred, driven by a vision for Karamoja, where people would love one another, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds. This vision became both his hope and constant prayer.

Bishop Chorey remained steadfast in his clerical journey, never looking back. In 2000, he joined Namugongo Seminary, where he studied for three years and was later appointed chaplain in the Church of Uganda Hospital in Amudat for two years. He was priested in 2005 and made parish priest of Christ Church in Amudat district.

Amudat District, located in the Karamoja region, is home to the Pokot, a minority tribe to which Bishop Chorey belongs. The district borders Kenya, where the Pokot community in Kenya resides on the other side. Historically, the Karimojong and the Pokot people have been traditional and cultural enemies.

Bishop Chorey recounts how difficult it was to preach about love while serving as the parish priest in the Pokot community that harbored deep enmity toward their Karimojong neighbors.

He explains that the raids carried out between the two tribes led to the loss of many loved ones, fueling deep resentment on both sides. When these attacks occurred, thoughts of revenge or counter attacks were often at the forefront. Neither tribe was free from the cycle of bloodshed.

Sections of the congregation at the consecration ceremony

Bishop Chorey notes that nearly everyone in the region owned a gun, and that each month, the church would receive groups of widows, victims of the ongoing violence between the two tribes.

The frequent raids led to a significant loss of life, making it nearly impossible to preach that their rivals, who originated from the same region, were family. The deep-seated resentment and the pain caused by the deaths of their loved ones only fueled this divide.

“Every time we would go to mourn at a home, we planted a seed of the gospel and three of our strong parishes were formed at a time of mourning; we would go and spend a week with the family that has lost its members as we preach, having overnights,” Bishop Chorey said.

He further described the intense atmosphere of that period, particularly for the clergy who continued their ministry work without any form of security. He recalls that at one time, “the government asked Bishop Lomongi whether it could offer escorts to church staff” but that the bishop and the clergy declined.

He adds that the Bishop pardoned clergy members who were unable to attend diocesan meetings, considering the difficulties they encountered as a result of the unrest in the area. He advised, “If we call a diocesan meeting and your spirit or conscience tells you not to travel that day, don’t force yourself.”

Bishop Chorey noted that crosses in memory of murdered Catholic clergy can be found along roads when entering the Karamoja region from Namalu. Locals are known to stop cars and shoot passengers. The Church of Uganda once lost six nurses and a clinical officer in a single day.

Through his work in the church, Bishop Chorey says that he has been able to reach and transform some of the wrong elements, such as cattle rustlers, who have since laid down their guns and become lay readers in the church.

“I have four of my commissioned lay readers who have been warriors and cattle rustlers and these are the guys who are preaching Christ now,” he says.

The Ugandan government also has made efforts to curb gun violence in Karamoja, including disarmament programs and increased security presence.

In 2007, Bishop Chorey joined UCU to pursue a Bachelor of Divinity, completing his studies in 2009. Before finishing his degree, he was assigned to St. Philip’s Cathedral in Moroto.

Bishop Chorey notes that some of his family members were concerned when he was posted to Moroto, where the majority of the people are Karimojong.

He explains that his family feared for his safety, believing that he might be killed because no Pokot had ever worked in Moroto. They were thinking from a traditional perspective of the feud between the Pokot and the Karimojong. However, he says that he spent his time there peacefully and made many good friends.

Bishop Chorey explains that UCU broadened his perspective beyond the narrow view of the Pokot community. As a result, he returned in 2012 to pursue a Master of Arts in Theology and Development. By 2013, before completing his program, he was appointed as Archdeacon back at home in Amudat.

“When I started ministry there, we opened churches from one traditional church that was opened up by the Church Missionary Society to six parishes,” he says.

Bishop Chorey notes that when his predecessor, Bishop Joseph Abura, announced his retirement, he had no thoughts about replacing him due to the fact that Chorey was coming from the minority tribe in the diocese. However he was nominated, winning over his mentor, Rev. Canon Joseph Aleper.

Bishop Chorey has developed a nine-point program plan for the Diocese of Karamoja, designed to address the spiritual, social, and economic needs of the region. The plan prioritizes mission and evangelism as its foremost objective.

“Mission and evangelism will transform the people of Karamoja. When that happens, so much will change in Karamoja and that’s why I put it as the first priority,” he says.

According to Bishop Chorey who grew up as a shepherd in a purely nomadic pastoralist family, his parents did not go to school or church. His father, Mudang Dokongole, has seven wives, including his mother, Cheman Mudang.

His early education at Losam Primary School in Kenya, a church-founded school, introduced him to Christ.

In 1986, after completing his primary education at Konyao Primary School in Kenya, he attended Chewoyet High School, also in Kenya, for his secondary education. He credits his uncle, a government porter to the Assistant District Commissioner, for influencing his father to send him to school in a community where education was not a priority, and the illiteracy rate is today as high as 96%.

Currently, he is in the final stages of completing his Doctor of Philosophy in Theology and Development at UCU.

A significant number of people from Kenya, including members of parliament, senators and the West Pokot Governor, attended the consecration of Bishop Chorey on August 25 in Amudat district. The Vice President of Uganda, Maj. Jessica Alupo, represented President Yoweri Museveni as the chief guest.

Bishop Chorey is married to the Rev. Canon Jane Chorey, with whom he has worked in the Pokot Archdeaconry. They have three children.

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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.

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Engineering faculty trains Mukono farmers on biogas technology

September 26, 2024Faculty of Engineering, Design & Technology, News, StudentsBingo! Projektförderung, Biogas, engineering, farming, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Dr. Miria Agunyo explains to farmers the benefits of using fresh waste to make biogas

By Irene Best Nyapendi
Waste was once defined only as something with no purpose, but this is no longer the case. The definition of waste as something useless is not accurate among a growing number of Uganda Christian University (UCU) students and staff who are informed and involved in various resource recovery initiatives.

Most recently, the Faculty of Engineering, Design, and Technology (FEDT) at UCU invited at least 12 farmers from within the Mukono area to learn what the institution is doing to recover resources from waste. On September 11, a training session for the dozen farmers introduced them to organic waste management approaches, biogas technology, occupational health and safety measures and application of bioslurry in agriculture. The training was facilitated by a team that included Ass. Prof. Eleanor Wozei, Ass. Prof. Sarah Kizza-Nkambwe, Mr. Arnold Mugisha, Mr. Okot Innocent, Mr. Eddy Ojara and Dr. Miria Agunyo. Agunyo is the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Design and Technology and the principal investigator of the project.

Farmers observe bio-slurry during the training

Farmers walked away having learned how biogas, a renewable energy fuel, is produced from biodegradation of organic waste streams, including food and animal waste. They also learned how the bio-slurry can be used as fertilizer for their crops. Through this technology, greenhouse gas emissions, such as of methane, are prevented, as well as the pollution of soil and water by the waste from landfills. The training took place at the UCU Biogas Plant, which was constructed and commissioned in September 2023, with support from Bingo Projektförderung (project funding) in Germany.

Under this project, Dr. Agunyo said UCU is working hand in hand with the Artefact Centre in Germany to train people how to make simple biogas digester systems while promoting the use of other by-products, such as bioslurry.

She added: “We want biogas technology to be something an ordinary person can do with very little support.”

Through the Bingo project grant funding of 30,000 Euros ($33,478), UCU installed a 12-cubic-meter digester tank that converts waste into biogas at the UCU water treatment plant and serves as a teaching tool for waste management and construction of digesters. Artefact Centre is doing the same in Germany, demonstrating simple do-it-yourself systems, enabling young people to appreciate the technology through traineeships.

“Recently, we fabricated our own digesters using plastic containers, which has helped us explain how simple biogas technology can be, from construction to operation,” Dr. Agunyo said.

“The biogas we produce is used in the UCU kitchen, and the bioslurry is used as fertilizer in our demonstration gardens and this component was carried out by our colleagues from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, led by Dr. Rosemary Bulyaba.”

The Bingo Project aimed to demonstrate that as a university, we can sustainably manage the organic waste streams generated from within UCU and use the biogas produced to substitute firewood use at the UCU kitchen, hence promoting the use of clean cooking fuels and enhancing farming through the use of bioslurry.

Farmers learn about the process of biogas production, from mixing feedstock to utilizing the gas

Some of the participants who attended the training indicated their interest to make changes.

“I’m tired of using charcoal, and I am excited to use waste to make biogas because it’s clean and will help me prepare meals faster,” said Prossy Birungi, one of the farmers who attended the training. “Biogas is a double blessing; I hope to use it for cooking and the residue as manure.”

She commended UCU for the hands-on training, which demystified biogas technology.

“I used to hear rumors about biogas on TV, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn how to make and use it,” Birungi said.

Another farmer, Allan Kakembo, from Bugujju in Mukono, noted that manure and animal feed have been costly. He is hopeful that the bio-slurry used in his banana and maize plantation will improve production while reducing expenses.

