Solome (left) drumming during the Assembly of Provincials in Namugongo, Uganda

Solome Najjuka rscj teaches Development Studies at Philosophy Centre in Jinja, Uganda (PCJ), a centre for seminarians of international congregations who are doing their first level of major seminary training for the priesthood. Solome shares some reflections on her ministry.

What is important for me is being with a group of young people who are seriously seeking and discerning their vocation; people who are really given and ready to serve. Even when the results are not immediate, it gives great satisfaction to be part of this formation process. I see it as a privileged contribution to the Church and to the work of the Lord.

The designing of courses is a channel to touch the students, to be able to reflect with them and to help them to develop their capacities as creative, reflective, motivated, and critical thinkers who are always ready to cast their nets into the deep. The various humanities I teach offer a more personalised mirror of the social reality. And they are all a starting point, leading us to reflect on how we live in our situation in our developing world, how we interpret what we see around us, while we seek for depth in all our experiences and for fresh insights. Together with the students I try to find meaning in our daily experiences, (below the poverty line and up above it, as I often like to say), and we endeavour to bring newness to our sometimes routine human existence. I want to try to live what I feel the Lord calls me to and to get them to live it: this is putting the Gospel into action. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” (Lk  4:16-20), is a key passage that echoes in my heart as I go out to my apostolate each day. I feel I am called to try to pass on this message in every single discipline and course I commit myself to.

One of the courses I teach is Human Resource Management and in it I try to focus on how we human beings should relate and treat one another with dignity; how we should look at the workers in our houses, work places and elsewhere: "not as a pair of hired hands" but as people with dignity and with needs we must endeavour to meet where possible: our workers must be part of our community and family and must be made to feel this way.  It is the message of Christ, 'Love one another' and it is echoed in different ways in the book of Micah and in other places in scripture. The social teaching of the Church comes in too. The students are made aware of how they should treat others with justice and teach people to do the same.  It is always my commitment to awaken our students to various environmental issues and to search together with them concrete ways of living in the new light of our insights and acknowledged facts about our environment. We reflect on how we relate to the whole of creation and our stewardship. In fact, the environmental ethics classes are some of the most heated sessions, with lots of animated discussions and commitments to real action (although it may, at times, take time to see the concrete actions).

The other courses I teach are project planning and management, organisational behaviour, methodology and a few more. I am also the head of the social studies department. Most of the students would like to do the degree in Social Sciences or Development Studies because these courses touch practical areas of life that they are dealing with every day.  Gender studies, for example, and the whole question of women's rights build on the students' own experiences and helps them to reevaluate their own attitudes and conceptual traps, and it prepares them to deal with real life issues.

I find the students very responsive. They enjoy the classes and the group discussions are often quite exciting. I get a lot of satisfaction from teaching them and I know I receive as much as I give to these gifted young men. We meet often outside class and we share a lot that builds the spirit between teacher and student. I often have students coming to my office to greet me, to share good news, to talk about a difficult situation and to seek advice where it is needed. I always tell them they are automatically VIP and the only reason I am there. I desire to take part in many more student activities but my own programme limits me.

I take a few students for accompaniment each year and I feel that my task is to listen to them and encourage them on their journey of searching and looking for God's way in their experiences and in prayer. I often have cases for counseling, although not at a very official level. I feel in this place I am truly in the footsteps of Saint Madeleine Sophie who toiled for the education of the whole person and who would go to the whole world for the sake of even one single child.

The staff members - 16 men and 1 other woman - are very reflective, cooperative and open. It is really edifying to work with this group of experienced and committed people. The staff members come from all the continents and together with the students we share and celebrate our unity in diversity. PCJ is a wonderful place to be and to work. I would say, though, that sometimes I find it a challenge to be in a milieu which I find too male-oriented. It is an institution for the formation of men. But again, I am learning a lot about the masculine version of life and perhaps getting more in touch with my masculine side.

Solome Najjuka rscj
Province of Uganda – Kenya