What does it mean to transform a community? We invite you to part the grasses and look beyond to Opangul, Uganda!

Opangul is one of 10 communities supported by World Renew’s partner, the Church of Uganda (COU), in the diocese of Lango. Snuggled in rural northern Uganda, Opangul is made up of four tiny villages.

World Renew works with entire communities to identify and address the issues that they face, and to experience God’s renewing power in their lives.

At one point, along the winding dirt path that leads to the community, thick tall grass towers more than five feet high and starts to cover up the trail before the main village comes into view. That’s why the area is called Opangul—which means “hidden place” in the local language.

World Renew and the Church of Uganda (COU) began to work in Opangul in 2010. Their main objective was to help the people address the AIDS crisis in their midst. To properly fight AIDS, however, the community also had to address other concerns.

“For Opangul, being a hidden place has been their greatest disadvantage, affecting not only the possibility of getting health care but also limiting the community’s education opportunities,” explains World Renew staff member Edward Okiror.

Effective health care, especially when using modern medicine, involves the ability to read and understand prescriptions. In a community like Opangul, where nearly 90 percent of adults cannot read or write, a literacy project was of vital importance to the anti-AIDS endeavor.

“Because we are a community that is difficult to reach, many community members, especially the women, have never gone to school,” says David, a community church teacher who leads the literacy class.

“Our children walk about 10 kilometers a day to and from the nearest school, and we have no health facilities or proper roads. We are very poor.”

With the support of World Renew and COU, a small group of 15 committed adult learners began to meet regularly at a grass-thatched Anglican church to learn to read and write. That effort has now expanded to include a growing nursery and primary school.

“We did not want our children to suffer the effects of illiteracy the way we did,” says Siblina Anyao, one of the adult learners. “So we have donated over five acres of land to build a community school.”

In addition, World Renew and COU helped to start a Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) in the community. About 100 men and women meet weekly, not just to save and borrow money to expand their small businesses but also to discuss community issues and map out solutions to challenges they are facing.

Today more than 85 children attend Opangul’s primary school, and 70 adult learners have graduated from functional literacy training. The rates of HIV transmission have decreased; those already infected are living healthier, more productive lives.

“Through Christian community development, Opangul has come out of ‘a hidden place’ and into the outside world with new opportunities,” says Okiror. What’s more, the message of Christ’s salvation and his love in action through the local church has been strengthened by being at the forefront of this ministry.

What Is Community Development?

Community (n): a number of people having common ties or interests and living in the same locality.
Development (n): becoming bigger, better, fuller, or more useful.
World Renew considers that a community is being developed when its members are increasingly able to embrace and live out their calling as human beings bearing the image of God, marred by sin but being restored in Christ Jesus, receiving and expressing justice, mercy, and peace as evidenced in healthy relationships with God, neighbor, self, and creation.

This story first appeared in the September issue of The Banner.