Human Resources Development Program (HRDP) has been working for the capacity buildings for the 14 MCC member churches and 13 National Ecumenical Organizations since 1989.

Objectives of the program

The main objectives of the program are to send Christian workers abroad for capacity buildings; to provides partial scholarships to local higher theological students and local secular post graduate students; and to conduct appropriate ecumenical leadership trainings/ seminars/ and workshops to enhance the ecumenical spirit among the member Churches.

Activities Done

(1)    No (3) Ecumenical Leadership Development Training:

It was conducted in Myoma Baptist Church of Homalin town incorporation with Homalin Council of Churches from February 22 – 25, 2010. There were 38 participants from different Churches (17 from Baptist, 2 from Anglican, 12 from Methodist, 5 from Assembly of God, 1 from Brethren, and another 1 from Christian Church of Myanmar).                                                                                                                                                             The main objectives of the training were to strengthen the ecumenical spirit and to build up mutual understanding and recognition among the local churches. The subjects on “Ecumenical concept and movement”, and “Learning solidarity through holistic mission” were taught. It was observed that the training achieved its goals by seeing the strong participation of the participants a long with the trainings and raising a lot of
questions, which was shown their interest upon the training. Besides, they requested to conduct this kind of training in the future. Hope it may enforce the local cooperation among the churches. An Ecumenical worship service was held together with closing ceremony in the last day of the training.

(2)    No (4) Ecumenical Leadership Development Training:

It was conducted at the seminar room of Christian Leprosy Hospital, from November 23 – 26, 2010 incorporation with Mawlamyaing Council of Churches. There were 40 regular participants from
different denominations and hospital staff.
This training aimed at to enhance the ecumenical spirit among the local churches and strengthening the mutual recognition and understanding among the churches. The participants were from Baptist, Church of the Province of Myanmar (Anglican), Roman Catholic, and Methodist church.
Subjects like ecumenism, ecumenical movement and holistic mission were taught. Satisfactory responses were obtained from the participants. Their participations were very constructive. The ecumenical worship service was held at Taung-wai Baptist Church, and more than 100 worshipers participated.

(3)    Local Higher Theological Scholarships provided

Higher Theological Scholarship project has been organized to support higher theological students who are preparing for the mission of the church. HRDP
could not offer full scholarship due to financial constraint. Presently, by the donation of the Anglican Church of Canada, awarding of scholarship is
going well regularly to the students.
HRDP offered scholarship grants to 24 Theological Schools in (2010-2011) academic Year.  In terms program, 80 students were from B. Th
program, 32 students from M. Div, 1 student from Doctoral program respectively. The total recipients were 118 (67 male and 51 female). The total
amount awarded was Ks. 12,380,000.

(4)    Local Postgraduate Scholarships provided

Local Postgraduate Scholarship project also provides partial scholarship to postgraduate students. The total recipients for this academic year were 38 students (22 male & 16 female).   There were 24 recipients from Master program and 14 recipients from Ph. D program. The main donor is Anglican Church of Canada.

(5)    Capacity Building Projects

This projects stand for supporting member churches in the field of capacity buildings. HRDP provides full scholarships through the help of Ecumenical Scholarships Programme (ESP) of Bread for the World (Germany). There were 7 recipients who completed their studies in abroad countries like India, USA and Philippines. There are 4 recipients who are still taking their respective courses.

(6)    International Workshops Attended

Hon. Executive Secretary was giving a chance to participate in international workshops such gender workshop at Bonn (Germnay), NCA partner workshop at Chaingmai (Thailand) and scholarship sourcing tour in Japan. In those workshops, the topics like gender issues, ecumenical mission work and NCA strengthening partnership were discussed. While he was in Japan, he got chances to discuss about the availability of scholarships for College Students at the office of Osaka Foundation of International Exchange with Mr. Kazushige Minami, Executive Director cum Secretary General. Hon.
Executive Secretary also visited to the Office of Japan Asian Friendship Society, an NGO engaging with social development programs in South East Asia. This visit was very fruitful and ended with good results.

(7)    External Evaluation

HRDP conducted external evaluation in every five year on its program implementations. The 2nd external valuation was conducted by Ms Ja Tum Seng and Ms Dou Nyoi, under the sponsorship of ESP, Germany. The evaluation covered the period from 2005-2009. The objectives of this evaluation were to find out whether the capacity building projects supported were effective or not; then based on the findings, the future plan should be
set up to be more effective than before. 

Conclusion
    
HRDP is very essential for Myanmar in general and Churches in particular. Since the MCC member Churches have been adopting the concept of holistic mission of the Church, the present church leaders need the knowledge and skills they have to be improved. In accordance with such concept HRDP is providing capacity building courses to young candidates (under 40 years old), chosen by member churches to fulfill their needs. Based on the reality, some skills and knowledge are gradually become the challenges to the Churches, such as, natural disaster management, environmental
management, water resources Management, sustainable agriculture, ecumenical leadership, other rural development related courses. This is expectation that the program would be improved after application of the findings and recommendations raised from the recent evaluation. Every funding organization is welcome to cooperate with HRDP in its capacity building programs to enhance the performance of the Christian Organizations in Myanmar. 

Information Edit by Oliver(MCC)