Context

The project will be set up in Bethany Village, an ARM location on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda, which is not an actual village. Here, ARM has built 11 homes, each inhabited by 15 orphans, a “mother” and a “father”. Bethany Village also has a clinic and a primary and secondary school. The schools teach the orphans, as well as children from poor fishing villages in the surrounding areas. These children still live with their families, but come to Bethany Village to attend school.

The children living in Bethany Village are orphans and other children in danger. The children are orphans due to many reasons, of which the most important ones are that their parents died of AIDS and civil war. The children spend their childhood in Bethany Village and leave the orphanage at the age of 18 and above.

Orphans in general are more vulnerable than other children. Due to their background, they may experience emotional distress, for example because they lost their parents and other relatives, because they are discriminated upon because of HIV/AIDS, etc. Another reason of vulnerability is the possibility of extra difficulties imposed on them after leaving the orphanage, when they want to reintegrate into society. Examples are discrimination, poverty, little relatives left as a social safety net, etc. Some have problems with inheritance: Orphans may lose their parent’s property to “grabbing” by extended relatives or other people.

Uganda is a developing country where agriculture still is an important sector. Because of this, running an agricultural business offers many people the so-needed possibilities of survival in hard times or maintaining and improving their life standard under normal conditions. For children who find themselves in a situation where the social safety net is not capable of helping them, or simply has disappeared, it is very important to have skills and knowledge to become at least partly self-sustaining.