Campus Development.....
Building a Permanent Home.....
Tree of Life Ministries is on a long journey to develop campus homes for the Nursery School and Primary School. You can learn how it happened by viewing the story in this gallery. When you click on the photo, an enlarged version with a caption appears. Use the arrows to follow our progress. Finally, think about how you or your group might be part of it by supporting construction of a room, a building or a campus. Please Contact Us... when you are ready to join in!
How to use this short gallery. Click on the top left photo below to begin. Enjoy!
Until early 2010, Mustard Seed Academy and the other projects of Tree of Life Ministries has no permanent home. The main campus is a small property leased for 5-years in a residential area. The two permanent buildings there were modified for offices and classrooms, and two temporary buildings were constructed under the leadership of Project Manager David Bakeine and Assistant PM George Kateregga. As the school grew with the addition of more classes, Mustard Seed Academy faced a space crisis. In 2009, Real Partners Uganda funded the purchase of a 2.5-acre parcel of land about a quarter mile away from the leased property on the very same road. Its strategic location makes it easily accessible to the children most of whom walk there from the immediate area.
To make sure we had enough classroom space to begin the 2010 school year on February 1st, temporary wooden buildings were erected near one edge of the property along with composting toilets behind. An access drive was put in and the "America Campus" of Mustard Seed Academy had its beginning. The name was coined by the children there in the P-4 and P-5 classes, who proudly proclaimed that "Only English is spoken here!" The name has stuck even though the campus is now the home of the nursery school.
The architect's preliminary evaluation of the campus revealed two things: that there was not enough room for the entire school to be located there, and that it was an ideal site for beginning economic development with the goal of making MSA self-sustaining. With those ideas in mind, we began to work with an environmental architect who has worked with us to draw up the master plan for the site.
Capital Development Campaign.....We are actively pursuing larger donations to help with the construction of our permanent campus. We estimate that each of the three classrooms will be about $20,000, and the office complex the same amount. If you or people (groups) you know might be interested in supporting MSA / TOLM at that level, please get us connected. See Contact Us.....
To make sure we had enough classroom space to begin the 2010 school year on February 1st, temporary wooden buildings were erected near one edge of the property along with composting toilets behind. An access drive was put in and the "America Campus" of Mustard Seed Academy had its beginning. The name was coined by the children there in the P-4 and P-5 classes, who proudly proclaimed that "Only English is spoken here!" The name has stuck even though the campus is now the home of the nursery school.
The architect's preliminary evaluation of the campus revealed two things: that there was not enough room for the entire school to be located there, and that it was an ideal site for beginning economic development with the goal of making MSA self-sustaining. With those ideas in mind, we began to work with an environmental architect who has worked with us to draw up the master plan for the site.
Capital Development Campaign.....We are actively pursuing larger donations to help with the construction of our permanent campus. We estimate that each of the three classrooms will be about $20,000, and the office complex the same amount. If you or people (groups) you know might be interested in supporting MSA / TOLM at that level, please get us connected. See Contact Us.....
The Master Plan.....
Most building in Uganda is unplanned or poorly planned. People with land gather a little money and buy some materials and start making foundations and walls with only vague ideas about the final product. A visitor can see many half finished structures, standing until the owner has some more cash to do the next step. TOLM is fighting that tradition, with strong backing from RPU. A look at the drawing above shows the plan for the America campus. It shows that the campus is divided by a new road constructed in 2009 by the town of Lukaya. The road offers great access to the main highway and surrounding areas, but is not a thoroughfare for truck, car and motorbike traffic. The upper half of the campus will feature a school building (pink) to the left, and gold and gray Campus Life Centre to the right.
Performing Arts and Event Center.....
Performing Arts Center (top view). Stage outlined in black.
The gray and gold performing arts and event center (Campus Life Centre) will have two very important functions. The first to house and serve as a teaching and performance area for MSA's Child to Child program that involves music, dance and drama to convey life-saving ideas about health and safety to other children. The second is to be a venue for large events such as concerts, meetings, weddings, and other celebrations. There is no other property like it for 30 miles or more in every direction, and our business advisers indicate that it will be a great source of revenue for the project This is a serious effort to begin developing economic sustainability for our learning community. TOLM is delighted that the U.S. Embassy's PEPFAR grant program has awarded the funding for it. Ground-breaking occurred in Dec. 2011.
Below the Performing Arts Center near the road is a cluster of buildings (teal and red) that includes a craft shop, kitchen and small eatery, and a welcome center for tourists who stop for lunch on the long trips from Kampala to the national parks in the western region.
Below the Performing Arts Center near the road is a cluster of buildings (teal and red) that includes a craft shop, kitchen and small eatery, and a welcome center for tourists who stop for lunch on the long trips from Kampala to the national parks in the western region.
The Lower Campus.....
On the lower campus (right) lies a yellow area with a dual purpose. It is being leveled to provide a playing field. And when the Event Center is rented, it will serve as a parking lot. The large green area at the bottom of the drawing is the home of TOLM's Medicinal Gardens, shown with the poultry house (dark rose). It includes a small reservoir to the right that is actually a pond for fish-farming. See the Nutrition and Health page..... to learn more about our plans to improve nutrition and fight tropical diseases with medicinal plants. The purple building in the center of the lower campus currently houses the "baby class," nursery teachers' staff room and the gardener's family. There is also a large barn-like storage building. We envision taking visitors on tours of the medicinal gardens and, in the future to build a walk-thru flying cage for the magnificent butterflies of Uganda. Each area has potential for both education and income generation.
Sustainability.....
Parents gather to learn about progress at Mustard Seed
A central long-term goal of RPU and Tree of Life Ministries is for the Ugandan project to become self-sustaining, so that American funding can eventually be directed to another community in need. Volunteers Wayne Myers and Tim Zeitler, who have completed master's degrees in sustainable systems, have taught us that true sustainability has several components including the four E's: education, environment, economic and equity. Our master site plan is best viewed in terms of building capacity to improve each of these elements. In this case, classrooms built with clear educational goals in mind are complemented by dual purpose facilities and spaces that both serve the children and raise money for the school. As our Ugandan partners are able to earn more and demonstrate good management skills, the "ownership" and control of TOLMs assets increasingly falls to them and the community.
So Much for So Little.....
MSA children celebrate a great day with RPU directors.
Many people here is the USA are amazed to learn that an operation the size of Mustard Seed Academy can be run on so little money per year. The RPU annual budget is less than it costs to provide salary and benefits to one U.S. school administrator in most cases! With this in mind, it is fairly easy to understand, what a tremendous impact their donations make. Our Partnership can do so much with so little. Imagine a western child getting good schooling, feeding, clothing and health care for $180 US per year! Impossible; but not in Lukaya. What about a teacher working very hard for an annual salary of $2,000, and that includes benefits! It is this amplification effect of people living at a much higher standard giving to those in an extremely poor third world country. As long as resources are managed well, great things can get done. We hope some of you led by both love and logic, will decide this is a very good way to help the most innocent victims of poverty: vulnerable children. We are looking for individuals and groups that will make a significant commitment so that the children of Mustard Seed Academy can finally have a permanent school home. When you are ready, Contact Us.....
