Expand Our Vital Programs for Refugees in Uganda

When I first came to HOCW as a volunteer in January of 2015 it consisted of a single compound. The volunteer house sat across from our Director’s home. English, Luganda, Swahili, and Business classes were taught behind the volunteer house, under a tin roof cover. Our computer lab also functioned as our reception, storage area, and Director’s office. Staff meetings took place at the kitchen table in our Director’s house while children played in the small space between the two houses. In order to accommodate hairdressing, craft making and our children’s program we had to borrow space on the grass across the road. We rented one, gloomy room to be used for counseling sessions. Needless to say, we were cramped!

Since January I have returned to Uganda and to HOCW twice, and I am currently living here. It is amazing to see the difference that this project has made to our organization and to the community we serve. We now have the space we need to accommodate all of our clients without worrying that we might have to turn someone away due to a lack of resources, or might have to cancel a class due to classroom scheduling issues. At our new compound we have built two new, spacious classrooms. We have a reception area separate from our computer lab. We have 3 bright and comfortable counseling rooms. Our director finally has his own office and we have a boardroom for staff meetings. There is a functional hairdressing salon that is now taking clients as well as being used for training students in hairdressing. We have a library with a study area and we have space for our children to play and for our netball team to practice. All of this has been possible because of donations to this GlobalGiving project.

Through this project we raised just over $15,000, which has been enough for us to expand into this beautiful new home. The name of our new compound is Agape, which means community love. I can’t think of a more suitable name for what goes on here at HOCW. We would like to extend a final thank-you on behalf of all of our staff, community members, and clients for your generous donations. We still have many goals for the future, and hope to continue to receive your support. However, we have decided to deactivate this GlobalGiving Project and focus on our ongoing “Educate 120 East African Refugees In Uganda” Project. You can find our updates from the field under this title on GlobalGiving ID 13262. Thank you again for making this such a successful campaign, we are truly grateful.

With our new space we now have more than 40 children enrolled in our drop in child care program. This program is something we have hoped to bring to HOCW for a very long time. Having a center where mothers can drop off their children when coming to HOCW means that mothers are free to concentrate on their studies or focus on working with the women's collective. It also means that we have the opportunity to implement early childhood education programs getting our community's children off to a great start! We recently built an extended space which provides the young children with more space to move around and play. Teacher Hindu is hard at work entertaining our youngest community members with books, activities, songs and games. The children are provided with nutritious meals and comfy mats to sleep on. 

We recently held another children’s party celebrating the end of the Children’s Program at HOCW and the return of our older students to school for the upcoming term. Our children’s party was held on the 3^rd of June where we celebrated with games, activities, food and drinks. With help from our sponsors who provide tuition we were able to send 4 new students to school this term, all of whom are very excited to be attending school. HOCW now has 46 sponsored children and we are so grateful to our sponsors! Our own students in English, computer classes, tailoring, and business classes completed their final exams on the 29^th and 30^th of June. Those who performed well in their exams will be promoted to the next level within their studies. We look forward to holding another graduation ceremony this fall for all of our HOCW program graduates. 

HOCW is constantly expanding and we are working our hardest to keep up with the needs for our ever growing number of clients. We are so grateful to all of our donors for making our programs possible. Thank you!