From humble beginnings,
Obed has become a champion of Uganda’s poor, empowering thousands of rural
communities.
He was part of the CSO
side meetings in New York that helped shape the UN Global Goals in 2015,
attends international conferences with famous leaders such as Bill Gates and has
been honoured with countless awards and accolades.
And he’s just
beginning! Obed’s next ambitious project is building a multi-storey training
centre teaching dynamic community development strategies to key change agents
throughout east and southern Africa.
This is his story.
The Courage To Serve
the Poor
Kabanda Obed grew up as one of 11 children in
a struggling peasant farming family in Kasese District in Western Uganda and
knows the gnawing feeling of being constantly hungry.
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| Obed with some of his brothers and sisters |
As an enthusiastic graduate in Community Development and
Leadership, after struggling for years to pay his way through university, he
faced a moral dilemma: should he pursue a lucrative career in the city of
Kampala or devote himself to grassroots action serving impoverished
communities?
He was 26, the year was 2003, and the horrendous social
problems of his cherished country were overwhelming.
“We had just come out of the
Allied Democratic
Forces-ADF War, which impacted Uganda’s western
border where I lived. We had an influx of refugees returning to their homes
from the camps, the HIV/AIDS rate was a staggering 13 per cent and we had a
broken health care system. Many of the health workers in remote areas had left,
running for their lives. We had a high number of orphans and vulnerable
children who ended up on the streets".
“Amidst all this chaos, women were the ones earning money
because the men were in hiding in fear of being abducted by the rebel forces.
Given our African patriarchal society, husbands were feeling emasculated to
have their wives’ be the providers and domestic violence erupted.
“For me as an idealistic graduate returning home, excited by
theories of development and how to cause social change, I was confused to find
all this suffering.
So I had two voices in my head; one saying: ‘Go get a job in
the city’ and the other voice saying: ‘You can not ignore this tragic
situation. You have to do something.’
This was a turning point for Obed. He remembers: “I did a
lot of soul searching and was torn between the desire for a prestigious career
and the desire to make a contribution. I had grown from a humble background
seeing people suffer in poverty. I was fortunate to even make it to university
and felt I wanted to give back to my community. And I had a lot of empathy for
the children and vulnerable women and men trapped in despair, which in the end was
stronger than my personal ambition.
“I was the first graduate in my family and everyone was
expecting me to get a job and start supporting my siblings. It was hard to go
against the family.”
Grassroots Action
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| Obed in the field |
Obed was ready to take immediate action in response to the
emergencies that surrounded him. He founded Action For Community Development,
with the acronym, ACODEV.
A natural organiser and networker, he rallied a group of
supporters comprising medical, educational, government and charity experts.
“I brought these people together under a tree – where all
the best meetings are held – as we didn’t have money to even hire a room. We
discussed the profound social problems and they gave me their support and
encouragement. We formed a board with a plan to work in three districts initially,
where the problems were rife.
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| Obed leading a community meeting |
"I went around to meet the district leaders and community members to gather information and stories. But then, the challenge became: ‘How do I enter the communities?’ I didn’t have funding to pay for venues so I held meetings in schools and churches that did not require any cost.
“I discovered that a lot of the social problems were
interlinked and
realised that domestic violence was at the centre of the
disruption of home life, health, education and economic
livelihood. I started promoting safe, healthy families with support from the
established board and volunteers.”
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| Obed's parents celebrating their anniversary with family |
“My parents had a Christian foundation and were living as
examples to us but there would be moments that we would observe as children
where they needed more forgiveness, coexistence and better parenting. But I
witnessed domestic violence in the neighbourhood fuelled by alcoholism and
polygamous practices that saw many marriages breaking and suffering of
children. All this shaped my thinking and ambition to do something about the
vice of domestic violence.”
Obed managed to break the silence and get people talking
about the hidden problems in their families. And once the discussion started it
was unstoppable!
Visiting hundreds of churches and schools, the workload
became overwhelming so Obed recruited volunteers to help facilitate meetings.
Risking Disapproval
and Failure to Follow His Dreams
“Following African custom, my parents had given me a small
plot of land to farm but I decided to sell it to pay for rent of an office in
Kasese and
buy basic furniture. This was very radical and risky. I wasn’t sure if ACODEV
would succeed. It took faith and hope.
“I was dreaming big, believing we could make a difference
and drawing on courage and willpower to keep going. It was necessary to have an
office to be taken seriously in the community. We started training volunteers
in communication skills.
