The Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) has been challenged to look for ways to extend the Capacity Building Project of AMECEA in collaboration with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) so that it may also benefits the Bishops Conference of Eritrea.
Speaking to AMECEA Online News recently AMECEA Secretary General, Rev. Fr Ferdinand Lugonzo said that so far, all AMECEA Bishops Conferences have greatly benefited from the first phase of the project except Eritrea.
“Following the recent evaluation of phase one of the Capacity Building Project in Addis Ababa Ethiopia between 8th-9th October, AMECEA Secretaries General together with the Vice Chancellors of the Catholic Universities in the region suggested that efforts have to be made to reach out to Eritrea through e-learning (distant learning) and CUEA was tasked with the responsibility of looking into ways and modalities through which this can be achieved,” he said.
Fr. Lugonzo added that during the evaluation they identified two major challenges to the project which included the issue of looking for other sources of funding for the project and lack of adequate accommodation facilities at the universities for participants. “Finances for the project are not adequate hence the pace at which the project is moving is very low in relation to the expectations of the Bishops. At the same time, most of the Catholic Universities where the projects have been conducted have no accommodation facilities for participants, hence a lot of money is spent on accommodation elsewhere rather than at the university itself,” he explained.
Fr. Lugonzo said that the Secretaries General together with the Vice Chancellors proposed ownership of the Capacity Building Project by the AMECEA Bishops as well as the Universities in order to tackle the issue of inadequacy of funds; while also have a proposed plan of involving more partners to support the project.
Finally, according to Fr Lugonzo, they emphasized on the need to develop an evaluation and monitoring tool for the project at the grassroots level. This would assist in understanding and analyzing the impact of the project as well as to clarify the relationship between the Capacity Building Project activities and the desired outcome.
The second phase of the Capacity project is scheduled to take place between 2016 and 2018, under the theme: “Family Apostolate, Youth Ministry and Chaplaincy”.
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