“Waste has been a challenge to me, and I am glad I can now benefit from it,” Kakembo said. “I look forward to using waste from my kitchen and animal waste to make biogas, instead of dumping it.”

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UCU engaged in phase 2 of Uganda’s yellow fever vaccination campaign

May 16, 2024News, Students#News, #students, Health, Uganda, vaccinations, yellow feverPatty Huston-Holm

Esther Kisakye, one of the first recipients of the vaccine at UCU

By Irene Best Nyapendi
In April, Uganda underwent the second phase of a vaccination campaign against yellow fever disease that is spread through a bite from an infected Aedes mosquito, informally known as the “tiger” mosquito because of its black and white markings.

The campaign, which covered 53 districts, including Mukono, where the main campus of Uganda Christian University (UCU) is located, took place from April 2 to 8.

At the launch of the administration of the vaccination at Mehta Primary School in Lugazi Municipality, Buikwe District, on April 4, 2024, Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, the Uganda representative with the World Health Organization (WHO), said they expected to reach at least 90% of the intended population in this second phase of the vaccination. The campaign targeted vaccinating 14.4 million people ages 1 to 60.

The first phase of the vaccination took place in June last year, targeting 13.3 million people. A total of 9.4 million people were reached during the first phase, according to Dr. Tegegn Woldemariam.

In 2017, a global strategy called Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) was developed by WHO and a coalition of partners such as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to eradicate yellow fever by 2026. It is expected that by the end of 2026, almost 1 billion people ages 1-60 in high-risk African countries will be protected against yellow fever.

USA citizens over age 1 must have the yellow fever vaccination certificate to enter Uganda. Americans pay around $200 each for the yellow fever vaccine. Some other countries that require proof of yellow fever vaccination for entrance include Algeria, Angola, Australia, Bahamas, Nigeria and Kenya.

Since 2010, Uganda has had an escalating number of yellow fever outbreaks with confirmed cases reported in the northern parts of the country. In 2020, there were cases in parts of northwestern and western Uganda. Most recently, in 2023, yellow fever outbreaks were recorded in some central parts of the country.

UCU students waiting to be vaccinated at Allan Galpin Health Center

According to WHO, a single dose of the yellow fever vaccine provides lifelong protection without any need for booster doses. A total of 80-100% of the vaccinated people are immune to the disease within 10 days and more than 99% within 30 days.

With some exceptions, the yellow fever vaccine is free only for Ugandan children less than a year old. For others, government health facilities charge Sh102,000 (about $27) per yellow fever vaccine.

The UCU Allan Galpin Health Centre was one of the facilities earmarked for free vaccination during the second phase in April. Abdul Wahabu Kakooza, a Nursing Officer in charge of vaccinations at Galpin, urged members of the community to embrace the vaccination. He said signs and symptoms of yellow fever may be confused with malaria, leptospirosis, viral hepatitis, other haemorrhagic fevers, infection with other flaviviruses (such as dengue), or poisoning.

According to Dr. Stephen Mulindwa, the Health Officer for Mukono District, 520,000 people were vaccinated in Mukono District. He urged more people to get vaccinated.

“People should beware that yellow fever can damage the liver and kidney, and this may lead to death,” Mulindwa said. “The vaccine is safe, and people should embrace it.”

In April, 1,000 students, staff and some community members were vaccinated at Allan Galpin.

Voices from the UCU Community
Esther Kisakye, a UCU year-three student pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance, was among the first individuals to receive the yellow fever vaccination at Allan Galpin.

“I urge the public to get vaccinated to keep safe from yellow fever,” Kisakye said.

Emmanuel Isabirye, a Teaching Assistant at UCU who got vaccinated, believes that vaccines have helped combat diseases like polio. He emphasised that yellow fever is a severe illness and should be taken seriously.

Dickson Tumuramye, Head of the UCU Honors College, said that since the yellow fever vaccine is now mandatory for international travel, he was left with no choice but to comply.

“I saw the campaign as an opportunity to get a free vaccination,” Tumuramye said.

For his children, he gave consent for them to be vaccinated at their school.

“I realised that if we did not get vaccinated, it would potentially cause challenges in the future, such as when we want to travel or when schools start asking for vaccination cards,” he said.

On the other hand, some members of the UCU community believe the Uganda Ministry of Health could have done more awareness ahead of and during the administration for more-informed response.

“The Ministry of Health did not sensitise enough about the vaccine and its potential side effects,” said Eriah Lule, the Communications Assistant for the UCU Alumni Association, explaining some of the cause of vaccine hesitancy. Those side effects include headaches and low-grade fevers.

Hope Akello, a resident of Mukono district, did not get vaccinated, questioning the cost.

The Government ran advertisements in the media about the campaign. During the official launch of the weeklong campaign on April 4, the Permanent Secretary at Uganda’s Ministry of Health, Dr. Diana Atwine, urged the population to reject misinformation surrounding vaccines. She reassured the public of their safety and efficacy, emphasising that “immunisation efforts are crucial in safeguarding public health and reducing disease prevalence.”

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North American university program marks 20th year at UCU

May 7, 2024Faculty, News, Students, UCU Alumni, Uganda Partners, USPMark Bartels, Partners, Rachel Robinson, UCU, Uganda, USPPatty Huston-Holm

Uganda Studies Program students pose for photo shortly before being sent home early due to a 2015 Al-Shabaab terrorism attack on students at a university in Kenya. Rachel Robinson, the director at the time, is fourth from left.

Story By Nathan Simbilyabo and Bena Nekesa

Photos, Video by Nathan Simbilyabo

In 2004, Mark and Abby Bartels embarked on a journey to create a unique educational experience for students from Christian colleges and universities in North America. What started as the Uganda Studies Program (USP) at Uganda Christian University (UCU) has now blossomed into a 20-year legacy of cultural exchange and academic learning.

“We learned early that relationships would be the key to the success of the program,” said Mark Bartels, now executive director of a USA-based nonprofit, Uganda Partners. “Beyond the essential rapport with the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) and UCU was that the program provided relationships with other students, host families, faculty members and supervisors – primarily Ugandans.”

Now living in Pennsylvania, Mark and Abby, who had USP founding roles of coordinator and assistant coordinator, respectively, spent 10 years at UCU, working, living and raising their three children there. Both are graduates of Wheaton (Illinois) College, which is one of more than 100 higher education institutions under the CCCU umbrella.

When the couple launched USP 20 years ago, Abby’s father, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Noll, was UCU’s Vice Chancellor.

According to Mark, CCCU had other programs designed with academics and home stays in Russia, China, Egypt, Costa Rica and England. One different distinction was that USP was the first CCCU program to be closely partnered and embedded within a Christian university. A key UCU component was alignment with the Honors College, coordinated then by the Rev. Canon Dr. Sam Opol, assisted by his wife, Margaret.

Today, the USP is a program with a focus on Social work, Global Health, and Interdisciplinary studies, offering students a wide range of educational opportunities. Rachel Robinson, the program director for the past 10 years, leaves her post in June. The director oversees the day-to-day operation and the transformative experience it provides for students.

About the USP Program
When applying for the Uganda Studies Program at UCU, students choose from one of the following academic concentrations: Social Work, Global Health, or Interdisciplinary, and engage in internships at different organizations depending on their area of study.

The program also creates a different learning experience for students in Uganda and Africa as a whole, arranging for a student to be placed with a host family on arrival, and during the trip they stay in villages for a week in which a student can learn what academics cannot give.

During one of two semesters known at UCU as Advent/Fall and Spring/Easter Semester, they do a homestay in Kapchorwa or Serere. At the end of a semester over the years, they make a final study trip to Northern Uganda or Rwanda and finish with a debrief in Entebbe before returning to North America.

The USP since its inception boasts of up to 970 alumni including 120 males and the rest females, who have since become global alumni ambassadors of UCU and sponsors in partnership with UCU. For over two decades of USP existence, the program has had over 93 American and Ugandan staff members, including a coordinator, program assistant and a homestay coordinator.

Rachel’s Journey with USP
On April 10, the USP celebrated two major milestones in its history: first, its 20th anniversary since 2004; and second, honoring Rachel Robinson for her leadership as director of the Program. Outgoing students also bade farewell.

USP director, Rachel Robinson, left, is leaving her leadership position that will be assumed by Emily Entsminger, right, on June 1.

Rachel’s leadership journey began in 2014 when Mark, now executive director of UCU Partners, moved back to the USA. Her tenure with USP started in 2010 while she was serving as the Coordinator of the Intercultural Ministry Mission Emphasis (IMME). Effective June 1, the USP lead position will be assumed by Emily Entsminger, a USP alum who has been serving as a Student Life Coordinator.

“I have many memories – both good and challenging – from the years in the role of the directorate,” Rachel said. “One of the difficult memories is the bomb attack that happened in one of the universities in Kenya in 2015.” The Garissa University College attack in Kenya took place in April 2015 when gunmen stormed the institution, massacring 148 and injuring 79 more people.

