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!