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. Currently there are over 20 teens and young adults who fit this category.

Overall Project Goal:

Estimated at $840,000

CURRENT PHASES:

Empowered Generation Campus - Apartment/Guest Building

Valor Hall - future boys' side of building

Please help us get the first 2 floors completed on this project before the government calls for the young adults to be put out on the street! Once the first 2 floors are completed, we will be able to move some of the young adults over to the new building.

**FOR REALTIME UPDATES, JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP:  www.facebook.com/groups/UOCCMUSA/

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Update - 9/17/2024

 

Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support of the project that will empower our young adults to complete their education and be prepared to serve as leaders in their community!

Progress has been moving along slowly and the government has been very patient with us for the past 2 years. Unfortunately, they have visited multiple times the past few months and we have final deadlines to meet. The girls must be moved off the main property by October 1st. They will fit into these 2 spaces until the rest of the building is completed.

We currently have 19 boys and 16 girls ages 18 and over. They are the ones who will have to be moved off the other campus as soon as possible, but we need a place for them to go. Otherwise, the only alternative would be to turn them out on the streets and that is not something any of us want to see happen.

We are humbly asking for your help to accomplish this goal in the time they are requesting. It's a big goal, but we know with prayer and support this can come together in ways we can't even imagine right now! 

 

 

Current Needs as of 9-17-24

They have started working on the plastering inside the second floor and are trying to move quickly to meet the deadline. More funds are now needed for the next parts to keep making progress.

 

We still have several more big steps after the plastering before the second floor can be considered move in ready for the girls.

 

Please pray for continued grace and open hearts as we share. We have a short time to complete the second floor... About 13 days and really have about 2 more months of work to do.

 

Daniel, the staff and kids still are under a lot of stress and they are trying not to walk in fear of the government coming and shutting things down since they haven't yet been able to meet all the requirements.

 

Please pray for continued grace, peace, perseverance and patience in this whole process.

 

 Current Status:

 

STILL needed ASAP:

 

$2683.86 - plumbing fixtures and labor

$3666.66 - Electrical fixtures and labor

$5569.43 - Tiles and labor

 

 **See Facebook group for full details and Second Floor Campaign for current status: https://uoccusa.reachapp.co/campaigns/egc-valor-hall-second-floor 

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SECOND FLOOR - $71,000 needed total

*This will be used for the girls initially as the rest of the building is completed and to meet the government requirements - it must be completed so the girls can move off the main UOCC property by the deadline.

 

How can you help?

1. Pray!

2. Share - you can share the campaign page with your friends and invite them to join this group for more updates. We have found messaging people directly gets a better response than just posting, but try whichever way you are comfortable with. If you need help with what to say/how to share, please let us know!

3. Give - donate towards the project - every amount does make a difference! One time or recurring payments of all sizes allow progress to be made to meet the deadlines.  

 

Additional Phases will be shared as these are completed... .total project is estimated at $840,000