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Current Programs
- Outreach to street children, in cooperation with government authorities.
- Settling orphan children within families whenever possible. School fees, counseling services, other educational support and medical help (including home visits) are provided.
- Providing housing
at Ma's Orphan's Centre on the grounds of UMOP where no community placement is available.
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- Placing the children
in appropriate education, with financial assistance as needed. Older children attend Great Aubrey Memorial College on the UMOP grounds, providing university preparation, or St. James Polytechnic School, providing vocational training.
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 Empowering and protecting women and girls.
- Providing reproductive education
and AIDS education through the dispensary at
UMOP.
- Creating income-generating
activities to sustain families beyond UMOP’s reach.
- An adult literacy program.
Long Term Projects
- Girls Dorm and
Security Wall: $15,000 (of which $5000 has been raised) will provide simple cinderblock structures with electricity, door locks, window screens, and toilets to house 50 young women.
Presently the girls sleep in a converted chicken house, with 18 girls sleeping in triple-decker bunks and hanging their few possessions from the ceiling. The other dorms are equally crowded and inadequate. A fire in that space would be deadly; malaria-carrying mosquitoes are common; sanitation is basic, and the girls have little security from the men who work in a cement factory just across the road.
By providing these girls with safe and healthy living conditions, we will help them resist sexual exploitation, let them stay in school, encourage them to build healthier families and communities, and set a precedent in favor of the education of women. We will also assure their access to reproductive education, contraception, and AIDS education, all of which are offered through the Center.
- Beds and Mosquito Nets: Malaria is endemic in this part of Uganda. Most local people have been infected at one time or another, with consequences for their later health, energy, and productivity. There are many things these children need to be protected from, but malaria protection is one of the cheapest, easiest, and most effective.
- Library: The library, budgeted at $40,000, will provide not only books but also multi-media and internet access to a part of the world where such services are rare. It will close the global “digital divide,” empower local people, and enrich the education of all the children served by UMOP, as well as the surrounding community. Already UMOP hosts Great Aubrey Memorial College, whose graduates are well-prepared to go on to higher education. The library plan is emblematic of UMOP’s commitment to excellence and its long-term perspective.
- Bus: The children who do not live at Ma’s Centre walk for two or three hours to and from school.
Also, transport is needed for national school events such as plays and sports competitions to
provide the children with equal access.
- Water Well: In the dry season, staff and students living at UMOP must walk three miles for water. Adequate water will also improve sanitation.
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