Dedication day for Cornerstone Schools

 Master Kenneth, headmaster.

 Headmistress of Ekitangala Pri.Sch.

Last weekend, Cornerstone Schools was able to have a special time together.  Dedication day is a time when all of the students who are preparing to take state exams have a time of prayer together. It’s a culture that has for long been cultivated within the Cornerstone Schools. Three schools participated in this year’s dedication day. Cornerstone Leadership Academy Boys, Ekitangala Transformation High School and Ekitangala Primary school.

 Candidates from Cornerstone Boys Sch.

 It was a massive audience!

Early on Saturday 26^th , October: Cornerstone Schools took time to create a space for prayer together.  This year, Cornerstone Veritas greatly participated in the organization of the event. A team led by Gabriel from Emmaus Center (a Catholic retreat center whom we often partner with) presided over the whole function.  There was music, dancing, times of prayer, and a lot of fellowship together.

 Candidates frm Ekitangala Pri and Sec. Sch.

This was a great time of expressing different forms of faith, together.  The students are encouraged and strengthened through this time together as they prepare to do their national exams. Prayers are lifted by all  for knowledge, wisdom, hope and success in these exams. 

Now that dedication is done, all is left for the candidates is do their final studying and to get enough rest to be ready for the tests.

The Dedication Day was a great success. The Cornerstone Veritas team, as well as others invited to serve along side, did a great job, and saw their hard work pay off.  It was wonderful to see so many people mobilized to come out and encourage the students who are about to take a major life step.  

 Madam Gertrude, one of the teachers.

 Edmond Elasu and organizing team

Cornerstone Veritas Internship Graduation

A Family of Friends!

Hooray, hooray to all our interns of 2013!. We came a long way right from the beginning to this year to this month (August). Cornerstone Veritas appreciates all the time, energies and the contributions that they made towards the advancement and success of our internship program. This was the second group of Cornerstone Veritas to have graduate successfully, with the first graduating in 2012. It is our pleasure to note that this year was even better. We had many other sub programs added to our internship program.

 Lawrence, Edmond and Kizito.

Our intern graduation successfully took place on Saturday, August 3^rd     at K.K beach, a suburb south East of Kampala. It was great seeing  Alfred Elalu Edakasi the C.V patron together with Michael Eluku join us for the event.

The day was so exciting. We played a number of games as well as went on a boat ride on Lake Victoria. It was great fun!

Jovia receives her envelope from Alfred

 A bboat ride into Lake victoria Islands

 Kizito doing his thing...

Thanks to Noelle,and  Frank, among others who worked so tirelessly and came up with new additions to our internship program. We also appreciate all those who support our work in the different ways, be it financially, morally or spiritual support.

Background of this internship program:

This program lasts for 8 months, from January to August of every internship year. Participants are students who have graduated from the Cornerstone Leadership academies (Cornerstone Leadership Academy boys, Cornerstone Leadership Academy girls and Ekitangala Transformation High school)

Cissy and Perepetua during a game.

 We enjoyed a boat ride too.

A range of skills are imparted to these young people including improved reading, writing, time management, communication, teaching, financial management/accountability, networking computer and emailing skills. Personal discovery and exploration of individual skills and talents and abilities are some of the programs the interns also learned.

This year’s Graduation experience:

 Interns pause for a photo with Alfred

This year’s graduation was wonderful. With Kizito in the group, fun was assured. It is interesting how he easily drove the rest of the group into hearty laughter. He easily put smiles on everybody’s face with his comic stunts. Alfred Edakasi joined as later in the afternoon alongside Michael Eluku.

We also played many games such as beach volleyball, football, and bucket filling. Swimming and a boat ride spiced up the day.

 Jovia, Frank and Perepetua

 Patricia leads the rest in a photo shoot

Alfred (the C.V patron) had a session through which he encouraged team spirit and continuous application of the principles, skills and values the interns learnt during internship. He reminds us the life is always an internship experience in the we are always learning more and more as time passes by.

 Alfred hands an envelop to Kizito (Intern)

Not to forget Noelle:

Lots of appreciation to Noelle from wherever you are! Her absence in this year’s graduation didn’t go unnoticed. She walked with us almost all the internship journey only to leave 2 months to its end. Never the less, we appreciate her for all the hard work and contribution that she was able to extend towards the success of this year’s internship program.We missed you Noelle Gornik !

 Swimming wasn't missed at all.

 Patricia, Perepetua and Jovia.

Intern Community Engagement Projects

Intern Community Engagement Projects

 Here we are again, greetings from Cornerstone Veritas! With a few days left for our interns to graduate, we would like to give you a glimpse of what our community engagement projects were like.

