About Canaan Project

"This ministry is all about reforming lives to become Mentors who have been Mentored, and to create team leaders who will be agents of change in their communities."

ABSTRACT

This ministry is a non-profit making project and it will be established to help vulnerable children and youths access services which can change their lives, as well as receiving vocational skills to become self-sustaining members of an economic world.

The goal of the ministry is providing educational services to the vulnerable children such as orphans, street children and destitute (needy) children, and to empower the Youth with vocational training skills. We also strive to raise orphans to be self-sustaining, goal oriented, transformed to transform others and to reach out to communities while applying Biblical principles.

The ministry will have an impact on the problem of unemployment by equipping caregivers, children and the youth with income-generating activities and vocational skills. An added benefit will be to help reduce the crime rates in the community, because the youth who would normally engage in these crimes would obtain the skills to start up income- generating projects and vocational skills.

Background of the Ministry

The Canaan Project is envisioned to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to apply the Gospel in its holistic form to the youth. The project was originated in the village of Muleete in the Mubende District of Uganda, by Ssikubwabo Israel. In 2012, while in his Secondary Level, Israel realized a vision put on his heart by God to serve orphan children just as he was as a child. The desire of Israel’s heart grew until 2016 when Israel began to actively pursue the development of a ministry.

After pursuing his teaching qualifications with a focus on community transformation, and a holistic approach to human development, Israel shared his vision with his Mentor, Reverend Wilson Sentongo. Reverend Sentongo is the Founder of Muleete Community Church, which is the Headquarters for over three hundred (300) churches, Muleete Health Center, and Agape School located in Mubende. He has nurtured hundreds of vulnerable children all over Uganda, including Israel who was cared for as an orphan, and raised by Reverend Wilson.

Israel, now 25 years old, is a Ugandan orphan servant of God, with a desire to change the future for vulnerable children and restore hope in his community of Mubende, including the rest of Africa.

By inviting those who are despised and looked upon as hopeless, Israel wants to draw them close to Jesus Christ for transformation and discipleship in fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Israel has been serving as a Youth Pastor in Muleete Church for over 3 years and has already taken an active role in helping children in his mother church area by looking for Sponsors for children in need of educational support.

Some children have received sponsorships as a result of Israel’s efforts and he continually looks to help more children every day. Israel has served as a Vice Chairperson in Namutamba PTC Christian Fellowship during his college time and has also been serving as a teacher at Agape Christian Primary School in Muleete for three (3) years. His desire is to see a life reformation to Jesus Christ among children around him with a hope for a better tomorrow.

Current Situation in Uganda

Currently the country is home to nearly 2.4 million children who have lost one or both parents to HIV/and or AIDS, extreme poverty and civil conflict. In fact, Uganda has the largest orphan population per capita of any country in the world.

Half of young men and women and 80% of widows & single parents in Uganda have no self-sustaining economic opportunities. They cannot access basic human needs of two meals a day, a decent shelter or a good education. To most people, life has become just about daily survival. They have no hope of breaking out of poverty and thriving in life.

Health and social issues make a significant contribution to rural poverty in Uganda. The population of about 33.4 million (based on 2010 Census) is growing at a rate of 3.2% every year, doubling every twenty (20) years. Although the country has been able to dramatically reduce the incidence of HIV/and or AIDS among the population, the pandemic has caused the death of large numbers of young adults and orphans, approximately one million children.

Approximately 68% of Uganda's population live in rural areas and almost 8,000,000 live below Uganda's defined poverty line. Over one third of Uganda's population lives on less than $2.00 a day.

According to the 2011 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS)

• One in every nineteen Ugandan children die before their first birthday, and one in every eleven children die before their fifth birthday.
• Twelve percent (12%) of children under the age of eighteen (18) are orphans.
• More than half of the population of Uganda is age fifteen (15) or younger.
• Fifty-eight percent (58%) of the population takes more than 30 minutes roundtrip to fetch water.
• Only sixteen percent (16%) of households have an improved sanitation facility.
• About one in every seven households have electricity.
• The quality of housing for most Ugandans is still inadequate. More than two thirds (2/3) of households have either earth, sand, or dung floors.
• Forty percent (40%) of children under the age of five have had a fever in the two weeks before the survey.

