Empowering people at the grassroots • Uganda Change Agent Association (UCAA) is an indigenous nationwide association of the grassroots men and women who have organized themselves into branches countrywide. We believe that if poor rural men and women and vulnerable communities become conscientised, i.e. develop critical awareness of themselves, attitudes, behaviors and the social, political and eco
nomic environment in which they operate, they are able to demand their rights, participate in decision-making processes, initiate income-generating enterprises and sustain themselves. This belief is at the base of UCAA’s self-reliant participatory development methodology which covers topics such as communication, poverty analysis, development theory, group organisation, group funds, bookkeeping, facilitation, gender issues, conscientisation, income generation, savings and credit, investment analysis and child advocacy. Training rural men and women allows them to become the catalysts of change in their communities. In 1992, 75 Ugandan women and men who had been trained as Change Agents by Quaker Service Norway founded Uganda Change Agent Association to promote the methodology throughout the country. To date, UCAA has a membership of over 4,000 trained Change Agents who have organized themselves into 230 branches throughout Uganda. These Change Agents are working voluntarily with over 5,000 self-help development groups with a membership of over 69,000 rural men and women.
