The Joy Of An Informed Father With The Change Agent Methodology

Tibiita Emmanuel is a male Change Agent aged 54. He is from Jinja District, Busede sub county, Nabitambala parish. He was trained by UCAA in 1994 in the change agent methodology. “As I grew up, I lived with a single mother of 5 children, and thus did not go study high with formal education, I had a lapse of 7 years between P.4&P.5 and after P.7, I was trained as a grade two teacher whose value became extinct after a few years”. He narrated. Emmanuel says he had a lot of fear on how to live, establish and sustain a family. He was by then a youth leader but had poor leadership skills. “The youth used to complain more about how I used to conduct myself, I also had no ideas about group dynamics”.

Emmanuel said. Before joining UCAA, Emmanuel had weak faith in the spirit of personal savings and the power it has to capital accumulation and due to poor planning and management skills, he was often making losses and for being a poor record keeper, he could hardly realize it. He claims to have had little faith in himself and this under minded the effectiveness of his participation in groups where he was a member.

Through Change Agent training, Emmanuel was able to deliver skills in community through leadership, record keeping, accounting, group dynamics, planning and implementation of income generating activities as well as management training. He has also been able to carry out book keeping for NGOs, training in Auditing books of accounts and also trainings in business where he developed skills in generating business ideas on how to start a business and how to improve existing ones. He was also able to participate in fundraising trainings. He says he learnt a number of life skills aspects. This has turned him to a responsible father; he is confident and believes in himself.

Emmanuel is pleased with the Change Agent methodology. He is also proud of the man he has become. He is married with a stable and progressive family. He has been entrusted with leadership positions in his community, for example, he has been selected as the Diocesan Cana family ministry coordinator and is a chairperson of one of the political parties for Busede sub-county. Emmanuel believes that at home, one can apply the little they get and achieve the best from it.

Emmanuel believes that having educated his children to university level is a great achievement and grateful for the Change Agent methodology because all was as a result of this capacity building. “Long Live UCAA” Emmanuel concluded as he narrated the story to some of the UCAA staff and change agents during a Self Reliance Participatory Development refresher course at UCAA Kampala Office.