“It was a serious crisis that happened because from that we were called to evacuate our students before the end of their semester,” she said. “That semester we had farewell without students.”

USP director, Rachel Robinson, center, participates in a recent cake cutting event on UCU Mukono campus.

One of Racheal’s highlights during her service under USP were trips to Rwanda where she and USP cohorts interacted with a Rwandese national with Christian Action for Reconciliation and Social Assistance (CARSA), Christophe Mbonyingabo, who told them about the Rwandese genocide of 1994 and reconciliation and recovery that was happening.

When asked about her next step, Rachel expressed uncertainty but asserted “trust in God” both for her and USP.

“Whenever there is a success, mostly the directors and leaders get the praise, while I didn’t do it alone and mostly every time there are people in the background working overtime,” she said. “I am undoubtedly confident with the coming director of USP that even if it doesn’t go well or it goes well, she will do well.”

What others say
The April celebration was attended by many guests including the host families, homestay families, roommates, former USP staff including the former Vice Chancellor Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, Deputy Vice Chancellor Finance and Administration David Mugawe and University Chaplain Rev. Canon Paul Wasswa Ssembiro.

“I have seen this program grow and go through different seasons, both difficult and good, for example during COVID-19 and the attack on the university in Kenya in 2015,” recalled Dr. Senyonyi during his speech. “But the outgoing director, with whom I joined UCU almost at the same time, has worked so hard, so I say, Rachel, you must come back because we still need you.”

David Mugawe, Deputy Vice Chancellor Finance and Administration, and outgoing USP director, Rachel Robinson, with recognition plaque.

The UCU Directorate of Student Affairs, Pamela Tumwebaze, added appreciation to Rachel “as a colleague and close friend.”

“Rachel had become like a sister to me,” Pamela said. “I will miss her. I wish I could convince her to stay, and I do not know what word I will use.”

During his speech, Mugawe presented Rachel with an award in recognition of her good work and thanked her on behalf of the university community.

The ceremony concluded with the cutting of cake, a meal, a touching slideshow of memories and well-wishes from friends, and officially closed with prayer by the UCU Chaplain.

Another commemoration with an audience of USP alumni is planned in July in the USA state of Colorado.

As USP marks its 20th anniversary and its impact, it remains committed to providing students with immersive educational experiences that broaden their horizons and shape their worldview. Most importantly, it continues to inspire students to understand and appreciate other cultures.

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Family roots + UCU applied learning = graduation

January 28, 2021COVID-19, News, UCU Alumni#entrepreneurship, #Kapchorwa, #potatoes, #UgandaChristianUniversity, business, Mukono, Uganda, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

By Collin Wambete

In addition to sickness and death, the COVID-19 pandemic reaped loss of employment and gaps in education around the world. Youth in Uganda have been discouraged and even more hard pressed to make money, including acquisition of funds to go to school.

Amidst the storm, Cherop Lillian found an answer to her personal situation. That answer – potatoes with an occasional onion, fruit and other edibles – enabled her to graduate on 18th December 2020 with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and Entrepreneurship at Uganda Christian University (UCU) with financial security.

She brought Irish potatoes from her home in Kapchorwa District, which is roughly 266 kilometers (165 miles) away from the UCU campus Mukono District. Starting in February 2020, she set up a retail business 50 meters (164 feet) away from UCU’s main gate. First, raw potatoes, onions and fried potatoes were sold. Ready-to-eat, fresh fruits followed.

Cherop Lillian at her December 2020 graduation from UCU

For Lillian, the lockdown that started in March and the subsequent loss of customers posed a threat to the survival of her business. She’d make fries from potatoes and sell to the students that were on campus. Her target market predominantly being students, the lockdown threw a wrench in her plans.

Who would she sell to? With transportation being shut down for 32 days, what would she sell?

She cut down her usual trade of six-to-seven 100kg (220 pounds) bags of potatoes to two bags. For most of 2020, no one was around to buy ready-to-eat fries. Lockdown measures eventually eased up and UCU, under Standard Operating Procedure guidance from the Ministry of Health, was permitted to let finalists return to campus and complete their studies. These final-year student customers returned on October 15th when UCU re-opened.

Food was the obvious product for sale. History told her so. The earliest business venture she can remember is selling vegetables on her veranda. On holidays, she fried cassava chips in senior six and senior four.

“It is a must for everybody to eat food, so this is a viable business.” She said.

Logistics was part of the survival. Since her produce comes from Kapchorwa, her business depends on the stability of crop prices there. Transport costs shooting up all over the country due to curfew and new road restrictions was an added obstacle.

“I spend 75,000 Uganda shillings ($20.50) to transport five bags of Irish potatoes and this is too high for me,” she said. “I wish I could buy my own van; it could be much cheaper.”

Lillian’s business survived. On January 1, 2021, it was stationed 100 meters (328 feet) from the main UCU gate. Most days, she was at her stall by 7 a.m. She employed five staff. In addition to potatoes, sometimes they sell homemade passion juice.

“At my age (24) I am trying as much as possible to find my destiny, and the mistakes I make today become very big lessons to me especially in business,” she said. “I do not ask for money from people and my parents are glad that as a girl child, I am independent and able to cater for my basic needs”

She advised fellow youth to venture into business, have self-drive, and aim at growing business instead of focusing on profits at the beginning. These skills, she acknowledged, were largely learned in her program of study at UCU.

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UCU-Norway collaborative – One recipient’s perspective

January 18, 2021News# NORHED II, #Faculty of Journalism Media and Communication, #Global Journalism, #John Semakula, #NORHED I, #UgandaChristianUniversity, Norway, Uganda, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

John Semakula and Frank Obonyo, UCU communications manager, during graduation ceremony at the UCU main campus in Mukono in 2019.

(NOTE: In December 2020, the NLA University College in Norway announced plans to continue its partnership with the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Faculty of Journalism and Media Studies for a six-year period, starting in 2021. The partnership involves a grant of sh8.4bn ($2.3 million) for UCU as well as the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and the University of Rwanda specific to promoting equality in gender and for people with disabilities and including PhD scholarships. This article gives the perspective of one UCU beneficiary of the current collaborative.)

By John Semakula

Around this time in January 2018, I had just returned from a five-month study trip in Norway. I had never been away from Uganda that long and never experienced such cold temperatures.

Apart from struggling to adjust to the cold and missing home, staying in Norway was a wonderful, memorable experience that positively impacted my life and career. I travelled to Norway in early August 2017 under an NLA University College one-semester exchange program to study global journalism. The opportunity was part of a scholarship awarded in 2016 to me and five others at Uganda Christian University (UCU), where I was pursuing a Masters Degree in Journalism and Media Studies.

John Semakula (second left) with friends at Kristiansand, Norway, in 2017.

Through the Norway government Norwegian Program for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED), the UCU Mass Communication Department received in 2013 a sh4.7bn ($1.3 million) grant for staff capacity building. At the time, I was a senior writer at New Vision and teaching several UCU course units such as news and feature writing and investigative journalism.

Collaboratives are important from academic, cultural and work place perspectives.

While in Norway, one of the key values I learned was keeping time. If I had not mastered time keeping, I would not have survived because nearly everything in Norway – as is common for Western world countries – rotates around time management. Without the skill, one would miss a bus from the College to Kristiansand town for shopping and fail to submit coursework on time, which is punishable. Overall, being late is perceived as lack of respect. This expectation is difficult to implement in Uganda where tardiness excuses range from traffic jams to weather.

In Norway, traffic is orderly. Unlike in Uganda, Norwegian drivers follow roadway rules and are respectful of pedestrians. Respecting the laws means citizens report other citizen disobedience. In Uganda, citizens often help criminals to escape justice.

The experience in Norway reinforced the value of networking. In my class of about 20 students, we had representation from Palestine, Ethiopia, Ghana, Denmark, Norway, Uganda, Pakistan, Germany, Brazil and Nepal. Some of the journalists, especially those from Europe, could not believe our stories of Ugandan police using teargas and clubs to stop members of the press from doing their work. Such police brutality does not happen in many developed countries. In Norway, it’s rare to see a demonstration and when it occurs, the participants are escorted peacefully away by unarmed police officers. I learned that in Norway, Germany and Denmark, journalists are valued and paid well.

Through the Christian-based NLA University College, I saw a commonality with UCU in how belief in God was incorporated into the curriculum. Many people in Norway go to Church every Sunday and attend evening prayers and other fellowships. I attended many of the church services and evening fellowships in Kristiansand. I was treated the same way Jesus treated participants at the wedding in Cana. However, I saw the growing trend of fewer young people in churches.

I was impressed with how the materialistically wealthy in Norway helped poor migrants by sharing food and clothes with them. As a result there are usually no people sleeping on empty stomachs.

