“The Agents of Change program is actually a God-sent initiative by the Anglican Alliance,” says Fr John Madigobuna from St Francis Parish, Koki, Papua New Guinea.

Part of ABM’s Anglicans In Development (AID)’s ongoing support of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea (ACPNG) is to encourage the church’s participation in the Agents of Change course. This is an online course developed by the UK Open University for the Anglican Alliance. It provides practical project management skills designed to tackle poverty and bring about transformation in local communities all over the Anglican Communion.

ACPNG General Secretary, Mr Dennis Kabekabe, facilitates the course in PNG. Most of the modules are by distance learning, but Mr Kabekabe provides one face to face workshop per course.

The course equips participants with skills and knowledge needed to set up a development project in their local community.

Fifty people from ACPNG have completed the course in the five years it has been operating.

In July, Mr Kabekabe conducted a Training of Trainers workshop for nine participants, including Fr John, to equip additional Facilitators to roll-out the Agents of Change course within the five Dioceses of the church.

Father John concludes: “After completing the… course, I marketed the Agents of Change program in the parish I currently serve and enlisted five keen and interested participants who are currently undergoing the course… Having had the diocese trained up, the hope is that each parish or community initiates, and has a coordinated team effort, to bring in projects that they can benefit from in a humanitarian and developmental way, thus creating a vibrant diocese economically, socially, educationally and spiritually.”

Anglicans in Development wishes Fr John and the other participants well as they seek to implement what they have learnt in their communities and parishes. We also thank the Anglican Alliance for offering the course, and our supporters for their generous contributions to this project.