Ddwaniro, Uganda
OJM is currently partnered with Glory of Christ Community Development Initiative (GCCDI) in the rural community of Ddwaniro located in Uganda's Rakai district. This is our original partner community and had been the sole focus of OJM's efforts until 2010 when OJM began exploring expansion possibilities both in Uganda and Haiti. The expansion sites remain in preparation stages, so the main area of focus will be Ddwaniro until 2011 at the earliest.
The primary objective of GCCDI is to create healthy, sustainable communities where the inhabitants, especially orphans and vulnerable children, are given a hope and a future in Christ's name. OJM and GCCDI envision a Ddwaniro community where the basic socio-economic needs of every individual are met with excellence, and where the majority of resources needed to meet these needs arise from within the Rakai District itself.
Working in Rakai has challenged us to develop and refine a community-led strategy to create sustainable, lasting change and in the process we've had to learn what "release-based" orphan care requires. We’ve come to recognize that taking the role of “donors” who fund local projects indefinitely actually hinders the partnership and harms the community by creating unhealthy dependency. It serves to keep the community and its needy children in the passive role of the victims rather than encouraging and empowering them to grow and reach the destiny that God has for them.
This has led us to develop a plan that would maximize the efforts of the local church, generate leadership capacity, and work towards systems that would meet the basic needs of the poor in a sustainable manner. It is our hope that what is being done in Rakai will serve as a template for other communities, first in Uganda and then beyond, who must address both the symptom of orphanhood and its root causes.