"I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. " - Psalm 121:1-2
When walking through the raw, undeveloped property in Uganda, one can’t help but be struck by the rugged beauty of the surrounding hills and the majesty of God’s creation.
Located about 70 km west of Kampala, the field is owned by Precious Ones International Christian School. On this day, it hosts members of the Precious Ones staff and the EMI Canada project team who have come to serve alongside Precious Ones to develop a site master plan for a new school campus.
Precious Ones' envisions relocating their existing school, currently in rented facilities, onto this new property. The new boarding school which will accommodate 576 students from kindergarten to grade 12 along with 48 teachers and 140 support staff. With its five-and-a-half-hectare expanse, the field has ample space for dormitories, learning centres, a gymnasium, kitchen and dining facilities, an administration building, and staff housing.
However, the rural location presents challenges for the EMI team. Along with facilities to support a very specific form of education delivery, the site master plan must address access and service roads, water supply, wastewater treatment, electrical generation and distribution, privacy and safety, and many other considerations.
“As a design team with a diverse skillset, we began by gathering data and identifying the programming needs of the school facilities. Brought together, these informed the development of a campus master plan,” said Ryan Williams, EMI Canada International Projects Coordinator and Project Leader.
“This involves placing buildings where they make the most sense and considering how students will move through the campus as they access different activities,” said Ryan.
In addition to the technical design, faith played a central role in the project.
“Being able to come alongside a Christian ministry, to hear their vision, to be trusted with it, to carry that vision, and to help bring it to the next stage of development is humbling,” said Ryan.
“I felt the special honor that we as an EMI team weren’t just designing a building; we were honouring their vision and their faith in our work.”
Genevieve Leake, the EMI Canada intern on the project, agreed that seeing faith at work in everything that Precious Ones was doing in delivering education was incredible to witness.
“It was so clear that their faith influenced everything that they do, down to the smallest details,” she said.
As work progressed on the site plan, a variety of building layouts and construction methodologies were explored, with the design team weighing the benefits, challenges, and costs of each option. Discussions with Precious Ones regarding affordability was important, providing realistic goals for the school project to achieve full completion.
Through the entire process, Precious One’s faith in God’s plan remained firm. Precious Ones International Christian School Principal Mona Kikomeko spoke about how they had been waiting 18 years for this new campus and could wait longer if required, trusting that God would provide in His time.
“They had complete faith that if God wants it to happen, it will,” said Genevieve, “their faith is inspiring.”
Now that EMI Canada’s team have all returned home, work continues as to complete the text, spreadsheets, and drawings for the Final Report.
“After witnessing Mona and her mother Barrett’s faith, this project's going to happen,” said Ryan.
“Now it's our responsibility as EMI Canada to ensure that the work we're doing is relevant, effective and useful for Precious Ones."
