Fields of Hope: April 2007

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Last King of Scotland

Some of you may be interested in seeing, or may have already seen, the movie, "The Last King of Scotland". Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, does have a modern movie theatre. There was a lot of excitement when the first showing of the movie aired at the Kampala movie theater with president Museveni and other important figures watching. We were able to take the movie in during a recent visit to Kampala for a CRWRC country team function.

We didn’t find the movie as artfully or well done as some other recent films, such as "Blood Diamond". Still, it was fun to see it in Uganda with an audience that has a living memory of the Amin era. Generally, the people that we talk to that lived through the years Amin was in control from 1971 to 1979 feel that the depiction of the man was not truly accurate. Amin, they say, was much more shrewd and calculating and less given to outbursts of anger and/or laughter. Amin, of course, died over two years ago in exile in Saudi Arabia. It’s worth noting these facts since Amin seems to live on in the world’s psyche as a recent, or sometime even current, phenomenon. While his time is long since gone, the country is still recovering from the negative impacts of his many mistakes, such as his decision to expel all people of Asian decent. This decision alone was enough to send the country into an economic tailspin. Even more distressful was his decision to quietly execute all those that dared to oppose him. This decision had a chilling affect on the country’s budding civil society and fragile democracy. Some groups accredit him with the deaths of 300,000 people. Amnesty International puts the number at 500,000. In any case, Amin is not the central figure of the film, but is there as a foil to his Scottish doctor. There isn’t a lot of educational material on Uganda as a whole from that time period or since, though you do get some snapshots here and there of the country’s topographical and cultural diversity and beauty.

I have posted a picture of a carcass of an armored vehicle from the roadside not too far from Arua. I pass by three such vehicles when I travel to Goli to visit the headquarters of one of my partners. These vehicles are remnants of the last days of Idi Amin’s era when his troops fled to his homeland in West Nile as a last ditch effort to save their skins. Amin is said to be of Kakwa decent. Koboko, which is one of the districts in which we work, is largely populated by the Kakwa people-group. Because of this fact, following Amin’s overthrow, the people of West Nile were more-or-less persecuted by the incoming “security” force. The negative sentiment on the part of those living in the southern parts of Uganda toward those living in the northern reaches persist to this day. In fact, Uganda is sometimes described as being divided into two countries – the North and the South. This attitudinal divide does impact our work, as the north generally does not get the same attention or level of services as the southern part of the country. At the same time, the situation appears to have left people fairly independent and willing to grow in West Nile.

In general, things have started looking up under the current leadership that has been in place since 1986. There are still issues of gross corruption and mismanagement to tackle. However, we see some signs that the Ugandan civil society is starting to wake up to its rights and obligations. This fact demonstrates that some of the last vestiges of the Amin era oppression and suppression are slowly coming to an end.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

A Community Visit

Highlighted areas show our area of operation. The orange area encompasses all of Nebbi diocese of the Church of Uganda and the green encompasses Madi/West Nile diocese. We have over 100 communities we work with in this area. We are the only staff based in northwestern Uganda. As a whole this region is referred to as West Nile, because it lies to the West of the Nile River, which has its source in Uganda at Lake Victoria.

A traditional meal is being laid out for our consumption. The staple here is a cassava dish called "kwin," wich is paste-like in its consistency. Being that we are guests here in Leiko, we are offered chicken or goat meat and an accompanying sauce along with the kwin. Hospitality is very important in traditional Ugandan society and you can see that they offered us bottled pop and water, a treat that the average community member would not be able to afford.

To the right in this picture is a very astute development worker that helps keep the community groups in Koboko district running well. To the left is one of the pastors in the area. We had a time of fellowship on the evening of the first day in which the pastor shared a message. On the morning of the second day a woman and community member offered the devotional. A pastor in this kind of rural setting might make 4,000 Ugandan Shillings (15% of the offering) in a month. This isn't very much, given the fact that the exchange rate is 1,750 Ugandan Shillings to $1.00. One has to be dedicated to persist in this profession here in this country.

Here are the Anika community group members proudly showing off some of the things we worked on during our two days with them. Our time in Leiko, where most of the Anika members come from, was very insightful and inspiring. You can read about our experience in the post below.

A Community Visit

Recently, we have spent a good deal of time in the field trying to wrap things up before a planned trip to North America for a CRWRC Orientation from April 23 to May 4. One of our favorite field experiences was from our time with the community group of Anika. We featured Anika in the December newsletter and we are following-up on the Anika story in our next letter which should be on its way to you even as you read this post. Anika is a community group with a strong savings and loan program.

We have over 100 community groups that we work with through our partnership with the Church of Uganda in Nebbi diocese and Madi/West Nile diocese (see illustration). The community groups are involved in a variety of programs that they select based on their unique and felt needs and priorities. These programs mostly fall under the following sectors: Agriculture (cassava, maize, fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and tree nurseries), Income Generation (savings and loan schemes, small business development), Animal Husbandry (goat, bee, and poultry raising and multiplication), Health (securing clean water, anti-malaria campaigns, HIV/AIDS care and prevention, nutrition increase), and Functional Adult Literacy (literacy in vernacular, literacy in English, functional math). Older community groups have integrated programs that might include a combination of Health, Literacy, and Savings and Loan programs, for example. These community groups are the vehicles through which we reach to the grass-roots and impact individual lives and increase the quality of life of families.

We spent two days in the community of Leiko, which is where most Anika members live. It was a good experience that helped us to connect with community members at a more intimate level than we can through normal monitoring visit. Part of being there was to build relationships. Part of being there was also to learn from the group and its successes. Finally, part of being there was to encourage the members to continue their quality work and build on their successes thus far.

How did we learn from the group? We did a very abbreviated version of a barrier analysis technique that is being promoted by USAID and Food for the Hungry. We treated the community group as a focus group and asked the members a number of questions, such as, “what are the advantages (and disadvantages) of being a part of a group?” and, “who approves (and disapproves) of your being part of a group?”

How did we encourage the members of Anika to build off of their successes thus far? We helped the group analyze their own strengths using an abbreviated version of the appreciative inquiry organization development techniques. We did this in conjunction with some visioning exercises where the members drew on flip charts where they wanted to be in the future. Socratic-style questioning ensued after the completion of their visioning to help the members see that the roots to their future success lay in refining their current strengths and building on their past successes.

How did we build relationships? Living in the community and participating in daily activities seemed to open the doors to the member’s hearts. We established that we were not in Uganda to do some CRWRC program, but rather to walk along side, learn from, and affirm the people of Leiko. In the end, we were impacted by the experience. And perhaps God was able to use us to make an impact, however small, on the community group of Anika and the people of Leiko. We believe that these are the kinds of encounters that, under God’s providential guidance, will help humanity to build toward the brighter future story that was prophesied by Isaiah in Isaiah 65 and beautifully poetically portrayed in Revelations 22 and 23.