The Power of Community Organizing

(UGANDA) In today’s community development work, stakeholders are starting to recognize emerging organized groups as potential partners and valuable connections. They have found it much easier to support an organized group than to go through the painstaking process of organizing one. For any intervention the process of organizing a community is a prerequisite for meaningful results

Organizing builds a strong foundation for program planning, community ownership of the program, and community cohesion. This has affirmed World Renew’s intervention of laying the needed foundations for community development. And through these interventions we and our partner organization Nebbi Diocese Church of Uganda have learned valuable lessons. For example, we have learned that women, especially those living in the least-served habitats, learn and cooperate better in situations that bring them together. We have learned that rotational leadership, which is much encouraged in community development, builds the capacity of even the least privileged in terms of education and literacy levels.

We have also learned that the promotion of self-help has been appreciated for its ability to encourage the least-served communities to work on mechanisms that improve their livelihood with minimal external support. This has enhanced their ability to begin enterprises with resources from within the community. In our role as facilitators of the process of community building, it has been crucial for us to learn from this indigenous knowledge to improve our programming.

Why a Self-Help Approach?
Adoko Martina is married and is 55 years old, but she looks 15 years younger. Her explanation for this youthful look is that she “found her voice”—and through platforms like the self-help groups she has had plenty of opportunity to freely share her views and ideas. Martina emphasizes the need for improvement in self-help methods, but she laments that many of the men are not ready to adopt the initiative. She emphasizes that the local authorities are a gateway to the eKective mobilization of the communities. With the level of capacity she has gained, Martina is vying to represent women at the sub-county local government during the 2016 Uganda general elections.

Learning from the church intervention and support of the self-help initiative in Jonam in Nebbi district, Archdeacon Rev. Canon Charles Owiny says, “The people in this area now willingly give to the church and offer to serve in various capacities as needed. The church has experienced an increase in giving as a result of the increased enterprises and income of the people of this area. Love has been observed among the participating communities. There is no more isolation; the communities feel the warmth of working together. The hygiene and sanitation standards have greatly improved. The people look smart and have better clothing.”

The church management committee has noted better stewardship, transparency, and financial planning. There is increased interreligious harmony when it comes to resolving community problems. The benefit is appreciated by the church, which is ministering to the entire community.

Even without any external financial input, the self-help groups see significant progress. The level of transparency at the project levels through planning and budgeting with all involved has increased the level of ownership. One woman mentioned that there is no more idleness among them and that this has led to better health and living conditions. People look healthy and elegant. And they give credit to the self-help approach that has enabled them to take ownership of their progress through the decisions they make and the ability to come up with workable solutions.

In Faulonga, village members reported reduced domestic violence. There is harmony at the household level between men and women. This harmony has helped them to collectively save money. In one of the saving groups, members have so far raised 350,000 Ugandan shillings and are committed to achieve their dream. One committee member said that during their monitoring visits they witnessed lots of success stories celebrated as a result of the savings and credit plan developed by the members of the group. One of the members shares, “We believed we were poor, but we are not. Any poverty here is just due to poor planning. We thought that banking is for the rich and civil servants, yet saving is possible within the communities. Now that we know how to plan and work together with the little that we have, we have quick access to our own financial and credit services. People from other areas come to buy vegetables such as tomatoes from us. This is a lucrative business opportunity, and we shall work harder to achieve more.”

Grace & Peace,