Background of DCI
DCI was founded 1991 by Dr. Jeffrey S.S. Garden and a board of directors in Oak Harbor in Washington State, USA. Dr. Garden began with a vision to provide economic development support and assistance to missionary and indigenous ministries.
Starting with a small budget and work consisting mainly of on-sight and desk evaluations of various missions and economic development projects, DCI gradually grew into a modest-sized but highly efficient ministry partner organization.
Initially intending to work in Latin America and Africa, DCI’s first big project turned out to be in Romania as the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. DCI partnered with a Christian organization called Charis, helping with project evaluations, management training (on-site in Romania and at DCI headquarters in Oak Harbor), and with successful funding grant proposals, along with monthly support for church ministers.
DCI, through Dr. Garden, then added consulting work with groups in Lebanon, Jordan, and Croatia. Later, DCI developed working relationships with ministries in the Philippines, South India, Guinea Bissau, and Trinidad and Tobago.
In 2003, after Dr. Garden had retired, DCI took on Jonathan Beggs as a field director, narrowing its focus to Uganda in east Africa.
This new work began as a consulting project by Mr. Beggs with an indigenous denomination of churches based in Kapchorwa in eastern Uganda. Work focused on church leadership and ministries development. In 2005 a partnership was formed with the PCM churches, creating a full-time project, which lasted for the following ten years.
Mr. Beggs moved to Uganda and developed a full staff of local talent drawn primarily from partner churches, in order to maximize local input and ownership. In addition to the various ministry development trainings, DCI was asked to help develop adult literacy, community health, and leadership development programs.
All of these projects were successful, with more than 1300 adults with families graduated from the literacy program, several hundred church leaders trained, and ongoing community health education programs developed and poised for growth.
In 2015 DCI was registered independently in Uganda as a foreign NGO, enabling us to partner with any like-minded ministries or organizations across the country. Currently, we have programs in thirteen districts of Uganda, partnering with a number of churches, organizations, and government agencies, both foreign and local. Currently, our two main emphases are the adult literacy program, and community health education, in schools, villages, and on radio.
In addition to Mr. Beggs, DCI has a staff of Ugandan nationals and volunteers, with offices in Mbale and Kampala. Our programs are scalable depending on funding, and we may respond to local initiative to develop other projects around Uganda and in other countries.