January is Congolese but has lived and worked in Uganda for more than a decade. He goes home to his family once or twice a year for a short stay but spends the rest of his time with us. This year when he went to visit his family, he ended up staying in the Congo for a few months because the COVID closed the Uganda borders.

Education systems around the world share a number of common practices that were established after World War II and designed to educate a industrial age population. This system was designed to create factory workers in a command and control environment where all learning teacher-centric. But our world is no longer in an Industrial Age, we now live in a Creative Age.

Children Arise has a family living and working in Uganda. The Banman’s have been watching the COVID-19 pandemic from there and comparing how Uganda has managed the situation in relation to Canada. It turns out, both countries have managed the situation well and are minimizing cases and deaths.

Ugandans struggle to thrive in an environment lacking in effective social services such as healthcare and education. The government presents a facade of good governance by mimicking first-world legislation and practices, but corruption at almost every level robs the population of effective service delivery.

Mumbai has a population of about 20 million in an area of 600 sq km. This is one of the most densely populated regions of the world. Mumbai is home to the extremely rich and the extremely poor. People are drawn from rural regions of India with dreams and aspirations to make a living in the city. Due to a lack of affordable accommodation however, these people often settle in slum areas.

Arise has invested in Africa for a number of years now. During this time we have learned a great deal about helping people, families and communities. Our primary tactics for transforming circumstances today are training and business. By providing skills training and work opportunities to those who would take advantage of them, Arise offers people a vehicle to provide for themselves and their families. An opportunity seized not only builds capacity but also builds self respect. These people and their families can begin to thrive and also invest back into their communities.

Arise has been working in South Sudan’s Kajo-Keji county along the Uganda border since 2010. We have engaged leaders in the rural village of Wotakujong to learn how they govern themselves, who makes decisions, and what they do when there are disagreements. We have documented their current state and discussed community goals and needs with them. All this work was building a framework for helping the village people meet their own needs. Arise would provide a small amount of capital investment to startup several social businesses. Village leaders would manage these businesses and the profits would help the community reach it’s goals of educating their children.

The Rakai district of Uganda borders Tanzania where there have been long-running disputes between the two governments about the actual border location.  As a result of the shifting borderlines, a number of Ugandan’s were displaced and ended up in a government camp awaiting resettlement.  This group number approximately 4500 individuals of which about 1500 are children.

Ankannagudem is a remote tribal village 350km away from Hyderabad, the capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India.  It is mainly populated by the Koya indigenous people.  There is no children’s home to provide food and shelter for neglected or abused kids in the radius of 50km and no English-medium school in the radius of 29km.  Children educated in local language schools learn English as one out of 8 subjects.  With limited English abilities, their opportunities are scarce, and they cannot easily break out of the cycle of poverty.

King’s Kid Home School in Mityana Uganda has been without well water for many months now as we worked with them to test the water and find the correct long term solution to address their failed pump. They had some access to town water but it was not good quality when it was available. The children were forced to walk distances at times to fetch water.

King’s Kid Home School supports more than 150 children on a full time basis and provides education and lunch for more than 300 additional children from the immediate community.  In 2010, a field was purchased adjacent to the school and home property ensuring that the children would always have play space.

Bakanaga is a small rural village outside Mityana in Uganda.  This village is home to perhaps 1200 people and is located on a narrow strip of land between a lake and nation park lands.  Children in Bukanaga were forced to walk several miles each day to attend school until a school was started locally by a local town leader and Pastor named Cissy.

Wotakujong is a small village 5 bumpy hours southwest of Juba, the capital city of South Sudan.  This village is home to approximately 12 thousand people who do not have cars and who’s houses are build using traditional materials such as mud and straw.  There is no electricity in this village, and the nearest town with shops is a multi-hour walk.  Water is drawn from community wells and villagers often walk miles to draw it.

In April 2010 the toilets at King’s Kid Home School in Mityana Uganda began crumbling. These toilets were constructed over a dirt pit and an extra heavy wet season undermined the brick structure.  The latrines cracked and became unsafe for the 150 children living at the home to use.

In 2009, Bruce Friesen felt we needed to partner with a Ugandan charity called King’s Kid Home School to replace temporary classrooms with a real school building. King’s Kid operates an orphanage and school in Mityana Uganda and they badly needed permanent school buildings to shelter more than 400 students.  The CAM team (and the entire congregation of Lion of Judah Church in Victoria BC) rose to this challenge and raised about $50,000 to erect the first of 3 school buildings.