In addition to growing me, the Norwegian grant under NORHED helped UCU establish and run an MA Program in Journalism and Media Studies and another one in Strategic Communication (supported by NLA University College and the University of KwaZulu-Natal). The benefits for UCU involved sponsorship of five PhD students, four “post-docs” and six student exchange visits as well as engagement in four international conferences in Africa and Europe and procurement of books and equipment. The five PhD candidates completed their studies on time at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and four of the six MA students have graduated.

For the Norwegian government that funded my trip and MA studies, I am highly indebted and aspire to gain more knowledge and experience if selected for the 2022 doctoral program.

Countries in what is known as African Great Lakes Region (Victoria, Malawi, Tanganyika) have a scarcity of doctoral programs. The Norwegian program will help fill that gap for higher education at UCU and the region. The doctoral program, like all the other projects under the NORHED II UCU grant, will run on the theme, Preparing Media Practitioners for a Resilient Media in Eastern Africa. The goal is to produce a better-qualified workforce that can contribute to democratization. Other goals are improving the quality of media and communication education; enhancing the competence of academic staff; and improving gender balance and making the learning environment more inclusive.

UCU will reach out to the university in Rwanda to help start the first local MA program in Media and Communication Studies. To achieve all the goals, partner universities also intend to optimize research and dissemination of findings on the continent and have already marked out three thematic research areas for focus: Media, Democracy and Development in East Africa; Media, gender, identity and participation; and the changing role of the media in crisis.

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Former UCU Guild President publishes book on youth and leadership

January 11, 2021News, UCU Alumni#book, #CourageUnderFire, #Guild, #Leadership, #PriscaAmongin, #UgandaChristianUniversity, business, Uganda, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

Prisca Amongin (center) and friends at the launch of her book in December 2020.

By John Semakula

Uganda Christian University’s (UCU) former Guild President, Prisca Amongin Nangiro, has published a book challenging Christian youth in Africa to aspire to become leaders.

In her book, “Courage Under Fire: Let No One Despise Your Youth,” Amongin observes that the more Christian youth assume leadership positions on the continent, the easier it is for youth voices to be heard.

Prisca Amongin and the current UCU Guild President Kenneth Agaba Amponda during the launch of her book last month.

“We have to find our way into these big rooms to let decisions be taken in our favor,” Amongin writes in the 128-page book. “We need ambassadors, we need vessels.”

She observes that leadership positions give youth an opportunity to fulfill the burdens that are on their hearts.

“Heaven is on the search for men and women who will make a difference in our days,” she writes. “Dear friends, God is counting on us; on you dear reader. Our generation has so many wars against us, which we must fight. We cannot afford to maintain the status quo in politics, in health, academics among others. May the Lord make us restless and separate us for His work…”

Amongin’s book has received endorsement from prominent and influential Ugandans such as the Rt. Rev. Sheldon Mwesigwa, Bishop of Ankole Diocese in Western Uganda, and Lawrence Ssebulime, her former UCU lecturer.

Ssebulime describes the book as “a burning sensation that evokes a positive attitude even in the toughest of challenges.” Bishop Mwesigwa says the book is a “spell binding” story that takes the readers through the scenes and emotions that shaped Amongin’s resolve to engage in youth leadership positions with a desire to transform society.

“With Amongin’s brain power, godliness, down to earth character, social capital and zeal for service, youth will be inspired to exploit their leadership potential, even without adequate resources,” Bishop Mwesigwa writes in his endorsement message. “I unreservedly recommend this book, which illustrates that youth are leaders of today and not tomorrow.”

Amongin, who became the first directly elected UCU female guild President in 2016 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance and Accounting in 2018, started writing her book in March 2020 when the Ugandan government imposed a countrywide lockdown to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Amongin says it is good to always look at the silver lining in every looming cloud.

“Who knew the COVID-19 pandemic season would finally birth the hours I needed to put into this book to get it started?” she asked rhetorically during the launch of the book on December 27, 2020, in Kampala.

Prisca Amongin (in black) and her older sister, Filda Nangiro Loyok, at the launch of her book last month.

“I wanted to invite us on a journey to think together on why we are here in this world . . . To find ways for us to contribute and participate to resolve some of the issues in our immediate communities, especially as leaders and as the young people of our generation.”

Amongin who is currently contesting for the Female Youth National Parliamentary seat in Uganda, says that if elected, she wants to use that office to coordinate programs for youth development.

“I will use whatever there is within my means to advance the desirable change for all the youth,” she wrote. “This shall be made possible through partnership, lobbying and advocacy.”

Amongin’s book advises youth to enter politics with an ideology.

“Rome was not built in one day,” she says. “Each decision we make comprises of a collective approach. As a house is built brick by brick, so our lives are built decision by decision. These decisions have a collective destiny. In order for us to achieve the greater goal, we need the right ideology.”

Amongin’s family shaped her love and passion for leadership. Her mother, Eunice Lochoro Nangiro, served as a teacher before joining the National Resistance Council in the early 1990s to represent the people of Kotido District in northern Uganda. Her father, Simon Apollo Nangiro, taught her and her other siblings how to face life by ensuring they had experience with the family business in Moroto town.

“Through that experience we learnt people skills and staff management,” Amongin says. “He also taught us all how to stand up for what we believed in and work hard.”

Amongin, 28, comes from Natumkasikou village, Rupa Sub County, Moroto District in the Karamoja region, which is one of the poorest and least developed in Uganda. She urges youth not to let their humble backgrounds to stop them from scaling higher heights in life.

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‘I welcomed Christ into my life’

January 4, 2021Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology, News, UCU Alumni#BishopTucker, #EasternCollegeAustralia, #RevOchen, #UCUGraduate, #UgandaChristianUniversity, Christianity, God, Theology, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Ocen Walter Onen at the UCU Mukono campus

(NOTE: In October, UCU Partners published an article about how this graduate of UCU helped the poor. That article is here: https://www.ugandapartners.org/2020/10/we-cannot-keep-preaching-the-gospel-to-the-poor-without-helping-them-realize-their-potential/. This article is the “back story” of that alum.)

By Ocen Walter Onen

BEFORE KNOWING CHRIST
In the morning hour of about 8:45 a.m. on March 2 of the year of our Lord 1992, my mum gave birth to me. Like any other baby, I cried at my first arrival into the world, which was going to be my home for some years as the Lord so wished. My mum later told me that I was born during an insurgency – various Ugandan civil wars.

Though, what was worse than my country’s rebellion against government is the fact that I was borne into non-Christian family. This meant that my life and growth were somewhat controlled by the traditional ancestral deities. For example, when I was a four-year-old, I fell sick and my parents consulted a traditional healer, who said that “the god wanted my name to be changed from Okot Walter Onen to Ocen Walter Onen.” This practice of listening to witch doctors was inherited from our great-great ancestors and continued until 2005, when Jesus Christ interrupted this evil chain – starting with me and then with all my family by 2014.

KNOWING CHRIST
On May 5, 2005, I welcomed Jesus Christ into my life. The burdens accruing from my countless sins had suffocated me and sincerely speaking, “I was dead pretending to be alive.” So, when a preacher quoted Matthew 11:28 (Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.), I realized my vulnerabilities and the need to accept the free mercy of God to redeem me from my state of hopelessness.

I could say much more about this wonderful day, but let me turn your attention to what happened after I got saved. Immediately, I felt my heart lightened, and my fears of guilt disappeared. In fact, the spirit of God filled me and I began going to church, sharing with brethren through fellowship and Bible study.

I began to question where God was leading me. What was my purpose? What does He exactly want me do? Why did He create us in his image instead of animals, trees, mountains and other non-human creations? Why does He cherish us so much to the extent of giving us His only Son? These questions shaped my thinking and ignited my quest for a philosophical understanding of the church’s doctrines. It was also one of the key reasons that compelled me to pursue a degree in Theology and Divinity at Uganda Christian University.

AT UGANDA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY (2016-2019)
At UCU, I met distinguished scholars, especially from the faculty of Bishop Tucker School of Theology and Divinity who encouraged me to wrestle with new theories and concepts about Christianity and its mission in the world. For example, Rev. Can. Prof. Byaruhanga Christopher challenged us to think outside the box and avoid the temptation of spiritualizing Jesus’ proclamation in Luke 4:16-18, but apply it to fight multidimensional poverty, injustices and the all forms of ungodliness in our vocational context.

According to him, “a pastor is the fifth gospel” meaning that people will always look up to you for the meaning of righteousness. Another professor, Rt. Rev. Prof. Alfred Olwa, who was our dean then, also would reinforce the message that the centre of Christianity is shifting from the global north to the global south. The theologians in the global south, including Africa, should be more prepared than ever to shape the discussion revolving around the orthodoxy of the unchanging gospel truth in the dynamic world.

I wondered how we might do this if most of the biblical scholarship is still being done in the western world. The urgency of theologians in the south to participate in sharing the Word became more apparent.

