Update from Thomas LubariThere are currently 15 students undertaking vocational training. They are all committed to their training and we have not had anyone drop out.
All the students who graduated have stable jobs in Uganda and South Sudan, for example, Simon Taban is in Juba South Sudan, Nancy Ageno Nyenga in Buikwe district Uganda, and John Wako in Kaliro district all have jobs as lab technicians.
Unfortunately, there has been no financial contributions from graduates as we had hoped. The current students do contribute towards emergencies and fees beyond the budget.
The number of people trained in Foundations for Farming this year is now 330 with the direct beneficiaries numbering 2,310 (estimated as 7 persons per family). These people were also trained in trauma healing at the same time as the farming training.
On 25th and 26th October we ran a two-day refresher workshop for the extension workers. During December, January and February we are hoping to run a further 11 training courses with 30 farmers in each course.
This loan programme is doing well as only serious members are accessing a loan. Control measures have been put in place to ensure payments are made in two months. It is empowering refugee pastors living independently in Koboko, Arua, Adjumani, and Kampala through support of their wives micro-businesses.
This year 550 people have attended these workshops, and each trainee is expected to reach 10 persons giving a total of 5,500 people impacted by this training.
The objections of these workshops are:
1) To enable pastors and church leaders recognize their role as peace makers in the midst of conflicts and crisis
2) To enable pastors and church leaders to work effectively among trauma victims.
3) To enable pastors and church leaders provide the most relevant care to affected groups in the society.
Thomas continues to be very actively involved in ministry both in Njeru, near Jinja, and also in the various refugee camps to which they travel regularly. Because they are both South Sudanese, and have been refugees themselves, they have a great deal of compassion for the plight of refugees, and are very concerned about the state that they find them in. There are significant psychological problems, domestic abuse, substance abuse and, at times, suicide issues that they are having to deal with.
Their heart is to continue to reach out to the people in the camps to assist them to some degree or another. Bright Hope World has been very heartened by some of the reports that we have received, and some of the people that we have met at various times in Uganda who show the benefits of the Foundations for Farming and trauma training. We are very keen to continue to assist and support them. Unfortunately, it is very hard for us to fathom the scale of the problem. Many of the camps have literally hundreds of thousands of people in them and are among some of the largest refugee camps in the world. The needs are huge.
We are grateful for the calibre of our partners, who are so willing to travel, endure hardship, who often suffer significant health problems themselves, and yet continue to invest their lives to improve and support the lives of those who are in desperate positions.
Not only are they involved with refugees, but Thomas has also established a micro loan programme in Koboko, and the vocational training programme that we continue to support in Jinja, which benefits both Uganda and South Sudanese students, is seeing great results.