St. Mary's House of Hope
Originally the vocational institute was engaged with a tailoring practice that was provided to equip vulnerable women and girls with skills to improve their conditions of living. Most women were either widowed, single, living with HIV, could not afford a livelihood, pay school fees for their children, or afford medical care. Most teenage girls at Mary's House of Hope were of proper age to attend school, but did not have school fees.
Father John Baptist Bashobora sought out a partnership with the then Kolping house and opened its doors in or around 2002 to the first beneficiaries. In the later years this house was purchased and became a full foundation unit which not only took on tailoring, but introduced adult education for these vulnerable women and girls who needed to be taught how to read and write, learn basic adult skills, as well as learn how to provide for themselves and their children. These women came to St. Mary's House of Hope with their children who were the proper age to attend school, but were not going to school. With the numbers continuously increasing by the day, the space at the only building could not take them all in. Its through this matrix that the St,Marys Girls school was founded to better educate these women & children.
By the year 2005 the vocational unit was moved to another area Kakooba Mbarara which is the present location of the House of Mary House of Hope Vocational institute. This space was used as a rehabilitation center to revive the destitute who were roaming the Mbarara town, feeding from garbage bins, lacked proper hygiene, and had no purpose in life. When brought to this facility, the care takers would bathe these wanderers, clean them, feed them, counsel them, shelter them, and equip them with skills in different crafts including basket making, crocheting, mat-making and others. The tailoring department was moved to this location because its purpose was to impart these skills, and the foundation felt best that it have a diversified number of skills which now included tailoring, handcrafts, carpentry, salon skills, building and construction, and catering among others.
Most of these individuals just needed to be loved, guided, and eventually revived. Today these individuals are living happily in society and are able to have a livelihood through the skills they were bestowed with while at the rehabilitation centre and have been able to carry on with a normal life.
To date the House of Mary, House of Hope is a full fledged vocational institute that has risen from a dilapidated old colonial house to more improved structures which the school has built with planning composed: of well-spaced classrooms for tailoring, salon and handcraft classes, a well set girls dormitory, appropriate technology for the carpentry department, an administration team to run the operations of the institute, a fashion and tailoring department (equipped with high tech machines), and trained tutors to equip students with the best.
With increase in population and high levels of poverty in the area, the need for vocational studies is increasingly on demand, The vocational school is in dire need of improved structures:
Father John Baptist Bashobora sought out a partnership with the then Kolping house and opened its doors in or around 2002 to the first beneficiaries. In the later years this house was purchased and became a full foundation unit which not only took on tailoring, but introduced adult education for these vulnerable women and girls who needed to be taught how to read and write, learn basic adult skills, as well as learn how to provide for themselves and their children. These women came to St. Mary's House of Hope with their children who were the proper age to attend school, but were not going to school. With the numbers continuously increasing by the day, the space at the only building could not take them all in. Its through this matrix that the St,Marys Girls school was founded to better educate these women & children.
By the year 2005 the vocational unit was moved to another area Kakooba Mbarara which is the present location of the House of Mary House of Hope Vocational institute. This space was used as a rehabilitation center to revive the destitute who were roaming the Mbarara town, feeding from garbage bins, lacked proper hygiene, and had no purpose in life. When brought to this facility, the care takers would bathe these wanderers, clean them, feed them, counsel them, shelter them, and equip them with skills in different crafts including basket making, crocheting, mat-making and others. The tailoring department was moved to this location because its purpose was to impart these skills, and the foundation felt best that it have a diversified number of skills which now included tailoring, handcrafts, carpentry, salon skills, building and construction, and catering among others.
Most of these individuals just needed to be loved, guided, and eventually revived. Today these individuals are living happily in society and are able to have a livelihood through the skills they were bestowed with while at the rehabilitation centre and have been able to carry on with a normal life.
To date the House of Mary, House of Hope is a full fledged vocational institute that has risen from a dilapidated old colonial house to more improved structures which the school has built with planning composed: of well-spaced classrooms for tailoring, salon and handcraft classes, a well set girls dormitory, appropriate technology for the carpentry department, an administration team to run the operations of the institute, a fashion and tailoring department (equipped with high tech machines), and trained tutors to equip students with the best.
With increase in population and high levels of poverty in the area, the need for vocational studies is increasingly on demand, The vocational school is in dire need of improved structures:
- The kitchen is presently in a sorry state. A modernized kitchen well equipped with catering machinery is required to serve proper meals to the students and to present a good training ground for catering students.
- A building and construction workshop is lacking
- Well-planned lavatories for both staff and students is lacking
- There is no proper showroom to showcase the products made from this institute
- There is no security post or guard house to monitor persons entering and leaving the facility
- Water collection points are needed including high liter capacity tanks and apparatus for water collection
- A dinning space and hall for occasions which will include graduations
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AFFBF, Inc. proceeds go to support The Father Bash Foundation of Mbarara, Uganda.
AFFBF, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Charitable Organization supporting Father Bashobora. AFFBF, Inc. is the only organization in the United States authorized by Father John Baptist Bashobora. President: Barbara Antonacci, Established 2006. No salaries are taken, this is a volunteer organization. |
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