Young Generation Center (YGC) Orphanage

In early 2006, Nate York was introduced to the YGC staff and campus by an official with the Center of Disease Control for Alaska, who happened to be in Kenya. At the time, the orphanage was barely functioning. The campus was on a small plot of land with several buildings for housing and feeding orphans. Those structures that weren't close to falling down, were at least in desperate need of repair. Taking on the challenge, Nate committed Solace to a series of construction projects to breathe life into the campus. Over the course of four years, Solace completed a series of projects on the property:

Campus structures

  1. A 16 room, four-story main school building designed to provide staff offices, storage, and classrooms for over 400 students - allowing room for other non-orphan children in the community to attend.
  2. A new wing of dormitories that doubled the bed capacity for orphans.
  3. A series of new wells and water capture system that drastically reduced the cost of importing water to the campus.
  4. Several rooms designed to house volunteer workers.
  5. Renovation of a former classroom area into the only internet café in the area.

 

Small business development
In keeping with the model of creating small businesses to support a central project, Solace helped organize or provided funding for the development of nearly two-dozen small business and agricultural programs for YGC and the satellite campuses. They ranged from crafts and cottage industry production, to an internet café, to a profitable trucking business.

While not every venture thrived, the majority of them saw profits within the first year. According to YGC accounting at the time, Ndesna Trucking was more than a third the way through paying off the cost of the loan for its truck within the first nine months.

When YGC and Solace parted company in the spring of 2010, the majority of these businesses were in good financial health. We hope that their profits will be used, as intended, to help sustain the health and well-being of the orphans and students at the campuses.