AT EASTERN COLLEGE AUSTRALIA (2019-CURRENT)
In 2019, the words of the “Amazing Grace” hymn became ever more real. I received my degree from UCU on July 5 that year. Just the day before, I learned that I had been awarded a scholarship to pursue a Master in Transformational Development at Eastern College Australia. What a blessing! In fact, I felt like God’s exhortation to prosper us had just visited my door. Glory be to him, our rock and our redeemer.

In November 2020, my post-graduate studies are deconstructing, reconstructing and restructuring the worldview I had built from UCU. Indeed, it has created a platform for me to amalgamate both theology and development in one single unit of “integral mission.”

CHRIST IN EDUCATION
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges throughout the world, including in Uganda and specifically with education. A shift to on-line learning has been difficult for many.

Despite obstacles, I encourage current students of Uganda Christian University to appreciate the fact that a university education produces thinkers who can derive solutions for the mantra of prevailing problems in our communities. Individuals with university degrees are best positioned to creatively engage in rigorous research and innovation.

Scholars will play a key role in unleashing the United Nations sustainable development goals for 2030, the vision 2063 of the African Union, the vision 2040 of the republic of Uganda, and/or the vision of their own communities, or their own vision. At that, this is only possible if we permit Jesus Christ to reign in our lives, thoughts, words and actions.

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The Rev. Ocen Walter Onen is a UCU Bishop Tucker School of Theology and Divinity alum who is pursuing a Master in Transformational Development from Eastern College Australia.

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Uganda Christian University alum authors book about his LRA captivity

December 28, 2020News#Acholi, #captivity, #childsoldiers, #JosephKony, #LordsResistanceArmy, #LRA #journalism, #terrorism, #UgandaChristianUniversity, Uganda, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

Olum Douglas, far right, with his family shortly after being reunited after his escape from the Lords Resistance Army

By Patty Huston-Holm

With large snowflakes descending on my car windshield from a spot in a Columbus, Ohio, medical center parking lot, I read about my friend, Olum Douglas, and how at age 11, he was captured by an African terrorist group called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). In December 2020, Douglas, now age 34, is a first-time author of “The Captive: My 240 days with the LRA rebels.”

Author Olum Douglas in photo taken by the Gulu Support Children Organization after his return and rehabilitation.

The stories of abduction, murder and sex slavery of 30,000 children since the LRA’s start in 1987 are many. I know something about the LRA and three other main African-based terrorist groups – Al-Shabab, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram. The main difference with this story, which is published in e-version and paperback on Amazon and is every bit as compelling as the other stories, is that I know Douglas personally. And I know every word of his story about his time as a child soldier is true.

I ate chicken and vegetables with his wife and children, ages 4 and 7, at their humble home in the village of Mukono, Uganda. I’ve mentored him as a journalist, reading and editing his stories about life at Uganda Christian University (UCU), where I have consulted and taught since 2012. Douglas, who is now pursuing his post-graduate degree in the Faculty of Faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication, has been a freelance contributor for the UCU Partners organization, based in Pennsylvania, for more than a year. We have shared laughter, political opinions and frustrations with life. On occasion, we agree to disagree.

I knew Douglas was working on his book before we met. On pieces of paper since 2011, he remembered and wrote while, in his words, “tears endlessly flowed out, dripping down.” As he shared some of his draft manuscript, my first question was always about how he would feel being known for the indignities he suffered. Did he want to keep remembering that horrible time over and over again as an author?

“Yes,” he repeated. He is on a mission to bring attention and elevate change about civil rights violations – not just his own but those of others.

So it was in the darkness on April 4, 1998, that the LRA kicked open the door to where Olum Douglas slept in Gulu, Uganda, and brutally forced him and other children to become followers. I had been to Gulu as recent as January 2020. I knew the area was surrounded by dense bush.

As the snow pounded on my car, waiting on my husband who had a medical appointment inside in mid-December, I thought about the heat of Gulu – 7, 400 miles away – as well as the terrain as I turned the pages of Douglas’ book. I knew that Gulu was 468 kilometers (291 miles) away from what is now called South Sudan. Some say that Joseph Kony, the ringleader of the LRA, hides out in that region just across the Ugandan border still today.

Without my frame of reference, however, I saw how my author friend enabled even the most naïve about East Africa and terrorism to visualize and agonize with the LRA’s kidnapped boys and girls. With captivating detail, Olum Douglas allows the reader to see him as a boy, hungry and wearing rain-drenched clothes, walking with bleeding, blistered bare feet and carrying on his small back the heavy supplies stolen from huts. He feared death for faltering. He was beaten, sometimes to the point of losing his eyesight, when he slowed the train of rebels and child recruits.

The LRA brainwashing starts on page 17 as the terrorist rebels convince their abductees that they will help with a mission to save the Acholi people from Uganda President Yoweri Museveni’s alleged plan to wipe them out. To do this, the LRA must kill and steal from people and abduct more children. Those too weak or trying to escape from this mission as called by “the Lord” will be killed.

Throughout the book’s 120 pages of 240 days in captivity, Douglas describes how he and the other children, mostly boys, are slapped, beaten, forced to sleep in the rain and deprived of food to reinforce their submission. The two most heart-wrenching parts of the story are how Douglas witnessed the decapitation of two girls and how he participated in killing a 40-year-old man.

“If only I had a choice, I would have saved a life,” he writes in Chapter Five before describing how he and other boys were forced to bash a man’s head with logs until, under orders, the head “completely disappears into the soil.” They did. It did.

I finished the book on that snowy December Ohio afternoon. Two days later, I interviewed Douglas via Zoom. My first question was about his feelings about being party to that brutal murder.

“It was survival,” he said. “I knew many of the children captive with me, but I didn’t know the man. If I could find his family today, I would ask for forgiveness.”

My second question was about Kony.

“I never met him,” Douglas said. “He’s in his 60s now, I believe, and still alive, probably living in the Central African Republic.”

My third question was about anger. By his own admission in the book’s conclusion that follows the account of his escape (that I won’t give away), Douglas got into fights with other children.

“When I get annoyed, I don’t hit people anymore,” he said. “I just get quiet.”

In that Zoom discussion on a Saturday morning (for me in Ohio) and afternoon (eight hours later for Douglas in Uganda), my new author friend shared that he didn’t write the book just for himself. He wrote it to be the voice for those captive at his side and unable to escape and to encourage speaking out and attention to all injustices today.

“When the sun comes out, and the plant has germinated, there is nowhere to run,” he said. “There is much education and many stories to be told.”

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Among those who consulted with Douglas on the story in “The Captive: My 240 days with the LRA rebels” was Peggy Noll, wife of the first UCU Vice Chancellor, Stephen Noll. To access Douglas’ book, go to https://www.amazon.com/CAPTIVE-204-days-LRA-rebels-ebook/dp/B08QJR8T1S/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+captive%3A+my+204+days+with+the+lra+rebels&qid=1608578108&sr=8-1

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UCU holds first-ever virtual graduation

December 21, 2020News#ChurchofUganda, #Covid-19, #Kaziimba, #Mushengyezi, #StephenNoll, #virtual, Education, Fundraising, graduation, Mukono, UCU, Uganda, Uganda Christian UniversityPatty Huston-Holm

By John Semakula

In the midst of the first-ever virtual graduation ceremony of Uganda Christian University (UCU) on December 18, 2020, there was hope.

One of the First Class students permitted to attend the December graduation in person

The hope was in the 1,810 students – most of them not physically present – getting diplomas and degrees and in the announcement of infrastructural development projects to be implemented, starting in 2021. On this Friday and from the Mukono campus, there was optimism about the institution’s outlook and boosting its revenue.

UCU Vice-Chancellor, Assoc. Prof. Aaron Mushengyezi, unveiled the projects, which are part of a fundraising drive started in late September, during the 21^st graduation ceremony as the university enters its 23^rd year.

“The first project, which will potentially unlock $10 million worth of infrastructure development, involves construction of a shopping Centre, a three-star hotel, and four blocks of residential halls for 1,000 rooms on the main campus,” Mushengyezi said.

The second project involves the beautification and infrastructure improvement intended to make UCU Main Campus one of the most attractive in East Africa. In 2015, Christianuniverstiesonline.org ranked UCU as among the 50 most beautiful Christian campuses globally.

Mushengyezi said that the University Council has already approved a portion of the projects, which will be implemented in collaboration with private sector partners.

The infrastructure project at the Mukono/main campus includes improvements to the Bishop Tucker Gate; a business centre with a food court; a parking lot; a students’ digital lounge and UCU Information Center. UCU also will construct walkways; install solar lights on the roads within and outside the University; and connect digital screens in buildings for real-time display of time e-tables and e-notices.

The Vice-Chancellor said that UCU also has embarked on a fundraising drive for the construction of the Ordinands Apartment for ordinands and clergy who study at UCU.

Mushengyezi thanked the UCU Chancellor and Church of Uganda Archbishop, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu, for his support for projects and appealed to friends of Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology to provide added assistance.

