Vision

POD OF ECWA envisions improved and sustained the living conditions of Nigeria communities.

Mission

To promote improved and sustainable living conditions, through effective community mobilization and capacity building of the underprivileged communities in Nigeria.

Our Story

 

People Oriented Development of ECWA, POD of ECWA as it is been short formed and known by many, is one of the departments in ECWA that is church-based and non-governmental in nature and reaching communities with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by demonstrating God’s love partnership for sustainable development. POD motto is: “Helping people to help themselves”.

Prior to the formation of POD in 1989, ECWA Rural Development and ECWA Community Health Programme were ministering especially to the rural poor through the diffusion theory of innovation. By the mid-1980s a number of evaluations revealed that these two departments were not really meeting the numerous needs of these rural poor. this was due to the ineffectiveness of their strategy and the downturn of the Nigerian economy. These departments agreed to change their approach, which led to a series of re-orientation on community-based development. A decision to merge the Extension Section of ECWA Rural Development and the Preventive Health Care Unit of ECWA Community Health Programme was then taken to form POD in November 1989.

Local Church Empowerment For Community Transformation

Purpose/Key Objective of LCCT

The Church and Community Mobilization Process (CCMP) main purpose and the key objective is for “Empowering Church and Community (people) to wholistically transform their situation using God-given local resources.” The process is

1. For people to deeply analyze their situation and desire to transform it.
2. For people to take full responsibility to transform theri situation.
3. For people to join hands and actually transform their situation

Key Phases/Stages of LCCT

Stage 1 – Awakening the Church

Objective: The local church understands and applies its biblical mandate for wholistic ministry to its immediate community and thus truly becomes “light and salt” to the community.

Envisioning the Church Leadership

• Leaders community to the integral mission.
• Leaders selecting target sites.
• Leaders selecting facilitating teams

Church Awakening – Equipping the facilitators and the local church:

• Training the team on church awakening
  • Understanding the integral mission
  • Skills to conduct bible studies
  • Facilitation skills
• Conducting bible studies with the local church
• Facilitating the church to take action (critical one being to go out to build relationships with community).

Stage 2 – Church and Community Description

Objective: The church and community “read” into their reality and become motivated to want to change it.

Church and Community Description – Equipping the Team and the Church

Note: People are the best experts of their situation

• Train the team with skills to facilitate the church and community to describe the situation
• Facilitating the church to describe its situation
• Facilitating the community to describe its situation
• Facilitating the church and community to understand the general situation they are in (may decide to work together to address it).

Stage 3 – Information gathering

Objective: The church and community have accurate information that truly descrubes their situation to enable them to make informed decisions.

Information gathering – Equipping the team and the church

• Facilitate the church and community to determine the need for additional information.
• Facilitate the church and community to select teams of information gatherers.
• Facilitate teams to gather and compile the information gathered.
• Facilitate the church and community to valiudate the information

Stage 4 – Analysis

Objective: The church and community deeply understand their situation and are motivated positively and wholistically transform it.

Analysis – Equipping the team and the church

• Train the team with skills to facilitate the church and community to critically and deeply analyze their situation, and thus prepare to transform it.
• Facilitate church and community to analyze all the information compiled – get them to become “angry” about their situation so they will want to change it!
• Facilitate the church to make conclusions from analysis 0 thius will include indentifying the most feasible solutions to emerging issues.
• Facilitate the church and community to write the baseline from the analysis.

Stage 5 – Decision

Objective: The church and community make informed decisions that if implemented will cause transformation of their situation in a wholistic and God-honoring manner.

Decision – Equipping the team and the church

• Train the team with skills for decision making.
• Facilitate chuirch and community to reach informed decisions to transform ther own situation
  • Desire to change
  • Vision for the desired future (what change?)
  • Priorities (where to begin?)
  • Goals (what targets?)
  • Action plans (what to do?)
  • Indicators and
  • Monitoring systems (tracking change)
  • Structures to oversee implementation of the decisions
• Church and community take action to change their situation

Operational zones