Classroom Block built in 2011 with funds from Germany and Ireland.
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St. Francis began to train Counsellors for the first time in 1997 with the aim of counselling individuals,
families and groups suffering from a variety of serious problems. The issues which emerged most frequently
were HIV/AIDs in the family, death and bereavement,, addiction to drugs or alcohol, violence in the homes
against men ,women and children, marital conflict, sexual dissatisfaction, school drop-out, extreme poverty
and trauma emerging from war, accidents or abandonment by society.
Our first classroom was built by families of our sponsored children.
Sponsored children, studying art, painted the inside of the hut/classroom.
This hut was built with funds from the One World Group in Marburg, introduced to us by Carolin Tillmann.
Counsellor Training Students being taught in the new hut.
Counselling in Uganda is not to be compared with the practise of Counselling in Europe or the USA.
Our theories are informed by the Theories of Liberation emerging from South America, with a strong
emphasis on the empowerment of the individual and of society. Psycosocial counselling takes in large
groups of up to as many as 50 participants.
A wide variety of trainings is available from a 12 week certificate programme or a 6 month Diploma to a 4 year
Bachelor of Science in Counselling Psychology.
We are happy that our popular Psychosocial training has taken us to many parts of Uganda as well as to Tanzania,
DRCongo, Ethiopia, Rwanda and perhaps in the future to South Sudan.
Great exercise walking to one of seven training venues in DRCongo.
Training groups of families in DRCongo, while we supervise trainees.
Training Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Muslims in Addis Ababa.
Tanzanians and Ugandans trained at St. Francis Training Institute.
Because of it’s effectiveness in facilitating groups to solve their own problems we have been invited into
schools, organisations, parishes and rural communities to give trainings lasting from a few days to more
than 6 weeks.
Our plan in the next few years is to work closely with schools and institutions serving needs of infants and children.
We began training in a hut built by the parents of our sponsored children. Today we are, with your assistance and funding, constructing a large building which will be used not only for training counsellors but for offering services to a wide variety of individuals and groups and to students and to students from neighbouring institutions.
All awards are granted by the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of Uganda Martyrs University
Dec 2014 all rooms at this stage.
Front view and left side view of the building.
Back and side view of new building.
Building completed in
2015.
Counsellor Training Students doing Group Art Therapy
Retreat with Primary School Teachers, Staff of St. Francis and other invited visitors, given by monks and nuns from Plum Village, France.
Rejoicing and dancing at the end of the Retreat.
Counselling students learning computer