BY IRENE LAMUNU
Bishop Sabino Ochan Odooki is the Ordinary of Arua Diocese. He was born in Layibi village, Gulu Municipality, on August 8th , 1957. He attained his early education in Gulu Diocese and holds a Master’s Degree in Church Doctrine and a PhD. in Theology. Bishop Sabino worked as a Priest in Gulu Diocese in different capacities. At one time, he was the Rector of Alokolum Major Seminary and in 2006, he served as the Auxiliary Bishop of Gulu Diocese. In August 2009, the Shepherd of God was appointed as the Apostolic Administrator of Arua Diocese by Pope Benedict XVI. He was later confirmed as the Bishop of Arua Diocese and installed as Bishop on 18 December 2010 at Ediofe Cathedral, Arua. Three years into service as the Bishop of Arua, in 2013 past midnight, he received a phone call from the Parish Priest of Dzaipi, Fr. James Edema, alerting him of a crowd that had filled the compound of Dzaipi Parish Church. The people claimed to have come from South Sudan and one of them claimed he was a Bishop. They said they had run away from a war. Bishop Sabino advised the Priest to call the LCI chairman of the area. Fortunately, the chairman came early the next morning to assess the situation and lay plans for the people. When the Chairman got to the Church, he immediately called the district chairperson who informed Uganda police and United Nations High Commission for Refugees about the situation at the Church in Dzaipi. As soon as UNHCR arrived at the Church and saw the people, registration kicked off. Later, the people of Adjumani offered land to settle the Refugees. Days after, Bishop Sabino visited the refugees in Yumanzi and he was overwhelmed by the number of people who had crossed over from South Sudan. They had been offered land to settle and UNHCR was grading roads and building wells. He had also taken some food on his first visit.
Two days later, the Bishop related the situation of the refugees in Arua Diocese to some members of St Egidio community on request. He reported about the children who had no hope of returning to school. St Egidio community swung into action and assisted the refugees through Arua Diocese.
Bishop Sabino placed the education of the children at the forefront, he requested that a school be built for the children and a school was constructed to accommodate 1,000 children.
In 2016, another group of refugees entered Arua Diocese when the war in South Sudan escalated. This time, the number was bigger for Adjumani to accommodate. This gave way for other camps to be opened in Bidi Bidi, Yumbe district, Rhino Camp Bordering Arua, Terego, Madi Okolo and Nebbi diocese, then later Palorinya Camp in Obongi district. All these districts apart from a small portion of Rhino camp are in Arua Diocese and many other camps continued to be opened in the Diocese.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Uganda then, Archbishop Michael August Blume and Bishop Sabino toured the settlements and were overwhelmed by what they saw. That was the time the bishop knew that they needed more manpower to help; the presence of pastoral agents in the settlement camps was needed.
The Nuncio advised him to advocate for missionary groups to join Arua Diocese, which he did but the turn up was very low. He did not give up. The Apostolic Nuncio helped bring aboard the first congregation to work with refugees; this was the Missionary Servant of the word of God who settled in Londonga and were later joined by the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Cross. In 2018, when the Bishops of Uganda visited the Vatican, Bishop Sabino was lucky to get an audience with Pope Francis. They discussed the situation of the refugees in his diocese, in particular, his need for more religious/ Missionaries. The Holy Father promised to talk to the field Generals in Rome and ask them to send their congregations to the Diocese. Soon after his conversation with the Pope, the Bishop began receiving Missionary groups in the diocese. The diocese now has 14 missionary groups working with the refugees and the Bishop has also created a vicariate for refugees to handle their Spiritual and Pastoral needs; it also helps with some humanitarian aid.
The settlements have been structured into Parishes and all missionary congregations are assigned to different settlements.
They have also managed to create different projects for the refugees under Caritas Uganda, supported by other Stakeholders and Partners. Arua Diocese has started a program to help refugees, aligned to food security supported by different partners, among them; Caritas, UNHCR, and World Food program. Luckily, the refugees are being trained in Block farming.
Bishop Sabino added that the diocese has opened up a counselling department for the refugees, which many are actively taking part in. Education of the refugee children has not been left behind; many schools belonging to the diocese were handed over to assist the refugee children and a new school was built to accommodate 1000 children. “We are supporting the education of refugees, that is another contribution,” said the jovial Bishop.
The Bishop said he still needs more Pastoral agents in the Diocese because the number of refugees surpasses the number of Pastoral agents.
“There are times when I have to give the Sacrament of confirmation to over 800 candidates in the Refugee Settlement Camp and I had to ask the priests to help out because I alone could not manage,” concluded Bishop Sabino
