By Andrew Cohen Amvesi
ARUA
The Madi and West Nile Diocese is expecting to raise one billion Ugandan shillings during the upcoming thanks giving ceremony to mark the seventh anniversary of Rt. Rev. Charles Collins Andaku’s service as the Bishop of the Diocese.
The money is part of the effort being made by the Bishop and Christians to raise funds for the construction and completion of the Diocesan Golden Jubilee office block at the Diocesan Headquarters in Mvara, Arua Central Division of Arua City.
This was revealed by Richard Anguyo, the chairperson of the organizing committee for the thanks-giving and the mega fundraising during a press conference held at the Diocesan Headquarters on Thursday April 4, 2024.
“My dear brothers and sisters, allow me inform you that on Sunday April 7, 2024, our beloved Bishop Rt. Rev. Charles Collins Andaku will be giving thanks to God for guiding and seeing him through in the past seven years as the Chief Shepherd of the Diocese and a mega fundraising drive towards the construction of the Golden Jubilee office block,” Anguyo said.
“We target to receive about 2000 guests, God willingly, and on behalf of the organizing committee, I humbly invite and appeal to fellow Christians of the Diocese, friends from the other religious denominations, God loving people and ladies and gentlemen of all walks of life to join our beloved Bishop in giving thanks to God and extend support to the construction of the Golden Jubilee office block which is in its second skeleton level of construction,” Anguyo appealed, adding that our target is to raise a minimum of one billion Ugandan shillings by the grace of God.
He, however, noted that from the time of launching the mega fundraising drive for the upcoming event, they have so far managed to receive total cash of shs66,002,131 and a pledge of shs19,260,000, all amounting to shs85,262,131 and thus looking forward to hitting the shs1bn target on Sunday.
According to Eng. William Tiyo Odaa, the project manager for the construction of the Diocesan Golden Jubilee office block, the overall project cost estimated which the Diocese will be looking for is shs8 billion.
“If you look at the breakdown from the preliminaries, upper, ground floor, first floor, second floor, third, and fourth floor, the roof external works, mechanical and electrical works, all these totals to shs6 billion. Then you factor the contingencies, you factor the VAT which is paid to the government, it now brings the grand total cost of the project to Shs7,841,935,992,” Tiyo explained.
But he said because of the challenges of funding, they decided to adopt a piece-mill execution of the contract.
“Along the way, we decided to adopt a skeleton. This skeleton is in such a way that we decided to remove all the walls, plastering, finishes, doors and windows and we decided to first come up with a skeleton. The reason we adopted this are; one, funding challenges; we are not having all the fundings at ago, then two, in the terms of engineering and structural engineering, it is good to see how independent this building is standing structurally because if you continue constructing and building walls, you may think that the structure is independent while it is relying on the walls. So, at one moment if something happens to the walls, the whole building will come down. So, it is important to see how independent this structure can stand,” Tiyo emphasized.
In his remarks, Bishop Andaku said this thanks giving anniversary is basically to thank the Almighty God for His goodness, for His love and mercies – for He has healed him from day one to date, for the protection and guidance, for the grace and miracles He has done.
“I want to thank God for the far He has brought us, you can see God did a glory. Secondly, this thanks giving is to worship God for who He is; being with us and being for us in all these seven years in our service and using this opportunity also to give offerings and gifts or to raise funds towards the construction of the Golden Jubilee office block,” Andaku said.
“We want to use this platform to appeal to God’s people and well-wishers to contribute willingly, sacrificially and cheerfully – equally, generosity towards this project to the glory of God and to fulfill the Diocesan strategic plan 2024 to 2028. Remember the hand that gives, is more blessed than the hand that receives,” Bishop Andaku remarked.
The event will on Sunday start with Church service to be held at Arua Core PTC playground in Mvara starting from 10:00am to 2:00pm with the main preacher being the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Nebbi, Rt. Rev. Pons Awinjo Ozele.
Meanwhile Rt. Hon. Annet Anita Among, the Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda is expected to be the Guest of Honour of the day.
