Bungokho Rural Development Centre (BRDC)

So after initial introductions last Friday, Monday was off to work!

My main placement is at the Bungokho Rural Development Centre (BRDC), about three miles outside of Mbale. The land for this site was donated to the church by a local lady, and her British husband to benefit children and youth in the neighborhood. BRDC was formed in 1995 and is run by Church Army Africa.

Currently BRDC has four work areas to continue this vision:

-       -  Community based Training

-       -  Nursery and Primary School

-       -  Tree Planting

-       -  Vocational Training in Agriculture, Carpentry, Construction, Hairdressing and Tailoring

Captain Davis Manana is the Centre Manager overseeing the general running of the centre, liaising with donors and sponsors as well as with our programme.

Davis and I discussed on Friday the scope of my work while I'm here. I'm looking at the general governance of the organisation in order to review, update and document the procedures of how their Board works. The organisation has expanded since it began so its ways of working need to be reviewed from time to time to make sure they are controlling their resources effectively to meet their objectives.

This week I’ve arranged to spend a day with each department to get to know what they are doing, how they work etc. to build up my understanding of how BRDC fits together.

The school, main tree nursery and vocational training courses are on site however (rather obviously) the community-based training is the outreach part of the project that involves work in and around the parishes in Bukiende sub county - I'll update on these as I go!