“All dioceses, organizations and individuals will be listed on a Hall of Fame in the building when it’s completed,” he said. “This will be our priority project for UCU Sunday over the next few years. We thank churches and individuals that have donated funds, and we look forward to contributions from the dioceses from UCU Sunday collections.”

He revealed that Prof. Stephen Noll, the first UCU Vice-Chancellor, had offered to buy a new clock for Bishop Tucker Building and that procurement is also ongoing.

Mushengyezi later took the guests through some of the achievements the different faculties at UCU have posted in the recent past. They included:

$17,335 grant Bishop Tucker School received via Overseas Council Australia to refurbish the department of theology at Mbale University College Campus;
School of Dentistry donation (mobilized by the USA-based UCU Partners) worth thousands of dollars through Midmark Corporation in form of dental equipment that included dental suits/chairs; and
UCU School of Business skills development facility grant through the Private Sector Foundation funded by the World Bank to pioneer a birding course that will strengthen the Bachelor of Hospitality and Tourism program.

The 1,810 students graduating with diplomas and degrees on Friday came from disciplines that include: Theology; Social Work and Social Administration; Public Administration and Management; Law; Environment and Disaster Management; Education; and Development Studies and Public Administration.

The ceremony started with the commissioning service for graduands graced by Archbishop Kaziimba at 10 a.m. Only 80 students, selected for their high academic standing, attended the event physically while others followed it on UCU digital platforms that streamed live. A total of 42 students garnered first class degrees in different disciplines, but with the Faculty of Social Sciences posting the biggest number at 24.

Kaziimba asked the graduands to emulate Jesus on servant leadership. He said: “With servant leadership, there is no need to ask for a seat because we are called not to sit and be served, but to stand and serve others.”

Regarding the forthcoming general elections in Uganda, the Archbishop urged the graduands to exercise Christian influence.

“This is a very important civil duty and I encourage each one of you to vote, and to encourage your peers to also vote,” he said. “As graduates, you have been equipped to think and to analyze issues. Please apply those skills in deciding whom you will vote for. It’s your generation that will help Uganda move to another level in its national development, one that moves peacefully beyond tribalism and overcomes corruption.”

The Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, who was the guest of honor at the ceremony, urged graduands to remain calm during the ongoing campaign period, to love their country and to honor peoples’ political convictions.

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UCU starts Postgraduate diploma in renewable energies with support from EU

December 15, 2020News#Aaron Mushengyezi, #DALILA, #EU, #green, #John Kitayimbwa, #Martin Lwanga, #renewable energy, #Rome, #Spain, #technology, #UgandaChristianUniversity, business, UCU, UCUPartners, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

UCU Vice-Chancellor Assoc. Prof. Aaron Mushengyezi inspects some of the merchandise produced by students under the Faculty of Business and Administration during the recent launch of the Business Incubation Centre. (Courtesy Photo)

By John Semakula

Uganda Christian University (UCU) will in May 2021 rollout a new post-graduate diploma in Sustainable Business and Renewable Energy.

According to the UCU Faculty of Business and Administration, the course sponsored by DALILA was cleared by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) in August.

DALILA is a capacity-building project funded by the Education, Audio-visual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Union.

DALILA stands for Development, Academic Curricula on Sustainable Africa-Project.

The Associate Dean of the UCU Faculty of Business and Administration, Godfrey Sempungu, revealed that six new courses on “Renewable Technologies and Green Business Creation and Development” have been designed for the new program in line with the sponsorship agreement.

The courses are: Energy and Sustainable Development; Renewable Energy Technologies and Decentralization of Electricity; Energy Efficiency and Storage Application; Business and Financial Models of Renewable Energy; Renewable Energy Financing and Modeling; and Renewable Energy Enterprise Management Support to Business and Enterprise.

Sempungu said the program will offer renewable energy startup and entrepreneurship opportunities to UCU graduate students, alumni, staff, community and other key stakeholders such as those in the Church of Uganda Dioceses of Mukono and Kampala.

The program is a product of a sh5bn (Euro 1,123,790 or $1.3 million American) grant, which the Faculty won recently as part of an international nine-partner consortium.

A similar project is also implemented in four other universities in Uganda and Tanzania. The other three are Uganda Martyrs University, the State University of Zanzibar and University of Dodoma.

Sempungu said the post-graduate diploma will be taught for two semesters and that students will be expected to take classes both online and face-to-face on campus.

He said: “The courses are intended to facilitate students’ transition to work and to promote the use of innovative business technologies. Green university laboratories will provide vocational training for renewable energy and adaptation of technologies to local context plus boosting students employability.”

According to the Faculty, the program will be facilitated by lecturers from UCU and other partner institutions in Spain and Italy and that the best four students will have a chance to travel and conduct their internship in European companies for a month.

The other partner higher education institutions are the University of Cadiz in Spain and Sapienza University of Rome – both providing expertise to inform the project.

According to the terms of the grant, UCU also shall furnish a renewable energy laboratory for training of students in the recent trends in the field and to allow them many hours of practice under the guidance of experts.

To avail stakeholders with the necessary information about the project, the UCU Faculty of Business and Administration, in conjunction with its implementing partner the Faculty of Engineering, held an online DALILA Information Day on December 10.

Speaking during the event, the Faculty’s Dean Dr. Martin Lwanga said the project is helping to fulfill UCU’s mission of sending out job creators – not seekers – to the market.

“This is an exciting time,” he said. “Over 100 proposals were submitted from all over the world and UCU emerged among the winners.”

In his remarks, the deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. John Kitayimbwa, said the program was well thought out because it supports Uganda’s development goals under Vision 2040. The National Vision is intended to transform Uganda from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years through strengthening fundamental infrastructure, including energy.

Kitayimbwa noted that the four main components of the program – partnership, practical based education, emphasis on environmental sustainability, and renewable energy – make the program unique and outstanding. “We therefore need to raise more awareness about the program because we need more people on board when we finally roll it out,” he said.

Dr. Miria Anguyo from the UCU Faculty of Engineering said the post-graduate diploma will be able to produce graduates who will provide solutions in renewable energy.

Meanwhile, Prof. Cipri Katiuscia, the project’s international coordinator from Italy, said she was glad to be part of the project that seeks to create employment opportunities for Africa’s young people and particularly in the green economy sector.

“We need to give support to the young people in Africa who support their countries’ young economies,” she said.

Marianna Stori, a member from one of the partner organizations of DALILA, took the members through the dangers of climate change in Africa and globally including flooding, landslides, heat waves, loss of biodiversity and desertification and urged participants to embrace the new measures to contain climate change.

This is one of the grants the UCU Faculty of Business and Administration has won lately in a bid to boost its academic training for students. The Faculty also recently won a sh230m (51,700.4 Eur or $62,611 American) grant to develop a short course in promoting bird tourism. The course will be incorporated in Bachelor of Hospitality and Tourism.

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Don’t joke with COVID. It’s real

November 26, 2020COVID-19, News#COVID, #Pandemic, #Uganda Christian Universty, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

(NOTE: On November 25, 2020, the Ugandan Ministry of Health confirmed 11,767 cases of COVID-19 and 106 deaths. This is the story of one of the infected persons who survived.)

By Robby Muhumuza

UCU Senior Teaching Fellow Robby Muhumuza

“Do you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who has Corona?”

The above refrain trending on social media a few months ago sounded funny. My family members and I laughed at it. That laugh now has dried off my lips.

In November 2020, I know scores of people who have been infected by COVID-19. I have a list of those who recently died of COVID-19. Others are on ventilators in critical condition. My wife and I recently became part of the COVID-19 statistics when both of us tested positive for the corona virus.

We didn’t have any of the classic symptoms. Our body temperatures were normal. No coughs, no headaches but slight sore throats. We were prompted to test because we had been in close contact with people who tested positive for COVID-19. There are many places for testing in Kampala with charges ranging from UGX 200,000 to 350,000 UGX ($54 to $94). We opted for Makerere University Hospital, where we were charged UGX 200,000 and got our results the following day.

As soon as the medical officer at Makerere University Hospital saw “Positive “ on our results slips, she adjusted her mask more firmly on her face and told us to keep a minimum of 2 meters (6 feet) from her.

“Mulago Hospital is full. Entebbe Grade B also is full,” she said. “The only place we can have you admitted for 14 days is at the temporary medical facility recently set up at Namboole Stadium.”

“What are the facilities available at Namboole?” I asked.

“Not much really,” she confessed. “We mostly have medical staff who will monitor you regularly and give you treatment if you need it. You will not be allowed any visitors. Your family can bring you stuff but they will have to leave it at the gate. But if you have a place where you can self-isolate, here is a prescription. Go buy the drugs from a pharmacy and take another test after 10 days.”

The prescription consisted of: Azithromycin (antibiotic mostly to treat chest infections), 500 mg (1 tablet per day for 6 days); Zinc 20 mg (1 tablet per day for 5 days); Vitamin C 500 mg (1 tablet twice a day for 5 days).

