Kinkizi diocese changes Kanungu through ARH and IRDP

 

Kanungu distrcit has been blessed with Kinkiizi Diocese which has and is still fighting to improve the lives of people in the area. The Diocese runs two projects; the Adolescent Reproductive Health Programme (ARH) and the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP).

 

The ARH project was started in 1998 and is currently headed by Rev. Canon Bernard Bagaba. According to Rev. Bagaba, the project was started to address issues of HIV/AIDS and STDs, teenage pregnancies, abortion, early marriages and school dropouts which he says were rampant in the district.

 

The above problems are being addressed through advocacy related activities like music, dance and drama, youth councils, fathers and mothers unions and many others.

 

The communities as well as the existing church structures within the diocese have been instrumental in providing relevant and reliable information as well as bringing about change in the community.

 

"At the moment, there has been a reduction in cases of early marriages. As a district we have put measures in place to enforce the constitutional provision that prohibits marriage below 18 years of age," says Rev. Bagaba.

 

Educating people on the dangers of HIV/AIDS

 

The programme also utilizes Kinkiizi FM, a community based radio for sensitization programmes. "The radio education programmes have created dialogue between the parents and children. It has become a forum for the young people to talk about their problems and also sensitize their parents what they are taught in school."

 

Many activities have been organized to try and address the various issues concerning ARH. "We carry out sensitization among the parents, policy makers, civil servants and local leaders." Women are the ones playing a leading role in educating others, says Rev. Bagaba.

 

"They are at the forefront of reducing early marriages, abortions, school dropouts." Rev. Bagaba also says that when the programme had started, women where the focus and men were not accorded much attention.

 

"We realized that fathers are the main figures in the families and decided to include them into the programme for its success; we have also encouraged speaking out on issues of sexuality, early marriages, and school dropouts".

 

The programme also uses peer educators from both the schools and also within the community. "After we train them, they spread the message within their own communities which makes it easier as the community already knows them.

 

"The major component of the programme is communication through music, dance and drama within communities whose people are mostly illiterate. Currently the diocese has 30 groups who move from community to community talking about HIV/AIDS, discouraging early marriages and abortion.

 

"Their songs and plays tackle issues of all communities not peers alone," says Rev. Bagaba.

 

Kajugangoma theatre group is one of the 30 groups that continue to implement the objectives of the ARH programme. Started in 2003 and consists of 20 members. “We spread messages on adolescent health in schools, create awareness on AIDS, malaria and promote gender issues,” says the chairman of the group, Amutuheire Wallen.

 

He says that there has been a decrease in early marriages due to the messages they spread.

 

Another group Kambuga SS theatre group says that they educate people on how to care for their lives through fellowships, community debates and also through Sunday school where they sensitize children on issue of health.

 

Within the diocese there is a girl child education ministry that sponsors 470 children in both primary school and sometimes up to university level. “We introduced this in 2000 because we thought that it would uplift education in the community," says Rev. Bagaba.

 

The diocese supports children in three schools of Bishops Primary School for both boys and girls, Kinkiizi High School for the girls and Nyakabungo Girls School for the girls.

 

"We support the schools through the construction of structures like classroom blocks teachers through capacity building and provide school fees for the students." In the diocese, health and development go hand in hand thus in 2002, the diocese of Kinkiizi launched the Integrated Rural Development Programme aimed at promoting self sufficiency and improvement of the life of the people of Kanungu through participatory development in addition to educating them about health.

 

Rev. Kenneth Kanyankole is the Programme Coordinator and says that a number of activities were undertaken in partnership with the communities, EED Germany (donors of the project) and the entire diocese of Kinkiizi.

 

"The objective of the activities was to enable each community to plan together and implement actions towards the future using locally available resources," Rev Kanyankole says.

 

He says that they also aimed at providing people with skills to help them improve their own livelihoods. Rev Kanyankole also says that a qualitative evaluation of the community was carried out and it was discovered that a number of areas needed intervention.

 

"Some of these were, conflict and violation of human rights, ignorance about poverty alleviation, and lack of information about issues hindering development and poor management of resources" Kanyankole says.