Cornerstone Veritas Community Engagement Projects are projects are aimed at giving our interns an opportunity to practically engage their local communities and empower them to use the leadership skills they have gained throughout their schooling and time in their internship. The process of carrying out the community engagement project is what is more important. When carrying out these projects, our interns target a specific age group in the community, and use these projects as a platform of engaging this population
.

This year, the Interns chose varied projects ranging from Maize farming, Market gardening (Cabbages), debating and Foot ball tournaments.  All of these projects were started as a requirement of their Cornerstone Veritas Internship program.  Below are details of what the projects are like:

Maze growing in the garden!

Maize farming project  
[Interns Kirabo Jovia and Katusabe  Perpetua]

 Perpetua & Jovia

Jovia and Perpetua chose to engage the desperate orphans in their area [Ekitangala Ranch] through Farming. From the time of planting, the group of orphans meet regularly with Jovia and Perpetua to weed and care for the plants.
   During these meetings, the orphans taught practical gardening skills as well as the principles of leadership. Jovia and Perpetua taught them principles sucha as commitment to excellence, success requires hard work, and resourcefulness.
   After harvest, part of the money earned will be divided among the orphans to provide some of their needs such as books, pens, sets pencils among others. The orphans really feel part of the project in the whole process.  Jovia and Perpetua have successfully met a need they saw in their community through hard work, team work, and resourcefulness!  

Market (Cabbage) Gardening             [Intern Kizito Jude Thaddeus]

 Kizito

This project has been the most successful. It is amazing that Kizito managed to connect with and empower five idle, notorious drug addicts in his neighborhood. All of them were disowned by their relatives and were just wondering about the village. Kizito has no brother or relatives to stays with, so he decided to invite the orphans to occupy one of the rooms in his small house. Every day they have time to work, pray and relax together. As a result, Kizito has been able to transform these Orphans both morally and spiritually to people now accepted and admired in the village. Even when Kizito leaves for university next month, his cabbage garden will continue with the help of these orphans.

The Debating Tournament                   [Intern Musinguzi Lawrence]  

 Lawrence

Lawrence has been doing his internship with C.V as well as mentoring at Cornerstone Leadership Academy for Boys at the Ekitanggela Ranch.  He wished to do an engagement project in his local village in Katooke. However, due to the distance, he finally decided to organize a debate tournament between the care groups at CLA. The finals are yet to be organized later next month. Right now inter group debates are still going on. During this program, Lawrence is taking the young men through learning how to debate, focusing on improving their English, and helping them to learn to put together their thoughts properly.  

A Popcorn making business                    [Intern Nadongo Cissy]

 Cissy

Cissy has been working in a shop over the last 8 months.  She noticed that there was a market for popcorn among the local school children.  After considering this, she decided to start a popcorn making business as her community engagement project!  Cissy is still running her popcorn making business. She has gathered a group of children in her neighborhood with who she teached the precepts of Jesus and other important life lessons. She uses a portion of her profits to support that group as well as to buy some scholastic materials for the school children.

  

Football Tournament                             [Intern Odeke Emmanuel]

 Emma

Emma decided to do something unique for his project, a 3 day football tournament! During the three days of football and fun, the children from the different teams were also taken through some of the 10 principles of leadership and taught other basic life lessons!
   They love it.  Most of these children had been sneaking to watch movies in Cinema halls, they now they go to play football as teams in the northern suburbs of Soroti [Camp Swahili]. These teams will continue with the spirit of regularly meeting together and share inform of fellowships. It’s his prayer that this trend continues.

We are proud of the hard work and dedication of all of our interns!  We are incredibly pleased to see them putting into practice all of the skills they have learned.  Each of them truly have a heart for service of the least fortunate in their communities, and have done their best to engage and make a difference!

Please consider leaving a comment of encouragement for these fantastic young people!

Farewell Noelle....We will miss you.

Hello every one. How are you all? I hope this edition finds you well. We the C.V family, it was a moment of mixed feelings. A time when we celebrate Noelle’s time in Africa but also on the other side, feeling sad because we are going to miss her.

It is about 2 years from the time Noelle alongside Javis co founded Cornerstone Veritas. We would like to thank Noelle for the time she spent in Uganda, especially to see C.V get even better. Her efforts have not been in vain for sure.

 She already had a family...we will miss you Mama.

 Benard,Yololim, Edmond,Carol, Patricia and Bosco..we love you,

I should say that several individuals and organizations have been blessed by Noelle’s work in Africa. After learning our Ten Principles of Leadership course, C.V always got positive feedback. For example in Masaka, she trained a community (Holy Trinity Community) that deals in crafts and they reported a drastic increase in their profits.