When I checked with a senior doctor friend of mine, he gave a similar prescription and then added the following: “Don’t be scared. Take a balanced diet. Have enough sleep. Do exercises every day. Drink plenty of water. Sit in the morning sun 15-20 minutes per day.”

After buying the prescriptions, my wife and I went into isolation for the next 10 days.

As we shared our condition with friends via WhatsApp and phone calls, we received more advice on how to reinforce our immunity. We were encouraged to take lots of green tea boiled with fresh-pounded garlic, ginger, lemon or lime and some honey added. We shared with our pastor and some friends for prayers.

Concerned that we could have infected some of our closest contacts, we sent our children, grandchildren, driver and workers at our home for COVID-19 tests. Thanks be to God, they all tested negative.

Full-fledged COVID-19 usually attacks and weakens the lungs. That’s why critically ill COVID-19 patients with breathing difficulties need ventilators (now in short supply in Ugandan hospitals). It’s therefore necessary to monitor the oxygen intake in the blood of COVID-19 patients so that medical personnel can provide the necessary intervention in time. We were advised to buy a battery-operated, hand-held oximeter for measuring the pulse and the amount of oxygen in the blood. We sent for one from First Pharmacy at 95,000 UGX (about $25). My wife and I followed the recommended regimen religiously to the dot. Thanks be to God that we had not developed any serious symptoms of COVID-19.

We eagerly counted each day looking forward to the 10th day to carry out another COVID-19 test. Day 10 came and the swab was taken from our nostrils. I have taken many tests and exams in my life. Waiting for results of a COVID-19 test is nerve-wrecking.

The following day, the email from the Ministry of Health Uganda Virus Research Institute Lab Manager came on my phone. My fingers were shaking and sweating as I opened the email. “ NEGATIVE” was stamped in green on the result slip for both my wife and me. We shouted in excitement and hugged each other. It was as if a death sentence had been lifted from our necks.

We wondered if the first test was accurate. We wondered about the treatment as we had no symptoms. We wondered if the expense was worth it. At that, we are grateful as we pray for the families and friends around us who are not so fortunate.

The list of names of people dying of COVID19 in Uganda is increasingly being shared in hushed tones on phones and in-boxes of WhatsApp messages. A number of friends are in-boxing me, telling me that they tested positive for COVID-19, and they are quietly taking medication. Others are telling me about relatives and neighbors who recently died of COVID-19, but nobody wants to talk about it openly because of the fear of stigma.

CONCLUSION: COVID19 is real. We are at the stage where there are many infected people in the community busy transmitting it. Be careful. Avoid mingling in crowds. Go out only if you must. When you are with others who are not your family members, wear a mask, keep a social distance of around 2 meters apart, and wash your hands frequently with water and soap. If you feel symptoms of COVID-19 or one of the people you have been in close contact tests positive, go for a COVID-19 test. If you test positive, that’s not a death sentence. Follow the treatment regimen. You will thank me later.

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Robby Muhumuza is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Uganda Christian University Faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication.

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Job loss during COVID-19 opens colorful, creativity door

November 1, 2020COVID-19, Faculty#COVID19, #EastAfrica, #entrepreneurship, #fashiondesign, #Lockdown, #tailoring, #UgandaChristianUniversity, UCU, UCUPartners, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Pauline Nyangoma shows off one of the gratitude cards she gives to her customers.

By Maxy Magella Abenaitwe

The late physicist Stephen Hawking once said: “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

When the Uganda COVID-19 lockdown, including education suspension, started in mid-March 2020, Uganda Christian University (UCU) continued paying its workers full salaries. In two months’ time and with no tuition income, however, the financial strain was elevated. Only a handful of essential workers were kept with salaries reduced by 25%. Sadly, that payment decrease for these few continued to be reduced as UCU adapted to change.

Pauline Nyangoma, a Communication Assistant at UCU who was not among the essential workers kept, was adapting, too. Bankrupt, anxious and wondering how she would eat and pay her bills, it was a surprise 150,000 UGX ($40) in her mobile account that accelerated her adaptation.

“Seeing this money in my account felt like I had been set free from an extremely dark prison,” Nyangoma said of the support from an anonymous donor with the American-based, Uganda Partners organization. “I could finally catch a breath, feel my blood freely flow and my brain finally thinking straight.”

Holding some cash helped Nyangoma realise an answer that had been there all along – making bags and neck accessories. It was a skill she discovered in Senior Six as she took seamstress classes with a local tailor. Mable Katusiime, an elderly street hawker who had products, a work ethic and a smile that belied her age, further inspired Nyangoma when they met in 2018. With craft bags over her shoulder and appearing affluent and educated, Mable told Nyangoma that she preferred this work to other options because it “kept her heart beating.”

Nyangoma bought one of Mable’s bags. She took it home to unstitch and re-stitch it to learn the secrets of quality and style. When Nyangoma wasn’t working in the UCU Communications and Marketing office, she was making bags on borrowed machines. She sold these as a second job for supplemental income until the COVID -19 lockdown forced her to make and sell more.

“I made a precise, clear budget on how I would use this money,” she said of that $40 donation. “Half of it, I used to buy craft making materials and the other for facilitation to and from Kisasi town where I could easily access a sewing machine.”

From Nyangoma’s creativity and skilful hands, varieties of colourful bags evolved and began selling but not without the obstacles typical for a “street hawker” – especially a female one. Taxi drivers shouted harsh words at her; strangers mocked her with loud laughs.

“Aaaaah… why have women of these days adopted a habit of running away from their husbands’ homes?” one man said. Another pointed at her and hooted, “Now she is carrying all her language like a street hawker.”

One barrier became a blessing. As she was forced to wait to board taxis that were more eager for passengers without a load of product as she had, she sold off some items to passers-by and truck drivers. Truck drivers became her best customers and marketing advisers who made referrals for additional sales. Nyangoma learned to throw bags through moving truck windows and pick up their tossed cash blowing in the wind.

First-time customers, appreciative of the beauty and durability of her work, referred more customers. Friends and family bought and made orders. The UCU community embraced and bought her products.

While the lockdown’s high transportation fees necessary for travel to the sewing room eat into her profits, Nyangoma sees a revenue light at the end of the tunnel. Her client growth is promising. Sales are getting her closer to owning a sewing machine. Nyangoma has created a brand name, Pauline’s Craft Workroom. With compelling photos of her products and satisfied customers, she uses her social media accounts as her showroom. She also displays her works at restaurants and shops.

Instead of business cards, she has created gratitude cards. To Nyangoma, gratitude – thanking people – is the most rewarding tool. It outgrows all marketing strategies. Her customers return the favour with praise. For example:

Phiona Atuhaire, a satisfied user of Pauline’s craftwork and a regular referral, says that she has continuously bought Nyangoma’s products because of their unique African touch and meticulous effort she puts into the quality. Atuhaire has also observed that Nyangoma is open to customer feedback and has made tremendous changes following advice from her clients.
Conrad Ochola, one of Nyangoma’s recent customers, admits to purchasing a craft bag because of its overall bold outlook. To Ochola, general outlook is second to quality.
Madrine Ayebare, one of Nyangoma’s clients, praised her for being a solution giver. She says: “I no longer get stuck while finding gifts for friends and relatives. When I am going to parties or visit friends, just a simple call to Pauline’s Craft workroom gets me exactly what I need.”

Seeing her products appreciated and functional with no clear indication when she might be recalled to her university position, Nyangoma has a vision of making clothing and teaching others after getting her own her sewing machine, to turn part of where she lives into a workshop and to make African clothing. If she gets recalled to her job at UCU, she will continue the business full-time or part-time.

Someday – maybe as early as 2021 – she may start a tailoring school to pass along her skill.

The writer of this article, Maxy Magella Abenaitwe, is a 2018 graduate of Uganda Christian University with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication. Before her country’s lockdown, she was an intern for the UCU Standard newspaper.

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‘We cannot keep preaching the gospel to the poor without helping them realize their potential’

October 14, 2020News#DevelopmentInitiative, #grasshuts, #HousingforUnderservedCommunity, #PalengaCommunityTransformation, #RevOchen, #UCUGraduate, #UgandaChristianUniversity, Poverty, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Rev. Ocen shows one of the houses already at roofing level

By Olum Douglas

On September 14, 2020, Milton Olanya, a retired primary school teacher, and his family were left under the open sky when their grass thatched hut was gutted by fire from an unknown source. All his belongings, including valuable documents and garden harvests for the first season were burnt to ashes.

Like Olanya, thousands of families in northern Uganda have suffered similar losses for decades. The losses are a common occurrence among the majority rural poor who predominantly use grass-thatched huts as their shelters.

But Uganda Christian University (UCU) graduate, Rev. Deacon Ocen Walter Onen, has designed a permanent solution to this problem. Through his Tochi Community Transformation Initiative’s “Get out of grass-thatched huts” program, Rev. Ocen has mobilized people around his home village of Palenga in Omoro District. The mobilization calls for villagers to support each other and build modern, two-bedroom houses with iron sheet roofs to save them from such sudden losses.

