By Grace Nakajje June 20 2010
Bishop Daniel Wandabula of the East Africa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has said that East Africa has embarked on identifying opportunities were refugees can explore to improve their standards of living and also contribute to the church growth.
All is gone. A refugee woman cries out (Right) during a Sunday service at Nabulagala UMC a day after the World Refugee Day. The church has about 400 refugees from Rwanda, DR Congo and Burundi
Bishop Wandabula notes that as the World celebrates the Refugee Day, United Methodist Church must reflect on the contribution made to change the lives of this group not only spiritually but also economically.
The Bishop Left, told the writer in an interview that there is so far one vibrant group of refugees settled at Nabulagala slum area in Kampala which has spearheaded the advocacy for the voice less and currently the Church has engaged them in the areas of small scale enterprises, litracy programmes and counseling among others.
“It is my prayer that we acquire land to construct a church where they can pray from and use the premises to conduct these programmes. I am also happy that although they are refugees, they love to worship God in both spirit and truth and this has indeed proved to be a centered church which Ugandans must emulate” said Bishop.
Pastor Gatware Rusuhurwa the leader of the group encouraged the members to utilize the opportunities in place as they also to continue to pray for their countries to stabiles so that those who are able can go back.
The World on June 18 2010 celebrated the Refugee day and in Uganda the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Country Representative Nema Temporal said the number of refugees in Kampala had risen to 34.493.
In 2009, there were 43.3 million people forcefully displaced word wide of which 15.2 million were refugees. |
