How We Got Started
The story of creating communities with new hope for life
The Building New Horizons non-profit organization is the result of the most essential elements of human connection, shared endeavor, and the impetus to collaborate for the good of all.
The connection…
The Building New Horizons – New Hope Community Center collaboration is the story of two people living on different continents, meeting “by chance” through the miraculous nature of the internet on an international online pen pal site. Through the sharing of the activities and challenges of their everyday lives, they found an essential common ground and interest.
The protagonists of the project…
Maate AbuyuMaate is a community-focused teacher and minister living in the Kasese District of western Uganda, with a passion and commitment to helping not only the vulnerable children but also the less fortunate adults in his region. Maate not only donated food to families in need but also worked to bring educational opportunities to orphans and children whose families could not afford to send them to school.
In Arizona, on the southwestern edge of the United States, we find Wayne, equally devoted to uplifting the lives of the underprivileged and those facing challenging circumstances.
Through their online conversations, an organic “partnership” came into being, where Wayne felt and saw the need to assist Maate in providing the life-saving and life-affirming services Maate already started to deliver in his local community. Wayne began with an initial small donation of shoes and soccer balls – which for many of the kids, was the first pair of shoes they’d ever worn!
The reality…
Wayne ThurstonAs time went on and through their continued dialogue, Wayne’s understanding of the true reality the local residents were living, along with Maate’s desire to make a real difference for those less fortunate, a real partnership founded in spirit and material resource was formed.
In remote rural areas of the Kasese District, families live in a severely restricted and barely sustainable manner. Material insecurity presents in every facet of life – subsistence living at every level, virtually no infrastructure, financial insecurity, poor water quality, a meager diet lacking protein, no electricity, and no formal education options. Vulnerable populations of at-risk women, children, and orphans face life with no “safety net”, no local healthcare, and limited opportunity or availability of consistent employment.
All in all, an essentially desperate way of living – where all the things available and taken for granted in the more developed countries and areas of the world, are alarmingly absent.
Yet amid these challenges, Wayne was inspired by the inherent ingenuity, resilience, and affability of the people laboring to survive in these conditions. He recognized that given the smallest opportunity and resources, they could build a sustainable way of life for themselves and their community.
When the partners first met, Maate had been providing education and support for at-risk women, their children, and orphans through a temporary agreement at a local church. With the end of this opportunity coming to a close, there was an urgent need to find a permanent site/solution that could service the essential needs of the children and community.
A call to act…
It was at this point that Wayne and Maate forged a new level of partnership and a plan was established to create a permanent school & community center site. Raw land was purchased, and subsequently the development and construction of road access, school buildings, teachers’ dorms, at-risk women and children’s dorms, and, eventually, community center structures where healthcare, vocational learning, community meetings, and a variety of other communities’ activities can be held.
And so, six months after they met, the first concrete steps were taken to “make real” the shared vision of Maate and Wayne.
New “hope” ignites…
A plot of raw land was identified and purchased in January 2023 with the intent of building the first non-tuition-based school and community center in the area. Phase 1 construction was started in April 2023 with the building of three separate school classrooms, a teacher’s dormitory, a kitchen, and a bathroom.
Within three short months, the first New Hope Community site sprang to life, signaling the dawn of a brighter future!
