As noted by some of our brothers/sisters, change has to come from ones own mind, heart, spirit, environment, attitudes & habits. change is a difficult thing for a lot of people. People who have big vision and purpose in life are likely going to change faster than people who have no vision/purpose. The environment in which we live can force us to change. Before we can change, we need to fully understand the reason(s) for wanting change to happen. Some reasons not making people to change are imposed by physical limitations, lack of resources, culture and political environment.
*Collapse of physical infrastructure in the 1970-1980* People from West Nile region have never recovered fully from the collapse of Army Labour Force and Collapse of Cotton Industry. If you grew up in the 1970's, your school fees was likely paid by someone who was in the army, police force or prisons. The labour market drastically changed after the war from 1978-1986. This change has significant impact on many families. Joining the forces today has higher requirement standards than in the 1970s. Therefore, we have fewer people in this income bracket compared to 1960s-1970s. West Nile region produced one the best qualities of cotton between 1960 to mid 1970. The cotton grown in the Nile valley in the region was comparable to cotton grown in Sudan and Egypt. The collapse of this industry in the hands of mismanagement by the Cooperative Society was a death blow to our farmers. They hardly have any choices apart from Tobacco and food crops. If we can save our farmers, we need to make NAADS program work in this region. Revive Cotton Industry in the Nile Valley. Train farmers to shift from subsistence farming to commercial farms even if they have small farms. There is so much potential for West Nile region to produce: Citrus Fruits, Banana, Grapes, Barley for the breweries and food crops. I think if our brothers and sisters leading the NAADS program should put emphasis on educating and training farmers. The human mind has tendency to remember bad things for longer time than good things that happen. Many farmers have not forgotten their suffering in the hands of the cooperative societies. It will take a lot of education to unwind their brains. I think if we have to bring serious change to this region, we need to work with our elected representatives to have an economic development strategy to rebuild the cotton industry, encourage production of citrus fruits, restocking livestock and diversify the economy in this region. Are we willing and ready to lead for a better future for all? * Poverty is a serious handicap* Majority of people in West Nile are living below the national poverty line. If the majority of the population is struggling to find enough food to eat, what is the chance that they have time to look at other opportunities for producing more income? Basic survival becomes their preoccupation. Until the majority of the population gets beyond this basic survival level, most people are stuck in the old system of doing things. Empowering people to lto go beyond subsistence agriculture, starting and running small businesses is the best way to save this region. With the current very low purchasing power, what industry can survive well in this region even if we had abundant electricity? *Poor Quality of Education* If you compare the performance in our schools today with performance in our schools in 1970s/1980s, most of us will agree that we have serious problems in our hands to address. Is the problem that the students we have today do not care about their own education? Does the problem lie in hands of teachers and school administration or parents do not care? Increasingly the numbers of students from West Nile region going to universities is becoming fewer every year. Yet, not many parents from this region can afford private university education. This is a serious threat to our own communities that can only be solved by involving all the stakeholders to understand the degree of the problem and come up with corrective action plans to mitigate the risks. Are we ready or serious about changing? *TEAM WORK* For us to bring substantive change to this region, we the educated sons and daughters need to continue building the spirit of team work, challenge ourselves that we can go beyond where some of our elders left. We are better educated than most of our parents. If we live change in the hands of parents some who cannot read or write, it will take another century fo that change to come. Why is that other people can work well in a team despite their individual differences? What can each one of us change? JJavudria
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