Ocer Campion Jesuit College

Founding

The school sits on 98.5 acres donated by a local family. It is envisaged that Ocer Campion will accommodate about 1200 students, in an area emerging from 20 years of war. Funds for the school have come from Jesuit headquarters in Rome and in East Africa, from Campion Alumni in Milwaukee, and from an American Schools and Hospitals Abroad grant of US$500,000 for a home economics and dining facility, among other buildings. Facilities include dormitories for boys and for girls and classroom buildings. The school must be self-sufficient with solar-powered electricity. It also received help through a UNEP-inspired project for turning sewage into fresh water. Students tend a farm that accommodates cattle, chickens, pigs, vegetables, grain, and an orchard, along with a pond for fish. There is also a library. Through visiting interns from the United States, health services are offered to the school and surrounding community.

Vision

Many students have come from IDP camps where they roamed without discipline. The school offers a year of primary education to prepare students for high school. Transforming student behavior and forming character is an important goal of the school. Each teacher mentors about 10 students. The school takes in students from the war-torn north of Uganda as well as from the south to create understanding and unify these different parts of society through "Ndugu/brotherhood". Colonialism divided the people but English now serves as a language that can unite them. Students of various clans and skin colors learn that they are much the same and can get along together. The ultimate goal of the school would be to train future leaders for the country who will be upright and shun corruption. The school's motto is "learn, love & serve."