Engeye Business and Training Center

Ddegeya had programs and people ready to teach, but no dependable place where business training, literacy, and community activity could grow together. Jessica Labac’s Engeye Scholars Center proposal creates that shared base. Classrooms and training rooms support reading, computer and sewing instruction, while flexible gathering and enterprise spaces allow skills to connect with small-business practice. Research into Ugandan culture, climate, local materials, and regional precedents informed a design intended to be recognizable and buildable rather than imported.

The center is also conceived as a civic marker—a place where different programs can meet and where community members can see their work as part of a larger local effort. Journeyman International helped connect Engeye’s long-term relationships in Ddegeya to a detailed design, schedule, and cost framework. The 2014 archive documents a proposal, not a finished facility. Its central architectural contribution is integration: literacy, vocational learning, business support, and gathering are placed close enough to reinforce one another in everyday use.