The unfortunate truth is, there are far more orphans than there are facilities to care for them. On the surface, this problem seems far too big to address. However, it is the belief of this Ministry that our call by God is to care for the orphans whether it is five or five thousand. Our dream is to provide housing, quality education, medical care and love for Ugandan children who have nobody to care for them.

Specific Goals

• Offer high quality education to vulnerable children.
• To establish conducive homes for vulnerable children where they feel loved and cared for.
• To develop future Christian vulnerable leaders for both Uganda and Africa.
• Develop a “model village” that will provide all services needed to raise and care for vulnerable children. The initial “model village” will serve as the Ministry Headquarters.
• To build capability and equip our children with vocational skills to be self-sustaining based on biblical principles for the Glory of God

VISION/MISSION/OBJECTIVES

VISION: To produce a future network of mentored generations that mentor and transform their society by applying biblical principles.

MISSION: To enhance holistic development of children that impact the community through support systems that will develop Christian leaders, transform the community, and create jobs.

MINISTRY GOAL: To provide quality education for needy children by feeding, empowering and developing them for a self-sustaining, goal- oriented and Christ-like tomorrow.

This goal will be supported by a focus on these key areas:

• Establish a sustainable feeding program for children.
• To establish a well-equipped education Centre with the relevant technology to promote a competitive edge in a fast-paced globalizing world.
• Provide material and financial support to orphans and other vulnerable children.
• To meet the physical, psychological, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs of orphaned children by providing them with love, care, and support so that they grow into transformed adults of the society with a promising future and memorable past.
• Establish an environment equipping them with life skills to withstand future circumstances.
• Enhanced outreaches, evangelism and discipleship to raise and nurture God-fearing, responsible and well-balanced students.
• To promote to medical care systems and different God given talents e.g. singing, dancing, football and other gifts.
• Establish ministry oversight and accountability.

We will accomplish these objectives through these four foundational methods:

• Hope: Hopelessness, misery and struggle will be uprooted and replaced by hope, creativity, innovation and the ability to be fully self-sustaining.
• Evangelism: Reaching out to communities with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and lead them to a new life in Him.

• Education: Provide education to children through school fees support, scholarships, and vocational skills to youth and adults.
• Provision: Meet people's basic needs for food, healthcare, and healthy living conditions to enhance better standards of living.

Core values

Canaan Project does everything based on the following core values:

• We believe in the sovereignty of God, the salvation of Jesus Christ and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.
• We trust in the multiplying provision of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 15:14-21)
• We are ambassadors for Jesus Christ to the world. (2 Corinthians 5:20)
• We value the uniqueness and worth of all people. (Genesis 1:27, Psalm 139:13-15)
• We value action to demonstrate Christ's love. (James 2:26, James 1:22, Ephesians 2:10)

• We love people by enabling them, not just giving handouts. (Psalm 128:2, Ephesians 4:28)
• We value partner relationships and know we cannot succeed alone. (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

Focus

Holistic care

• To provide care for the person as a whole and not just part of them. This includes the body, soul and spirit by feeding and empowering.
• To provide food, housing, medical care and attend to other needs for an improved healthy life and body by feeding and empowering.
• To provide love, encouragement, family and counseling to care for the emotional needs of the children. Most importantly, we will instruct, lead and disciple into a saving love relationship with Jesus Christ.

Parenthood and Family

• To give God’s unconditional love to these innocent and precious kids.
• To bring the children we care for under the leadership of earthly parents and into the care of family. We see the children as sons and daughters, not orphans, students or statistics. Each family group will have a family father AND mother.
• In addition, all staff has a responsibility to parent the children God has entrusted to us with.

