7th July, 2009
Joseph Malinga
guardian.co.uk
Katine is a project that was "testing development approaches", the group chairman of Barclays told villagers on a trip to the sub-county last month.
Marcus Agius visited Katine sub-county to assess progress ahead of the mid-term review of the project, which is due to report in a couple of months. Barclays is helping to fund the Katine project, match-funding donations from Guardian readers.
In his speech in Ojom parish, Agius said he wanted to see for himself what the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), which is implementing the three-year development work, has done for Katine so far. "We have come to see for ourselves what is happening here, other than just hear or read about it," he said to community members.
He said he was happy the community had embraced the project and participated in its programmes, which is a sign that the community is interested in getting out of poverty.
"It is because of you that we are here. I'm happy that you have welcomed the project. This is a learning project where we are testing development approaches," he said.
Guardian managing editor Elisabeth Ribbans, who accompanied Agius and his wife on the trip to Katine, said the mid-term review could be a success only if the community was involved in the process. The review is intended to ensure that the project has a tangible impact during the remaining 18 months.
At Ojom health centre, Agius inspected the new laboratory, which was built as part of the project and opened in February.
He also visited Ojom community school, where AMREF is due to build two classrooms, an office and a storeroom. Villagers have provided some of the materials for the construction and helped dig the foundations. Agius amused residents by joining masons to lay a brick on the new classroom block.
Pupils from the school sang songs denoting how they would not suffer as long as the donor community existed.
Community members handed the Barclays chairman a wooden symbol of the crested crane, which is Uganda's national emblem, an indication that they had handed over Katine, and probably Uganda's problems, to the donor community.
Agius received the symbol with pleasure saying he had often seen and admired it whenever he visited the Uganda high commission in the UK. Now he would have it right in his office, he said.
Later in the day, Agius also visited Omulai borehole in Omulai village in Katine parish, where residents received him with singing and thanking God for the Katine community partnership project.
The gift and the singing epitomises how poor communities often give back to whoever supports them, irrespective of whether the entire community benefits.
How long their excitement will last is uncertain. On several occasions the leadership of Soroti district has professed a desire for the project to create more tangible benefits that would in turn stimulate development in this needy community. Joshua Kyallo, AMREF's country director in Uganda, said there had been a strategic shift in the implementation of the project, and that the decision to use local contractors as opposed to those from Kampala was an example of a change in thinking.
