THE EMPOWERED GENERATION CAMPUS PROJECT

(formerly the Transition Home - Guesthouse Sustainability Project Vision)

 

Our goal is to empower those in our care to be leaders in their community and country. In order to do that, we are committed to provided the best base of care, support, skills and education to empower them to be equipped to walk into those roles ready to serve and lead with confidence. Most of our children plan to give back to UOCC as they move into adulthood. Every step we can take to prepare them to be successful in life, in whatever role they choose to do as an adult, helps to ensure they are as prepared as possible. 

We already have a number of our teens and young adults attending university and trade schools. These are the ones who need a place to live and practice independence right now. The Empowered Generation Campus will include an apartment type building with sides for the boys and the girls. It will also include guestrooms at the top levels to allow the project to move into being a sustainability project in the long term. Some of our young adults are already going to hospitality and culinary schools and learning the skills required to help take care of guests on the campus in the future. 

UOCC is in legal terms an orphanage, but it doesn’t look like any other orphanage.  It’s a family, therefore we treat every child as part of a big family.  Instead of pushing them out when they’re 18, as required by law, we will provide them with another home, a transition home.  Here they can begin learning to live more independently with adult responsibilities as they attend university or trade school, begin working in their field and once they earn enough money to provide for themselves, send them off to live productive lives. 

The Building will have 2 sides --- the boys side will be called: Valor Hall and the girls will be: Ruby Hall

The Empowered Generation Campus Project required that we complete the purchase of a plot of land, settle land surveys and titles, and fence in the property. We are now in the stage of beginning construction of the building that will serve as apartments/dormitories for the young adults and rooms for guests.  The young adults will both work in the guest house to earn their keep and earn some income under the direction and supervision of Daniel Kanu, director of UOCC. 

 

As part of the vision for the Empowered Generation Campus we will challenge the young adults to design an edible landscape. This will provide a beautiful, peaceful place to walk in as well a source of food. An edible landscape is a cross between landscaping and farming and allows small spaces to be used to grow food.

When our service team travels to Uganda, we would be able to stay in these guest rooms once they are completed. Other guests would be missionaries and foreign service providers.

The government is putting pressure on us to move all the young adults, 18 and older, over to the Empowered Generation Campus to comply with government regulations stating that they must be off the UOCC property where the younger children live. So this project is one of our top priorities because the other option is to be forced to put the young adults out on the streets and that would be awful! Please help us to keep that from happening to these wonderful young people.

 

Stats: 

• Currently 12 girls, 18+
• Currently 15 boys, 18+
• 9 attending university, 3 of whom are support staff now

 

Overall Project Goal:

Estimated at $300,000