This EWB-Central Houston project will benefit the Bukhaweka Vocational Training Centre (BVTC), a rural community center in Uganda.  They received the donation of 15 computers from Uganda Telecom to help rural children have access to computers, but do not have a consistent source of power to run the computers.  EWB-Central Houston will work with them to create a viable alternative power source.  Secondly, they have a problem of water supply at the center and in the surrounding community and have asked for our help both for water supply and purification.

The BVTC is offering training in carpentry, tailoring, secretarial skills, bricklaying, home economics, and agriculture.  Despite enduring its fair share of struggles, it has the exciting potential to emerge from these difficult early years and take a definitive step up to being a first rate vocational school and service to the Bukhaweka community.  The school has the necessary land for expansion, 15 new computers, a massive local population in need of services, and the will.  In the first term of 2007, the BVTC began a computer skills course just up the road at the CRESP community clinic.  The school received a donation of new computers from Uganda Telecom in 2006, and the CRESP clinic, which is tapped into the power lines that just came to the village, is hosting the computers and classes instead of the centre.  Many community members, of all ages, have expressed interest in the computer skills course.  The current problem is the unreliability of the power coming through to the village, and on days without power students can only return home to be a leader in the community.  It is on this note that we request solar power for the centre. 

Since its conception, the BVTC has been a response to the needs of the community.  The school has provided an affordable option for parents unable to pay for other secondary education options.  In addition, one water harvesting tank has provided clean water for 2000 people living in close proximity to the school as an alternative to really dirty water from a nearby stream.  The tank at the centre gives people clean water to drink, but runs out very fast because families are many.  The need for a larger tank, more rainwater harvesting systems, and a way to treat the stream’s water to prevent water-borne illnesses would really be of great help to the community in Bukhaweka.  Also during the dry months of December to March water is a problem because the local streams dry up.