This rural Ugandan community has been seriously hit by HIV/AIDS, malaria and other serious illnesses. Coupled with the high poverty levels this has resulted in poor standards of living and rampant deaths. Countless children of the area have been left orphaned. At the same time, there are a number of poverty stricken elderly widows. Their sons and daughters who were supporting them, have now also been claimed by HIV/AIDS. The scenario sees both the young and the elderly of the district facing extreme social and economic hardships.

Many children in Lubanda Village fail to continue with their education, which puts further strain on their future. Although the Government of Uganda is working towards providing so called free education, there are a number of areas where families are expected to cover costs. Scholastic materials and uniforms must be purchased by families, and children are required to provide their own lunches. As many vulnerable and orphaned children are unable to meet these requirements, they eventually resort to dropping out of school. With no education children try to sustain their future by doing petty jobs such as pushing matooke (a local fruit) on bicycles to nearby towns for sale. Others are unable to find work of any kind, so continuing the vulnerability cycle.  

Now that the centre is up and running it will provide vocational skills to those children who are unable to continue with their formal education. Other underprivileged community groups, such as the widows and women's groups will also be catered for. Training will be provided in many areas, such as Tailoring and Weaving, Craft and Jewellery Making and Farming as a Business. This will give people skills in a broad number of fields, eventually enabling them to generate an income for their families and therefore the ability to support themselves.

Double dug and a variety of modern farming methods, along with proper and appropriate care for various livestock, will be permanently on display at the centre for the surrounding community to learn from. Training days for  'Building Energy Efficient Stoves', 'Nutrition and Sanitation', 'Craft Making' and 'Computer Classes' are already being held at the centre . In fact we envisage that Suubi will help the community to develop skills in the following five key areas. A variety of training to cover all of these relevant life skills are planned to be held at the centre.

• Environment and Development 
• Entrepreneurship and Skills Development
• Reproductivity and Community Based Health Care
• Resource and Information Unit - including a community based library and computer classes.
• Best Friends for Life - Connecting people via letter writing to their overseas counterparts

We are already able to see that The Suubi (Hope) Education and Community Centre is building hope from what appeared to be a hopeless situation!