UGANDA: Provincial Workshops for Youth in Uganda, a Journey in the Spirit of Synodality

Fr Isaac Ojok

The National Youth Office of Uganda Episcopal Conference-UEC in the recent days has been conducting workshops for youth in the four Ecclesiastical Provinces of Gulu, Mbarara, Kampala and Tororo with the view to nurture the spirit of journeying together in the church.

While recounting the story about the workshops, the National Executive Secretary for Youth Ms Joyce Zake said the workshops have been conducted under the theme, “Education of the Lay faithful and the young people in a Synodal Church”.

During the interview with AMECEA correspondent, she mentioned that the topics covered during the workshops included Youth Ministry and the young people with roots, presentation on Laudato si with focus on the care for mother earth, roles of the youth in the church and society at large.

Another topic that has been paramount in the recent workshops has been on the Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Contemporary youth challenges giving examples of school strikes, LGBT/LGBTQ and the impact on the youth.

Furthermore, during the workshops the problem of unemployment has also been discussed with the vision to help the youth come up with solution to the problem through job creation instead of being job seekers.

According to Ms Zake, they have been advising the youth to embrace agriculture and other lucrative activities to enable them generate resources that can sustain their livelihoods.

She went on to note that activity like tree planting especially fruit trees is being encouraged as a priority among the young people to ensure continuity in environmental protection.

As a department, she disclosed that they are working in close collaboration with Education department in implementing some common activities among the learners like doing charity work to the elderly and those who are in need both at school and at home respectively.

She further informed AMECEA correspondent that they are taking the program to schools because it is only through schools that a bigger population of the youth can be reached.

Additionally, she mentioned that their outreach in schools is a great opportunity to them because they are using it to promote talents like sports, Music Dance and Drama-MDD among others.

She also revealed during the interview that, they are using the opportunity to promote pastoral care for refugee youth through integration in to activities in Small Christian Communities-SCCs among the host communities mainly in the refugee hosting dioceses like Arua, Hoima, and Mbarara respectively.

The workshops have been made possible with support from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops-USCCBs according to Ms Zake.

She concluded that they are optimistic that the workshops will change the lives of the youth and will help them create avenue to support the church.

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