A national caucus movement for compassion has been launched in Uganda as the obligation of Uganda Compassion Connectors, part of the Global Compassion Coalition to foster community connectedness as a means to tackling Uganda’s long time endemic problems including poverty, discrimination, and environmental degradation.
The movement’s founder, Peter Waiswa, argues that with many crises converging on Uganda’s population estimated 45.5million, there is an urgent need for heightened civic action. He is calling on people across the country to “write the story of Uganda’s future” by using their own skills and resources to create “communities of care, kindness, and compassion.”
The work follows the model established by the Global Compassion Coalition (GCC) – an international NGO based in the United States – that supports civic leaders to promote community connectedness and action as a way to create towns and cities that are oriented towards care and inclusion.
The GCC offers its members training in cultivating compassion and compassionate action in their communities and workplaces.
Uganda’s chapter launch is part of an entire week and featured music performances, marching, a recruitment drive, and engagement with partnering charities and religious organizations.
At the launch on Tuesday, Uganda’s Compassion Connectors agreed on a program of action that will include carrying out “good deeds” in their local communities, raising resources to support people with disabilities, as well as leading on a national campaign for climate awareness and action.
The latter has already seen events take place at Kyambogo and Muteesa Royal I Universities and has the ambition of establishing 14 hubs in universities across Uganda.
Peter Waiswa said: “I want to urge all Ugandans to join us in writing the future story of their communities, their people, and this country. We face many deep and historic burdens. We cannot expect these to be legislated away by our government or lifted from our shoulders by foreign powers. They are too complex and too urgent. The answer lies within us. By cultivating our compassion for one another we will find the courage to offer care, the strength to address suffering, and the wisdom and skills to overcome our differences and unite behind shared problems. Our launch in Kamuli is just the beginning of what I hope will be a nationwide call to compassion.”
Dr Mamphela Ramphele the Chairperson of the Global Compassion Coalition, said: “I know from my work in the Black Consciousness Movement and with ReimagineSA that community empowerment is the route to transformative social change. Very often the status quo is maintained because whole populations have not yet realised or utilised their own power. Peter’s work in Uganda is going to be instrumental in supporting his people to come together, see their common humanity, recognize their own strengths and resources, and use those to create new cultures and institutions – ones that support, care, and empower, ” he said.
The Global Compassion Coalition is an international movement of compassion academics, practitioners, and advocates working to spread and embed compassionate thinking, feeling, and action. It currently has over 125,000 members worldwide.
Dr Ramphele was co-founder of The Black Consciousness Movement with Steve Biko that reignited the struggle for freedom in South Africa.
She remains the co-founder of ReimagineSA, co-president of The Club of Rome and Chair at the Desmond Tutu IP Trust.
She has received numerous national and international awards acknowledging her scholarship and leading role in promoting the empowerment of women, youth and other oppressed people in South Africa and globally. Ramphele is the author of several books and publications on socio-economic issues in South Africa.
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