A Study Of The Grassroots Integrated Development Agency In Uganda

Problem When poverty in Uganda deepened due to the miseries and destabilization caused by economic mismanagement, turbulent politics, and the incessant civil wars in Uganda up to 1985, all public, private, and religious organizations were adversely affected. At the end of 1985, conditions in the Seventh-day Adventist church were characterized by massive poverty among its rural membership, a slow church-growth annual rate of 4.9 percent--the lowest tithe per capita in the Eastern Africa Division (EAD)--and the lowest remuneration scales for pastors in the EAD. In 1986, an indigenous, grassroots organization sprouted in the SDA church under the leadership of a young pastor, James Kaggya. The Integrated Grassroots Development Agency (GRIDA), as it later became known, was established for the purpose of addressing the problem of slow church growth in the SDA church and of widespread poverty in the country. These objectives were accomplished (1) by mobilizing, training, equipping, and empowering lay members to participate in evangelism, church planting, and church construction, (2) by improving the quality of life of poor people in the church and in community by using participatory planning skills and training, to empower participants to plan and execute their own self-help development projects, using locally available resources. Great emphasis was placed on empowering church members (the grassroots ) to stop looking for help from outside but to instead exploit whatever resources were available to them, towards becoming self-reliant. They could accomplish this as individuals or as groups (Action Teams) This study analyzed the effectiveness and efficiency of GRIDA in achieving its goals, and the challenges it encountered in implementing its programs. Method I reviewed all the available literature on GRIDA, visited several grassroots projects, and held unstructured interviews with officers and participants of. GRIDA. Findings were analyzed in light of GRIDA\u27s stated goals and also in the generally accepted church-growth and development principles. The Results The study found that, in general, GRIDA has been effective in achieving at least some of its initial goals. The most tangible objectives, such as increased lay participation in church affairs, substantial church growth through lay participation using grassroots methods, and the proliferation of self-help development projects using local resources, have been attained. However, the program has suffered from lack of sustainability. Many of the new members reverted for lack of nurturing, and several communal projects were never completed. This was due to organizational and methodological challenges. Conclusions Follow-up, disciple-making, and institutional development principles were recommended to GRIDA. If they are implemented, GRIDA will revolutionize the SDA church in Uganda. The potential of GRIDA on the basis of what has been realized is tremendous. It remains to be unlocked and released

Colorectal Polyposis in a 15 Year Old Boy in Uganda - Case Report

Colorectal polyps usually present as rectal bleeding and are associated with increased risk of colorectal carcinoma. This is a 15 year old boy who presented with painless rectal bleeding for 9 years and mass protruding from the anus for 2 years after passing stool. He had history of 3 nephews with similar symptoms. On clinical assessment an impression of Adematous familial colorectal polyposis was made and biopsy was taken from the mass that revealed inflammatory polyps. He subsequently had a total colectomy and ileall pouch anal anastomosis with good outcome. In absence of endoscopic surveillance and diagnostic services diagnosis of colorectal polyposis syndromes is a challenge because clinicians rely on digital rectal assessment and examination under anesthesia.Key words: polyposis, polyps, Ugand

A first confirmed record of the Indian Crested Porcupine Hystrix indica (Mammalia: Rodentia: Hystricidae) in the United Arab Emirates

We report the first records of the Indian Crested Porcupine (Hystrix indica; Kerr, 1792) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), approximately 600km beyond its known range in Arabia. Images of H. indica were taken by camera traps at two locations in Wadi Wurayah National Park (WWNP), Fujairah, in three separate events in 2015 and 2016. Long-term occupancy of porcupines was confirmed via social surveys conducted in four villages bordering WWNP. These findings represent a previously unrecorded and most likely isolated subpopulation of H. indica. Further study is warranted to assess the genetic and demographic resilience of the population

Use of sediment source fingerprinting to assess the role of subsurface erosion in the supply of fine sediment in a degraded catchment in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Sediment source fingerprinting has been successfully deployed to provide information on the surface and subsurface sources of sediment in many catchments around the world. However, there is still scope to reexamine some of the major assumptions of the technique with reference to the number of fingerprint properties used in the model, the number of model iterations and the potential uncertainties of using more than one sediment core collected from the same floodplain sink. We investigated the role of subsurface erosion in the supply of fine sediment to two sediment cores collected from a floodplain in a small degraded catchment in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The results showed that increasing the number of individual fingerprint properties in the composite signature did not improve the model goodness-of-fit. This is still a much debated issue in sediment source fingerprinting. To test the goodness-of-fit further, the number of model repeat iterations was increased from 5000 to 30,000. However, this did not reduce uncertainty ranges in modelled source proportions nor improve the model goodness-of-fit. The estimated sediment source contributions were not consistent with the available published data on erosion processes in the study catchment. The temporal pattern of sediment source contributions predicted for the two sediment cores was very different despite the cores being collected in close proximity from the same floodplain. This highlights some of the potential limitations associated with using floodplain cores to reconstruct catchment erosion processes and associated sediment source contributions. For the source tracing approach in general, the findings here suggest the need for further investigations into uncertainties related to the number of fingerprint properties included in un-mixing models. The findings support the current widespread use of <5000 model repeat iterations for estimating the key sources of sediment samples

Parasitic twin successfully managed in Uganda - Case Report

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Gully fan morphodynamics in a small catchment in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Fans, in association with hillslope gullies and badlands and their impact on the catchment sediment cascade, slope-channel connectivity and local landscape evolution, have been reported in diverse geomorphic environments. However, research on the development and morphodynamics of gully fans is still in its infancy in South Africa. An investigation was undertaken in mid-slope discontinuous gullies in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa using field surveys and sediment source fingerprinting techniques to establish the dynamics of fan systems and their impacts on-slope sediments. Findings showed that a sediment core collected from the upper region of the fan was composed mainly of sediment mobilised from subsurface sources, whereas that from the lower region of the fan consisted mostly of sediment from surface sources. 137Cs data were consistent with the sediment source fingerprinting results, confirming the respective surface and subsurface origins of the sediment in the sampled cores. Additionally, 137Cs pointed to the recent formation of the fan. Geomorphic reconstruction of the fan did not support a cut and fill mode of gully fan development. Rather, the fan formed as a consequence of discontinuous gullies in the mid-slope leading to on-slope sediment deposition and slope-channel decoupling. It was also observed that hillslope sediment storage in the gully fan is temporally variable. Changes in the balance of morphodynamic processes may lead to sediment flushing and slope-channel coupling