The Red Hippo has recently partnered with Housing Uganda’s Children and Montreal design firm BCK to elaborate and build on a housing project for the NESCO boys that we were privileged to meet last summer.

We will post updates on the project evolution over the next few months. If you would like to get involved, feel free to contact us at The Red Hippo or Drew Sandbulte at Housing Uganda’s Children for questions and donations info.

Overview

The Building Project was founded by the observation of the immediate need to house the NESCO family. NESCO is an organization developed by individuals (mostly children) who once were abandonned and/or abused and lived on the streets of Kampala, Uganda.

NESCO has worked very diligently at providing a home and basic survival needs to children who are still living on the street. This project keeps growing, as more and more children seek refuge from life on the street.

Currently, as of January 2009, NESCO has grown to 49 school aged children, two teenagers (Safi and Joseph) and two young adult leaders (Sensa and Godrey(founder)). There is also one young adult leader (Drew Sandbulte) who is there from Minnesota, helping them in any way he can. All of these people are currently living in 4 seperate buildings:

1. A small concrete 3 bedroom house with out a door or running water. They have access to a communal outdoor bathroom on the site. This, if I’m not mistaken, is $250 U.S.D. in rent which is being paid by Drew Sandbulte.
2. They have a building where NESCO has a small room and a desk. This is used as an office, to file the children’s school reports and to be used as a working area for the NESCO leaders, and the counsellors that help them out. Beside this office is another room that is used as sleeping quarters. This is where another group of children use as their home and shelter during the night hours. This is a government owned building. They are not paying fees, or minimal if any, at this location but could be asked to leave without much notice.
3. The third building being used right now is Drew Sandbulte’s apartment. He choses to give up his personal space, to share with the children, allowing more room in the other buildings. This, in turn, has recently allowed NESCO to take in more children. He is moving in October to a new location, unsure of how large his space will then be.
4. The fourth building is at Medi’s house. Medi is NESCO’s spiritual advisor, and has offered up his own space so NESCO could take in 20 new children this year. This is a temporary arrangement.

Purpose

The purpose of the building project is to allow for NESCO members to have one communal place to call home. Presently, some of the children do not see one another from day to day, it is hard for the leaders to run from place to place to care for all the children, and NESCO does not have the sustainable funds to upkeep the rent for 4 buildings. The aforementioned issues prevent NESCO from growing, forming solidarity and becoming a self-sustaining organization and family.

Vision

Our vision for the building project is to create a sustainable house for the NESCO community to live as one body.

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