UGANDA: Over One Million Refugees in Urgent Need of Pastoral Guidance in Arua Diocese
Rt Rev Sabino Ochan Odoki Bishop of Arua Diocese
Fr Isaac Ojok
Bishop Sabino Ocan Odoki of Arua Catholic Diocese in Uganda has made a new call to local and international Religious Congregations to come to his diocese to help in discharging pastoral and spiritual care among the refugees.
He made fresh call in an exclusive interview with AMECEA Online correspondent saying due to the influx of refugees from the neighboring South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC, few priests who are currently serving in the diocese cannot effectively give spiritual and pastoral care.
He informed AMCEA Online correspondent that there are about one million and fifty thousand refugees under juridical administration of his diocese noting that apparently the diocese cannot sufficiently offer care to the refugees due to few pastoral agents like the priests, religious and the catechists to serve the pastoral need, the reason why more collaboration and support from different local and international religious congregations is urgently needed.
As part of the remedy, he noted that the diocese has gone ahead to create a Vicariate with the aim to give spiritual assistance to the refugees and to ensure that they are integrated among the host communities.
He mentioned that all along, he has been seeking for assistance and collaboration from different congregations and that so far, a total of fourteen have been received in the diocese as the response to the refugee situation including two new other congregations from India that have expressed willingness to come and serve refugees in Arua Diocese.
Among the congregations that have been received according to Bishop Sabino are the Medical Mission Sisters, Comboni Sisters, the Missionaries of Arica and Missionary Sisters of Africa, Divine Word Missionaries, Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, the Little Daughters of St Joseph who have come to serve in departments of Education, health, pastoral especially catechesis.
According to Bishop Sabino, there is still need for more pastoral agents due to pastoral need on the ground.
Although his major concern as the bishop is to see that the spiritual well fare of the refugees is facilitated, the diocese is as well struggling to make sure that other needs are met.
The diocese, with support from Sant’ Egidio community in Rome, has established a school of peace that is at the moment providing learning services to the refugee children.
The new school of peace according to Bishop Sabino can only accommodate 1,000 pupils although refugee children are more than those being currently accommodated.
At the moment, he revealed that Caritas Arua with support and collaboration from other partners like Caritas Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and Caritas Italiano is giving seedlings and other relief services to refugees to support and improve their livelihoods amidst shortage of resources.
He further revealed that, the diocese was later joined by the Jesuit Relief Service- JRS with the special program in training Catechists and other pastoral agents to serve in the refugee settlement camps spread across the diocese.
In the diocese, the bishop went on saying that the department of counselling known as Arua Catholic Diocese Counselling Service has been established with the aim to tackle and help refugees overcome the consequences of trauma through trauma healing processes.
The centre, according to Bishop Sabino, is helping to address challenges among the refugees although it has limited space for clients and few staff to handle the clients as well.
The existence of the Counselling center is boosting the outreach activities among the refugees in the settlement camps and the host communities.
He called for more volunteers and the well-wishers to collaborate and support the diocese in response to ensure trauma healing and to restore hope in the lives of the refugees.
Other initiative that the Bishop disclosed is that the diocese recently entered in partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees-UNHCR particular focus on tree planting to promote environmental conservation.
Arua Diocese is geographically located in North Western Uganda bordering South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and it is being commended for the struggle in dispensing the spiritual and pastoral care to refugees in their settlement camps spread within the diocese.
The Congolese, South Sudanese and Refugees from other countries being accommodated in Uganda is in line with the Uganda’s Open Door Policy on refugees that provides secure rights such as freedom of movement, access to employment, education and medical services.
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