Safe (School)house

Background

Last year, we were able to purchase roughly 7 acres of land adjacent to the village. We immediately knew the land would be a great opportunity for us build a school and provided education to both the village, but also to other villages, families, and children nearby.

Our Mission

We firmly believe that knowledge will be key to the ongoing growth and development of the village - and we are hopeful that the younger generation will be able to receive an education that will provide them with the tools they need to carry on with the efforts we are taking to support all those we have been positively impacted by the Project Safehouse Fund over the years.

Our Plan & Strategy

Our current plan is quite simple: build a safe schoolhouse that will allow any student to receive an education within an environment that is secure, free from distractions, and full of love, support and encouragement. In order for this phase of our project to be complete, we will build a secure wall surrounding the entire property; a proper bathroom and sanitation facility for all attending students; a formal schoolhouse that is secure, electrified, and conducive for learning; and supply the school with the supplies that will be needed to deliver ongoing educational services.

First: Protection

Our First Land Purchase

in 2023 we purchased a swath of land nearby to the village that we were able to use as a “trade” with the land owner of a 7+ acre parcel adjacent to the village. We knew that we could always utilize the land for crop production, but our underlying goal was to utilize the property for the construction of a school.

Getting Started

Squatting, ownership disputes, and other related challenges are very common with larger plots of land in the area, if the land is not properly secured and/or monitored. Knowing this, our first order of action was to utilize many of the same processes we have created for the development of our safe houses, to create a secure wall around the parameter of the property.

Second: Sanitation

Lessons Learned

We began our work in Northern Uganda, we were strictly focused on transitioning thatch huts into secure and safe homes. Along the way, we uncovered the (obvious) need for improved sanitation facilities to support our work. We started by developing a very basic bathroom structure, though have since evolved and improved our development processes and are now creating sanitation facilities that will be able to facilitate large volumes of usage and will properly handle the processing and disposal of all waste. Although more costly, we firmly believe that proper sanitation coincides with our efforts to provide safe housing.