Ojok Okello' s dream to build a city in his father' s home village began with a small house. When he set foot there in Northern Uganda for the first time in 2013, he wanted to build a small mud brick house where he could spend time with his extended family in Okere. But the poverty of his dad' s village nagged at him.
So in 2018 he returned. By that time, he' d earned a master' s degree in rural development, where he studied up on various kinds of aid projects. International projects often didn' t work in places like Northern Uganda, he' d begun to realize, because they saw locals as recipients, not cooperators. So when he decided to help rebuild Okere, he believed it had to be done differently.
He began asking locals what their most pressing challenges were. At the time, the nearest school was 2. 5 miles away, and had few teachers and books.
So Mr. Okello took out his savings and in 2019 began building a small kindergarten. Later, he began another program to help adults learn to read and write. This fall, after Okere residents said they needed a way to make money, Mr. Okello began to experiment with processing small nuts, which residents mostly women—collect and turn into butter for cooking and cosmetics.
But his project has run into some of the same challenges as other development projects in the region. It needs money. To date, almost all of the project has been funded by Mr. Okello' s savings. He' s open to donor support, as long as donors are willing to back what the community says it needs rather than impose their own agenda. And so far, he' s had some donors. But the question of funding remains a lasting one. Mr. Okello says he plans to keep using his own money until he has none left to give. " New York City was built by someone. Okere will also be built. " he says. " The most important thing is that its foundation has already been laid. "