AMECEA: The USCCB/AMECEA Capacity Building Project is Ready for Take Off

The long awaited USCCB/AMECEA capacity building project is ready for implementation after meeting between AMECEA and USCCB held at AMECEA secretariat, Nairobi, Kenya. 

Mr. Patrick Markey and Mr. Fritz Zuger who were sent by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop (USCCB) to follow up on a project that AMECEA and the USCCB has been working on had a four days fruitful meeting with AMECEA Secretariat Staff which culminated into an action towards the implementation of the program. 

The project had earlier on begun with the Needs assessment of the AMECEA Region in a meeting that took place in Kampala Uganda from May 29 -2 June 2010

After carrying out the study, a report was presented at the AMECEA 17th Plenary and a proposal to have AMECEA/USCCB Capacity building project was adapted as one of the resolutions of the AMECEA 17th Plenary.

According to AMECEA Secretary General Rev. Fr. Ferdinand Lugonzo, subsequent to that particular resolution, another meeting was held in Dar-es-Salaam Tanzania between 10th and 13th October 2011 to identify the immediate needs to be attended to in the whole AMECEA Region. After the Dar-es-Salaam meeting, a report was sent to the USCCB. Mr. Markey and Mr. Zuger therefore came to AMECEA so that together with the secretariat officials they could review the report before the commencement of the project. The meeting involved the two representatives from USCCB, AMECEA Secretary General Rev. Fr. Ferdinand Lugonzo, AMECEA Social Communications Coordinator Rev. Fr. Christantus Ndaga, AMECEA Justice and Peace Desk Coordinator Rev. Fr. Jude Waweru, Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) Vice Chancellor Rev. Dr. Fr. Pius Rutechura and heads of some of some key relevant departments of CUEA.

The following courses of actions were identified as key areas to embark on in the course of this year (2012-2013). The first course of action is the training in church leadership for bishops, diocesan secretaries, diocesan chancellors and diocesan development coordinators. Other groups of individuals to go through the same course includes National Secretary generals, heads of Catholic Universities and institutes of higher learning within AMECEA Region, staffs of national secretariats, priests, laity and religious men and women who are involved in different levels of leadership. To start off this course, training of selected bishops from AMECEA Region will be conducted between May 21st and 25th at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa CUEA in Nairobi Kenya.

The second course of action is training on Pastoral Planning and project designing as well as kills in management and fundraising. The targeted people in this course are personalities drawn from all the AMECEA National Conferences and they will be trained as TOTs (Training of Trainer). Every National Conference is expected to send two representatives for the course who upon completion of their course are expected to conduct the same training to selected members of their respective national conferences. This training will also be conducted at CUEA although the dates are yet to be established.

The third course of action involves the formation of the laity. The target group here includes selected members of the laity from the AMECEA National Conferences. The course involves Christian values that ensure good citizenship. Once this is done, the same course will be extended to the national level to target politicians, business men/women as well as other professionals.

The fourth identified area of focus is to offer training on youth ministry and chaplaincy apostolate. The targeted group include people who are actively involved in youth ministry as well as diocesan chaplaincies, which includes hospitals, learning institutions and prisons etc. a course will be developed that would assist the chaplains to carry out their ministries effectively. According to Fr. Lugonzo, this particular training is very important and much overdue. This is due to the fact that in most cases when need arises to appoint a chaplain to certain institution, the bishops are relied on to do the appointments. However many people appointed to such tasks lack in necessary skills have to struggle a lot before gaining footing.

The fifth course of action is about training of national communication coordinators in new communication technology especially the internet. The target group includes national communications Coordinators, ICT Managers/technicians and Catholic Media Practitioners. This will be done on scholarship basis where by selected personalities from the AMECEA National conferences will get benefit with intent of making them effective managers of their respective national communications offices.

Fr. Ferdinand, the AMECEA Secretary General also said that the partnership between AMECEA and USCCB is opened to other partners in order to promote service delivery through exchange programs. There is an intention to promote exchange programs especially in the academic field which involves exchange of professors as well as student exchange programs.

Finally as the action plan is being rolled out, the trainings will be conducted periodically in order to reach as many people as possible. Fr. Ferdinand is optimistic that the collaboration between AMECEA and USSB is going to be of great enrichment to the people of God from the whole of AMECEA Region.