Christ-centered self-sufficiency

• One of God's provisions for His children is work, which is a blessing and a calling, not a curse. We desire to be faithful stewards by fully utilizing the resources He has provided. We will expect and require our children to help grow their own food, carry water, wash their own clothes, and perform other household chores as well as community service activities. They participate so they can experience the joy of sowing and reaping and seeing the work of their hands prosper.
• To provide vocational training to allow them to obtain or create meaningful employment. God wants us to thrive, not just survive. The joy of thriving is that it gives us many opportunities to bless others.

Christian Education

• Our Schools offer equal opportunities by training and equipping children biblical truths and Jesus Christ being the center of all learning.
• We also seek to achieve excellence in all things including education. Teaching fundamental topics, such as reading, writing, mathematics, and the truths found in the Bible are not meant to be two separate areas of study.
• To integrate Christian principles in all aspects of learning.

The steps to achieving the goals and vision of Canaan Project specific development projects are:

1. Buy land

• As our first priority, we wish to buy land. On this land we will construct a school campus, residences, library, medical clinic, children’s home and a place of worship.
• We also hope to set up farming projects on the same piece of land for food production and expansion.

2. Children’s village

• With Gods provision, we hope to establish residential blocks for both male and female children. This home will have a caretaker who will handle day-to-day administration and will look after the Hostels as Warden, one cook, one Watchman, and a doctor who will be appointed as a Center Medical Attendant. All the incoming children will be provided with a health check-up, medicine, food, cosmetics, one set of books, three sets of books every year.

3. School

• In the beginning stage, we wish to lay a foundation of all we envision, by setting up a Nursery Class which will include: (Baby class, Middle class, Top class, 3 room blocks) and Primary Class (7 room blocks.) Currently, we have already started this. While in this process of developing our children, we hope to expand by constructing a Secondary school, training centers, technology centers and even clinics for our children.
• Our hope is to keep following each class with our beginning (new) children up to Primary seven, then a Secondary as well as other levels of education.
• We hope to start up a sponsorship program from both local and international friends who are committed to change lives. However, this program will be under our umbrella as the Canaan Project and each sponsored child must attend our church programs whether they are part of an orphanage home or outsiders.

4. Place of worship

• As small churches become more powerful and effective, our emphasis will be built on making Disciples of Jesus Christ out of the so-called unclean religious people. Jesus invited fishermen (Ordinary people) to follow Him and they did amazing things after His departure (extraordinary).
• We will not only be modeling children at school but also the community neighboring the school. As time goes by, we shall start hosting other churches for Youth Conferences, giving guidance and counseling and other youth gatherings that will benefit the next generation.

5. Training centers

• Education levels in Uganda keep on changing, so these children need to access vocational skills. We hope in years to come, our children (orphans, street children, and other needy children) will be in a position to sustain themselves and transform communities spiritually, socially, financially and physically due to acquired skills.

Desired Outcomes

By the grace of God, the Canaan Project desires to raise children “in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4), so that everybody served by the Ministry are:

• Loved and Equipped: Adults feel secure in family and are equipped in character, education, and job skills. Children feel loved, accepted, part of a family, and are also provided an education.
• Disciples: Adults are true believers in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, worshippers of God and have a personal vision of God’s call on their life. Children are discipled to grow in the knowledge of God and His Word.
• Stable and Thriving: Adults live as productive citizens and give abundantly to the fatherless and others in need in their community. Children are fed, cared for and can be educated and trained to live a Christ-like character, and a Christ-filled life.
• Servant Leaders: Adults who are supported, protected, nurtured, and have hope for tomorrow, transforms their communities and future generations for Christ. Children learn by example, and what it means to serve and develop into the next generation of servant leaders in Uganda.

God's assignment (vision) is not something we can do for God, but it is something we must let God do through us purposely to gain His glory.