Community Engagement in Kafunjo
On the hills of Uganda, there sits a parish seeking to invest in the lives of children and families. GO Africa, the GO Project sister organization in Uganda, is working with this church to strengthen families in the community before thoughts of establishing a residential center for orphan care. We refer to this kind of partnership as a segment two relationship. Through a strategic partnership, the church can bolster families in help and, in the process, better identify those children who are in need of care.
This church – located in Kafunjo – recently hosted the GO Africa team to discuss the ongoing activity of the partnership. The GO Africa team was encouraged by the work of the church’s management committee and recently hired coordinator, noting the following:
- Sunday Schools in the four churches that comprise the parish have been started for children ages 3-12. Children are happy; parents are happy; the new Pastor is also very happy.
- The children in the community have all been measured for their school uniforms, and the sewing will begin very soon. They have hired local tailors from the community in order to keep the jobs within the community.
- They are almost finished preparing 5 acres of the church land for planting in the first season. They had planned to buy manure from a nearby farmer, but the seller had doubled the price… They gathered the parents together and explained what happened. The parents all agreed to donate manure from the animals in their homes. So, little by little, manure has been carried from the homes to the church to be mixed in the soil.
- When the new coordinator arrived, all the crops previously had failed. The parents were at the height of their discouragement. But, she wanted to do something. So she talked with the Head Teacher at the school, and he agreed to help her. The older students helped her clear about half an acre and plant Irish potatoes, beans, cabbage and eggplant…The engagement by the community – through the students, teachers, and church – took initiative and creativity to yield crop in what otherwise would have been a fruitless season.
- The new coordinator is in the final stages of performing a baseline survey of the state of families in the community. Through this assessment, the church can determine how to strengthen the family ministry and orphan prevention initiatives.
Will you continue to pray for the church, the management committee, and the new coordinator? We pray they would continue to seek community responses to identified challenges. May the Lord bless such a heart of industry and guide the steps to care for community families.
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