The Fellowship of Christian Unions Uganda (FOCUS) has expressed concern over the escalating cases of moral indiscipline among University students and pledged to strengthen counseling services to contain the problem.
The appeal was made during the organization’s annual general meeting held at its headquarters in Old Mulago Kawempe division.
The meeting was meant to review the past performance and seek new solutions to the outstanding challenges.
The members regretted the escalating cases of drug abuse, Alcoholism, abortion and suicides leading to loss of innocent lives saying they would intensify sensitization campaigns among their over 101 missions among Universities, Tertiary institutions and schools across the country.
‘We are going to strengthen our sensitization campaigns among the over 101mission educational institutions in the country to see that students are given the necessary counseling services to ensure they remain focused with their study work’ noted Edakasi Alfred Edalu Olale, the current president of FOCUS Uganda aand also member of Parliament for Kabiramaido County.
He highlighted that it was the mandate for FOCUS to work with educational institutions in ensuring that they reach out to the student communities with specially designed counseling messages.
The debate stemmed from a reaction by Mirembe Carol an educationalist who noted with concern that the cases of mental health, coupled with drug abuse, alcoholism, abortions and suicides among Universities student communities was on the increase according to research.
She suggested that FOCUS should position its teams of Christian Unions [CUs] scattered across the country in partnership with other medical caregivers among other stakeholders to disseminate well packaged health messages to the students.
Other delegates noted that students at campuses are at critical times of need for counseling and that FOCUS should be well positioned to take up this task given their proximity to the students.
The members appreciated the tremendous work being done by their president Hon Edakas and the secretary general Patrick Barasa especially the management of their listed projects which has yielded more financial resources resulting in a threefold growth respectively bringing the total network asset value of FOCUS standing at Uganda shillings 7billion.
The auditor’s report said the NGO posted positive revenue growth trends last financial year making it one of the most well managed organizations transparent in both its financial and administration management systems.
The members also discussed how they would plant their over 2,000 trees donated to FOCUS by Roofing’s Ltd as deliberate efforts of preserving them enlivenment.
They approved plans for redeveloping their Mulago based land by constructing a multipurpose commercial storied complex to boast their income basket
The secretary general Patrick Barasa said that the Fellowship of Christian Unions (FOCUS) Uganda is an evangelical interdenominational Christian organization committed to sharing the good news of Jesus Christ on university and college campuses in Uganda.
Barasa pointed out that their mandate is to nurture students to grow and become effective witnesses of Christ and leaders in the church and society, through Evangelism especially [communication of the gospel message through life and deed.
Discipleship through training in key spiritual disciplines to be able to live the way God wants us to live and Compassionate Empathy sharing and understanding the feelings of others to trigger positive social action.