All most all the Cornerstone Veritas staff and interns have been mentored by Noelle. She has seen two groups of interns go through internship with C.V. What she mainly did is make the interns practice the Ten Principles of Leadership they learned while at high school. This has always been a good activity to keep the students in vacation busy as they wait to join university.

She has been not only a mother but also a mentor to the C.V interns. She easily identifies when someone has something bothering them and takes time to find out. She has been a source of encouragement and help to C.V interns. 

 The second lot of Interns 2013

 Edmond and Frank already miss you.

We had an open house time together at her apartment on 31^st May. Friends, work mates and interns from Cornerstone Development and others around Kampala visited her to wish her a safe journey. It was a moment of fun. We played games, cracked jokes and enjoyed lots of food.

As much as Noelle left Uganda and Africa in general, the seeds of societal transformation that she planted will never die. Various communities and groups have adopted some of the leadership material that we teach into their curriculum. A number of people have also been trained as teachers and can therefore teach others with supervision and coordination of Cornerstone Veritas. These groups are scattered all over the country such as: Jinja and Emmaus Soroti in Eastern Uganda, Masaka in the west, Arua and Gulu in the North, Kampala and Luwero in central Uganda.

 The First borne lot.....Just saying Good bye Noelle.

Once again…we wish her the best in the next step she is taking in life. May all your dreams come true Noelle. We will miss you as the C.V family. Blessings.

Ten Principles of Leadership at Missionaries of Africa

Time for small groups

Edmond..and Kenneth.

Hello everyone. Here we come again. Greetings from Cornerstone Veritas as a whole. We are excited to inform you that C.V is really doing great. C.V once again had the opportunity to run the Ten Principles of Leadership short course for the third time at Missionaries of Africa, a Catholic order in Uganda and the rest of Africa.

Nicholas...one of the students.

They are located in Nsambya, a suburb with in Kampala. It is a vocation Centre for priest hood aspirants undergoing discernment (a process of discovering their vocation or call to priesthood).  Eight students attended together with their teacher. The participants were excited to attend this course.                           Most of them initially thought it is a political- oriented course, but learned that it is a character based course. It covers aspects of human as well as community development. The areas in human life tackled are mainly spiritually, physically and economically.

The participants appreciated C.V being able to teach them. Something interesting is that the participants come from different parts of the country. Throughout the course they learned how  important it is to avoid segregation and all kinds of regional, tribal and cultural differences. 

The participants also identified specific principles that they struggle with in their life, and at the end of the course wrote action steps to improve on the specific principles. Christ centered life, Personal integrity and success requires hard work were among the principles that most of the participants.

We had time to play games, fellowship and socialize with the students and priests there. One evening Frank became the top scorer, he scored in their own net. On the fun night, we also played various games. It was one of the funniest moments. We laughed our lungs out; we shed tears of joy out of joy. Thanks to Frank for being so funny.

Friday was the last as well as the graduation day. Noelle led this session and gave every participant a candle, gift, and words of encouragement, including Fr. Henry, who was the host of the event.  He concluding with final remarks that include: appreciation to C.V and congratulated his students for finishing and graduating at the end of it all.

Fr. Henry and John Paul doing a skit

Emmaus Short Course!

Last month we had another chance again to facilitate the 5-day short course at Emmaus centre Luwero, Uganda. This is one of the places that everyone on the team was looking forward to and for sure, it was another special time. This course was given to equip the Discipleship Training School students with the leadership skills.

The group of the participants and facilitators (minus Noelle).

We were a team of four facilitators and these included the two interns; Lawrence and Jovia  It was a blessing having new, young and good teachers with us.  These two were partly facilitators because they had gone through the Training Of Trainers (TOT) and at the same time, they were participants since they were attending this version of the short course for the first time,

Jovia, one of the interns facilitating.

Lawrence also facilitating.

Jovia  as a student with a fellow student

We had a group of 18 students; dedicated ladies and gentlemen from the different parts of Uganda, Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We were also lucky to have among the students, two of their teachers attending fully the course. The individuals’ appreciation of the content of the course could not go unnoticed. The willingness to learn and the participation of the group were remarkable.

The students acting out the skits.

At the end of the course, we had a colorful graduation ceremony. The students were given among other things, a lit candle to symbolize that they are the light of the world and they should shine bright to their communities.

The joyous students after graduation.

The course challenged and empowered all of the participants with new skills to make them better leaders and enable them to development themselves and their societies.  The participants were engaged and enjoyed learning these new things.  This group will also be doing the 10 Principles expanded, the activity based program which helps put what they learned into practice!  We'll update you in a few months on how they are doing!