“I am thankful to the first board members who continued to
make contributions to have the office running but it was so difficult. One time
the landlord chased us out of his house for failing to pay rent after almost a
year of paying rent and no funding was coming through. And I had to shift the
office to my small house until we received a first grant a year later and we rented
an office once again.
“I knew I had to network and build partnerships. So I approached
the Association for Human Rights Organisation- AHURIO. They were
shocked when I said we had no funding! And offered space for training
volunteers in gathering domestic violence information and research skills.
“This is when we attracted our first donor, KIOS, a Finnish
NGO Foundation for Human Rights, who were impressed by our grassroots outreach
and gave us a €7000 grant to expand our work into radio shows, print media,
drama and musical performances to inspire communities with the message of Safe,
Healthy Families.”
We raised robust awareness raising including a widespread
radio campaign and drama series on domestic violence and its relationship with
other development sectors, established mediation services at DV clinics to help
couples overcome domestic violence and child abuse.
KIOS renewed their funding and more funding followed from other
charities impressed by ACODEV’s effective strategies and later expanded its
work to include HIV and AIDS prevention and mitigation activities, and
reproductive health promotion.
Obed narrates how difficult it is to raise and attract a
first grant and the challenge of building trust by donors by grassroots
organisations who realistically have great ambitions but with limited capacity
at the start and the many requirements to meet granting conditions. But he stresses
how important it is to have seed grants to such start-up grassroots
organisations to help stand with them in building their systems to grow into
strong organisations like ACODEV is now.
These days Obed’s trains other start-up charities in how to
attract funding.
Relocating to Kampala
In 2009 Obed was asked to contribute to the drafting process
of the government legislation to recognise domestic violence as a crime and joined
a national board committee of Uganda Network of AIDS Organisations - UNASO,
which took him to Kampala twice a week.
ACODEV was also later on contracted to work with UNICEF, the
Ministry of Gender and the Human Rights Commission to promote the Human Rights
Based Approach to Programming - HRBAP models to integrate human rights
including women’s and children’s rights into development programmes and
District Development Plans.
Suddenly ACODEV had gone national and needed premises in the
capital.
By this stage, Obed, was married to his wife Louise, who
worked for Compassion International, based in Kasese under South Rwenzori Diocese,
and they had a baby son.
On top of all the demands, Obed was also studying for his
Masters Degree and still not making a salary. He once again took a giant leap
of faith and moved to Kampala on his own to establish an office.
“Louise and I had to take a hard decision. I’ve been blessed
to have a very supportive, loving, understanding and courageous wife to stand
with me and share my vision. And we were depending on her salary, which I’m
grateful for.”
The sacrifice paid off because ACODEV grew rapidly working
from a small rented office in Kampala city. And in 2011 with contributions from
Board members ACODEV bought office land in Kampala and later on starting
construction of an office and in 2013 a donor funded the remaining part of the
building of spacious office premises that ACODEV enjoys now in Kampala.
And now, in 2017 ACODEV has nine substantial grants
supporting far-reaching programmes in over 20 urban and rural districts
throughout Uganda run by a dedicated team of 60 development specialists
and community workers. Obed shakes his head in disbelief at how his
organisation has grown from a one-man band to a vibrant staff of 60 in the span
of just 14 years!
How Communities
Develop
Obed and his team designed an integrated programme that
pulled together issues of health and human rights such as the right to safety
and protection, food,water and sanitation, , healthcare,
education and livelihood.
“We train young people in vocational skills for improving
their employment and economic livelihoods, and train mothers in birth
preparedness, early childhood development, and offer pre and post
natal care and support. We educate parents about child abuse and domestic
violence and family planning and avoiding HIV/AIDS. We reach women and children
and men –we include everyone.
“We work closely with communities to discover their
priorities and start with their most desperate needs,” explains Obed.
ACODEV’s systematic approach comprises five specific steps:
research and learning; awareness-raising; systems strengthening that includes capacity-building
for different structures so that communities can demand services; identifying
gaps and filling them through advocacy and activism and finally partnership and
collaboration with stakeholders.
Obed is adamant that raising awareness of social problems is
not enough. He believes it’s essential to build communities’ capacity to solve
problems through accessing social services and resources.
Over 14 years ACODEV has reached close to one million people
in thousands of communities throughout Uganda, empowering them to overcome
their problems and meet their basic needs themselves, breaking free from
dependency and hand-outs.
