By Our Reporter,
KAYUNGA
The Parish Development Model (PDM) is premised on the model that the Parish Development Committee(PDC) together with common citizens as the end user of social services are better placed to identify and respond to their own needs, priorities, and direct use of resources.
The Parish Development Model (PDM) is a government of Uganda strategy for organizing and delivering public and private sector interventions for wealth creation and employment generation at parish level – as the lowest economic planning unit. While it’s a very good project theoretically, less has been achieved in rural area where majority of Uganda Live.
During the 2024 International Women’s Day Celebration organized by Ssekisinde High School Gayaza –Bbaale Sub county in Kayunga District, the Guest of Honor Hon Agatha Nalubwama, the founder Agatha Nalubwama Ministries in Kayunga joined thousands of women and students to celebrating women achievements and motivating young girls towards social-economic transformation. In her inspirational speech, she called upon the NRM Government to prioritise training and mentoring of rural women in Entrepreneurship skills if the parish development Model is to achieve its set Objectives and goals.
The Parish Development Model (PDM) is a very good project but its biggest challenge here in kayunga is the lack of Information, Public Awareness and above all the lack of training of women in entrepreneurship skills-Agatha pointed out.
Our people especially women and youth have struggled to come out of the bondage of poverty but they continue to face a big challenge of having limited business management skills- I call upon our Government to build the capacities of youth and women first through equipping them with entrepreneurship skills followed by provision of capital through the Parish development Model Scheme- Agatha Nalubwama stated.
PDM is a model for socio-economic transformation of small holder farmers by moving them out of the non-monetary subsistence to a money economy. This cant be achieved if women and youth are not equipped with entrepreneurship skills-Agartha further pointed out.
Agatha Nalubwama who is known for training and mentorship of youth with business skills in Kayunga through her organization “Work for Life” called upon Government to invest in information dissemination and public Awareness on its programs and projects especially the flagship Parish Development Model (PDM).
In the last two years, Agatha Nalubwama through her Organization has trained and mentored over 500 youth in kayunga in effective Business management.
Agatha is devoted to realization of the parish development Model in Kayunga district since it’s a program which is fully backed by the Local Government Act 1997 that designates a parish as one of the planning units for government.I therefore call upon all women and youth to embrace Parish Development Model because it’s a game changer and honestly speaking The Parish Development model was developed in line with the National Development Plan III (NDPIII), the NRM 2021-2026 manifesto and Sustainable Development Goals-no poverty (SDG 1) and zero hunger (SDG 2)- Agatha told the women in Kayunga
The 2024 International Women’s Day Celebration organized by Ssekisinde High School Gayaza –Bbaale Subcounty in Kayunga District was sealed with cutting cake as a way of thanking God for the far he has brought them as women and praying to achieve more through embracing the available government funding opportunities like UWEP, PDM, YLP among others.
Agatha spent much of the time preaching Economical and Spiritual Development with focus on scriptures cited from the book of Jeremiah 1:1-10. “God has a predestined plan for each and every one on earth including men and women. He created the abilities in us to solve particular problems in a particular generation. But we go through a number of things to reach the end goal which is the reason for your creation” the things we go through are what we call “the course of life.Nobody knows what to expect. There the period you discover your calling and when you actually achieve it. Therefore I charge all of you to run this race of life with perseverance not forgetting the reason for your living because of life’s challenges said Agatha Nalubwama in her speech to the young girls and women that attended the Women’s day celebrations at Ssekisinde Vocational High School.
TALK SHOW AT SUCCESS RADION 104.9
Agatha Nalubwama was also hosted at Success Radio 104.9 Fm in Kyanja to address the topic on “The role of Women in building Uganda’s Economy”. Some of her statements are that Women in Uganda have come from far and have risen up from being housewives to working women unlike in the past. And this has been made possible by strong advocacy by the Government of Uganda, The Non-government organizations as well as international organizations like USAID, UN-WOMEN among others. In turn the government of Uganda has responded positively to this advocacy by making Economic reforms embracing gender equality through its Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development where programmes like the Uganda Women Empowerment Programme (UWEP) for women between 18-65 years, Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) for youth between 18-30years and SAGE for the elderly 65years and above.
Although these programmes among others are presently operating we are still facing the fact that some women are still living in poverty-She pointed out.
Therefore according to Article 33 of the constitution of Uganda which says “Government must provide opportunities to enhance women welfare and enable them reach full potential”,she asked Government to; Provide more funds to both women in business and in the labour force, The constraints put on accessing these monies be softened to enable easy access to funds, Strengthen information dissemination about government funds available for women and youth, Serious Entrepreneurship trainings for women in order to avoid misallocation of government funds.
The Agatha Nalubwama Ministries is a faith based Non-government organization based in Kayunga district with a mission to empower men and women with business skills, share the love of Jesus with the less privileged in the community and vision to extend the Kingdom of God on earth.