Under the program, individuals are encouraged to lay bricks, acquire a few other building materials and start up construction with the support of their colleagues. Every month, members of the group make financial contributions, ranging from Uganda shillings of 10,000 ($2.70) to 50,000 ($13.50) to support a member. The money is used to buy cement, building stones, sand, and steel, and also pay the technical labor force.

Rev. Ocen (extreme left) with a group of women at his neighborhood after a prayer meeting in September 2020

They also provide manual labour like fetching water and mixing sand. When the structure reaches roofing level, the Church, through its networks, appeals to well-wishers to make contributions as low as a piece of iron sheet for the member.

As of late September, the 40 people registered for the program were either at the brick laying stage, putting up the wall or already at roofing. At least 33 iron sheets had already been collected for Patrick Onen, 49, whose building has reached the roofing stage.

Rev. Ochen said his target is to have every family in the village living in decent houses in the next five years. He also plans to establish solar energy suppliers for cheaper solar systems that can light the houses.

Alfred Lugeny, 52, said for most of his life, he has been trying to leave grass-thatched huts, but each time he laid bricks, he would be forced to sell them because he could not raise enough money to buy the other construction materials and pay labor force.

“I have been struggling to leave my grass-thatched huts, but I could not,” he said. “Yet grass is becoming increasingly harder to get due to increased human population. Termites also eat them, causing us to keep repairing the huts every year. The coming of this program has therefore given me greater hope of acquiring a good iron-sheet roofed house.”

Apart from the building program, Rev. Ocen moves door-to-door to meet youths and women to encourage them to engage in economically beneficial activities. He also meets groups of women under their Village Saving and Loan associations, to preach the gospel, pray with and encourage them. Besides, he also is setting up a community-funded scholarship program to support needy children through school.

Rev. Ocen says his approach to evangelism is an integral mission, combining the gospel with attendance to community needs.

“We cannot keep preaching the gospel to the poor without helping them realize their potential,” Rev. Ocen said, “Like Christ who attended to the needs of the community (John 2:1-11, John 4:46-47, Matthew 14:15-21, Matthew 15:32-39 and Luke 17:11-19), we Christian ministers should also do the same.”

At 27 years, Rev. Ocen was ordained into ministry and posted as a curate at St. Peters Church of Uganda, in the Bobi subcounty in Omoro District on February 23, 2020. His ordination came exactly one month before the COVID-19 lockdown was instituted in Uganda on March 23, banning Church services among other social gatherings.

With his workplace closed, Rev. Ocen decided to continue spreading the gospel while also helping people around him transform their lives.

“I noticed that so many of our people were having dependency syndrome, thinking that they could not help themselves,” Rev. Ocen said, “That is why I decided to bring this Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach, based on the Half-Glass concept with the view that everyone has something to contribute in order for development to be realized.”

Bishop Johnson Gakumba, the Bishop of the diocese of Northern Uganda, under whom Rev. Ocen serves, said the works of Rev. Ocen will not only benefit the Christians, but the diocese as well.

“Poverty has been a great challenge among our Christians. As a result, giving in Church has been very poor,” Bishop Gakumba said, “And him (Rev. Ocen) coming to address that problem is such a blessing that must be supported by all who wish well for the Church.”

Bishop Gakumba said for the short time Rev. Ochen has been in service, the diocese has started benefitting from his creativity through his valuable input towards the development of the five-year Strategic Work Plan of the diocese, a thing that makes him so proud of the young servant of God.

Rev. Ocen said he prides himself so much in his UCU education that opened his eyes to see the world from a new perspective.

Jesuit Stephen Okello, a high school student at Pope Benedict XVI Integrated Schools Palenga, and one of the selected beneficiaries for the scholarship program, said that he feels that God is working miracles in his life through Rev. Ocen.

“I had lost hope in going back to school after my Senior Four, but this program came suddenly to me,” Okello said. “I cannot thank God and Rev. Ochen enough for this lifetime opportunity.”

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Anguzu: UCU social work graduate restoring sanity in Arua

September 9, 2020News, Students: #socialwork, #BSWSAGraduate, #GivingHopeArua, #MorrisAnguzu, #UCUGraduate, #UgandaChristianUniversity, Poverty, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Anguzu walks out of his office at River Oli Division

By Douglas Olum

Lying in my bed in the Kudrass Hotel in Arua City on the evening of Tuesday, August 4, a sharp female scream pierced through the walls. Even though I did not understand the Lugbara language the woman used, I could tell from the sharp cries that she was in trouble. I rushed to the hotel reception to inquire about the problem.

“I think they are robbing someone,” the young man at the reception said. “There are gangs around here who rob people daily.”

I retreated to my room with a reminder to be cautious wherever I would go around this northwestern Uganda city. Arua is one of the four regional cities created recently in Uganda. It is located 520 kilometers (323.113 miles) Northwest of Kampala, in the West Nile region of Uganda.

Women make and sell popcorn and other snacks along a walk path in Arua City

This incident also reinforced the message delivered hours before in a conversation with Morris Anguzu, a 2018 Uganda Christian University (UCU) Social Work and Social Administration graduate who works in this area. Amidst our discussion, he shared with me his experience of the previous night when he received a 2 a.m. emergency call from a motorcycle rider whose bike was robbed while he was rushing a patient to the Arua Regional Referral Hospital. As the Gombolola Internal Security Organisation (GISO) officer in River Oli Division since 2011, Anguzu’s role places him directly at the centre of handling a complex web of societal problems ranging from domestic violence, child neglect, drug abuse, theft and robberies.

Of the two divisions in Arua City, River Oli has the largest population with approximately 50,700 residents of the estimated 72,400 city population (Uganda Bureau of Statistics Population projection report, 2015-2020). About 80 percent are Muslims. Anguzu said the three greatest challenges in this community are low literacy rate, polygamy and lack of parental guidance. He said most parents spend time looking for money, thereby leaving their children exposed to bad peers who introduce them to stealing, abusing drugs and smuggling goods from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

During the day, the city centre is busy with pedestrians, motorists and cyclists transporting all tribes of goods in and out of the city, crisscrossing everywhere. Sweaty, bare-chest men are seen offloading goods from large trucks, which bring them from Kampala, and sometimes loading them in smaller trucks that buy them from local wholesalers. Along the corridors, walk paths and backstreets, women and children are seen hawking carrots, cassava, ginger, onions, pepper, among other vegetables. In the same areas, others also are seen serving cooked foods, porridge, tea and snacks to the lower class city dwellers and some visitors.

Taking a ride with Anguzu along Lemerijoa road, in the afternoon of Wednesday, August 5, we witnessed a large group of young and older boys, drinking, smoking and chewing the leafy drug called mairungi. Anguzu explained to me that Lemerijoa is regarded as the hub of the gangs that rob people in Arua city on daily basis, and that the gangs are feared by both the community and local council leaders because they threaten them every time an attempt is made to confront or stop them.

Determined to change the narrative, Anguzu is applying various social work skills he acquired from UCU during his studies to help restore peace and security in the city. These skills include counseling and community engagement.

He said UCU equipped him with unique skills that have greatly improved his work results. He holds meetings with parents of boys to figure how they might work together to get the children to drop their bad habits; and speaks with many of the boys in one-on-one meetings. Before the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda, he was more actively engaging elders, religious and local council leaders to derive a sustainable, effective approach through which they could permanently address problems.

While Anguzu’s colleagues are barred from speaking to the media by the terms of their work, others provided praise.

Benard Ezama, a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) rider, said they have more hope in Anguzu than the Uganda Police because he does not demand money from them and normally quickly responds in case of an attack or robbery.

To Jane Aikoru, a shop operator in the city, the increased insecurity in Arua “cannot be solved by arresting and imprisoning the perpetrators because at some point they still return from jail and continue to wreck havoc on people.” Aikoru thinks that Anguzu is the only hope they have because he is unafraid of the boys and he sometimes helps people recover their stolen property from the gangs.

In June this year, and on his way to lunch, Anguzu saw a young boy snatch a phone from a woman and run away with it as the public merely watched. He chased after the 13-year-old boy and recovered the woman’s phone before taking the boy to police.

For many people, the engagement would stop there. No so for Anguzu. Hours later, he went back to police and had a talk with the boy. Together with the Arua Child and Family Protection police department, Anguzu arranged for a meeting with the boy’s family where they resolved to withdraw the case on condition that the boy start working to turn his life around. The family of the minor, whose name is withheld to protect his identity, said their son has since transformed. They say without the intervention of Anguzu, the boy would have a life on the streets. Anguzu says his vision is to make Arua an educated and self-sustaining society that fears God.

“As a born-again Christian I believe my job is a calling from God and I should serve our people wholeheartedly,” he said. “I face rejections from some members of the Muslim community who mistake me to be fighting their belief, especially their practice of polygamy, but I also am motivated further when people appreciate the things I do for them.”

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