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| Obed with some of the dedicated ACODEV team |
Healing the Shame of
Obstetric Fistula
Obed is proud of the team’s work in the promotion of integrated
health, child protection and early childhood services, the uptake of family
planning and the reduction in domestic violence and the rise in happy, safe
homes.
And he has been deeply touched by witnessing the
transformation of lives.
He recalls cases of women suffering from obstetric fistula,
caused by the tearing of the vaginal wall during childbirth, which leaves a
woman leaking urine and faeces and ostracised in shame and disgrace.
“The look of joy on the face of a woman who has undergone
surgery to repair a fistula is radiant. It inspired me to do my research for my
Public Health Masters on the subject and I interviewed over 50 mothers who had
sustained fistula. Talking to them I came to understand that the damage to the
women was caused through a combination of early marriage of immature girls and
malnutrition meaning the birth canal was not adequate enough for the babies but
also the delays in labour due to delays at home for lack of making timely
decisions, delays on the way to health centres due to poor roads, and delays in
the health facility as a result of either lack of personal or necessary
infrastructure to support timely birth were apparent .”
“It was hugely rewarding to see the transformation of these
women who had lived with the devastating condition for many years believing
they were ‘bewitched’ and seeing how the reparative surgery restored their
health and dignity was so fulfilling.”
Recognition For A
High Achiever
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| Obed and wife Louise and their four children |
Obed, now the father of four children and just making 40,
has achieved so much at a young age.
His achievements have been recognised by prestigious awards.
In February 2013, Obed was awarded the "Safe Motherhood
Change Agent of the Year" by Save The Mothers International Canada.
In July 2015 Obed won the “Angel for Africa Award” for his
remarkable contribution to social change, which attracted widespread publicity
In November 2016, he also won an award for being one of “40
men under 40” in Uganda who achieved great accomplishments under the age of 40.
In November 2016 Obed was recognised for
the "Global Leadership Fellowship Award" The Fellowship, awarded to accomplished leaders, is managed
by ILEAP Seattle Washington State and includes a paid five weeks training on
Leadership to strengthen the leadership capacity to manage social change and
growth;
http://ileap.org/archives/all-portfolio-list/obed-kabanda-uganda
And in September 2015 he joined world leaders in New York in
brainstorming the UN Global Goals for Sustainable
Development,
which form the inspiring plan for social change by the year 2030.
A respected authority on community development, Obed is
inundated with invitations to international events. In October 2017, he
attended the Grand Challenges Conference in Washington DC with
legendary philanthropist, Bill Gates as the keynote speaker.
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| The building has a long way to go but Obed has unshakeable faith |
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| Obed chats with a labourer on site |
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| Obed on the top floor of the building in Oct 2017 |
Build
it and They Will Come
And yet his most daring project is ahead of him. He has a grand
vision to build an impressive, multi-storey Leadership Training Centre to offer
innovative courses in community development to charities and NGOs throughout
east and southern Africa and also philanthropy awareness to donors on
grassroots models and operations and how to effectively work with frontline
grassroots
The spectacular building,set in beautiful farmlands on the
fringe of Kampala,is halfway complete and Obed is seeking visionary donors to
finish the building, which will include training rooms, IT rooms, 44 rooms of accommodation
and modern kitchen facilities for full catering.
“I have a vision to see an Africa where development is being
championed by grassroots organisations that are people-driven with
local solutions to transform lives within their communities.
“Some International NGOs often come to Africa and when they
are not in touch with the realities on the ground they often prescribe
solutions, which turn out to be a waste of resources when their projects do not
produce the desired social change because they don't involve the communities
they are trying to help.
“For us to achieve the UN sustainable development goals, we
need grassroots organisations to take the lead.”
He aims to start offering courses next year in 2018 and is
actively seeking a range of partners to share the vision by contributing to a
Grassroots Forward Fund http://www.grassrootsforwardfund.org
“This Leadership Centre will train grassroots leaders,
social change champions, and high calibre, intelligent leaders capable of
taking on the challenge of sustainable social change.”
Already Obed sees the Leadership Centre as his legacy that
will impact the 21st century bringing much-needed community
development through raising accountable leaders with the moral fabric to
support the suffering humanity of Africa.
Why? Because he knows in his heart that humanity matters and
Africa matters. And he knows grassroots leadership will be the catalyst for
social change.
