What everyday care and ongoing operation require — now and as Wonders develops
Wonders Orphan Sanctuary is connected to 57 children and 10 caregivers — 67 people in total.
The Stability Plan makes the recurring foundation easier to understand through three working monthly levels:
- $1,000/month — Bare Minimum
- $2,500/month — Solid Baseline
- $5,000/month — Caregiver-Supported Stability
The Stability Plan is intentionally simple.
This page looks at the wider costs and responsibilities underneath and beyond those three levels.
A development budget tells you what it costs to create or change something. This page explains what it takes to keep everyday life and new systems going over time.
Table of Contents
- What this page is for →
- What ongoing care and operation include →
- What the Stability Plan numbers are based on →
- Costs return on different rhythms →
- How development changes operation →
- What is grounded — and what is still developing →
- Where this page fits →
1. What this page is for
Some costs keep everyday care going.
Others appear because new capacity has been created.
A productive acre can improve food security — and also require water, labour, tools and seasonal inputs.
Equipment can reduce dependence on borrowing — and still require power, data, storage, maintenance and eventual replacement.
A permanent building can reduce rent dependence — and still require utilities, repairs and upkeep.
That is why Wonders separates two connected responsibilities:
Development funding changes the conditions. Recurring support helps sustain life and operation within those conditions.
That distinction matters because new capacity also creates responsibilities that have to be carried afterward.
This page does not try to force all of them into one monthly number.
2. What ongoing care and operation include
The wider operating picture extends beyond the few categories used in the simplified Stability Plan.
| Area | What it can include |
|---|---|
| Food | everyday meals, food-price changes and dietary variety |
| Caregiver & team support | compensation/support, roles, coverage, overnight responsibilities, relief and leave, and later non-care functions where needed |
| Shelter & household operation | rent, water, cooking fuel, utilities, household supplies, cleaning, ordinary repairs and later site/building maintenance |
| Health, hygiene & daily care | hygiene supplies, healthcare, ordinary medicines or care needs, and replacement of mosquito protection |
| Schooling-related needs | term costs, supplies, uniforms/materials and other education-related responsibilities |
| Transport, communications & maintenance | ordinary travel, data/communications, equipment upkeep, repairs and replacement planning |
Phase 1 now also creates a new kind of operating question:
What happens when development creates an income-generating activity as well as a cost?
A Marketplace may create revenue.
It also creates responsibilities around:
- stock;
- storage;
- procurement transport;
- adult labour;
- bookkeeping and cash-stock control;
- compliance where applicable;
- maintenance and loss;
- and protected working capital.
The operating effect should therefore be learned from real records rather than assumed from a projection.
Not every item in this wider picture belongs inside the three Stability Plan levels.
Some are monthly.
Some are seasonal, term-based, periodic, need-based or long-horizon responsibilities.
3. What the Stability Plan numbers are based on
The Stability Plan explains what the three recurring levels mean.
This section has a different job:
to show what kind of evidence currently sits underneath those simplified levels.
The working conversion used for the current references is:
1 CAD ≈ 2,550 UGX
| Area | Current working reference | Current status |
|---|---|---|
| Food | Level 1: ~$500 CAD/month; Level 2: ~$1,000 CAD/month | Working food models. Level 1 represents roughly one staple-focused meal/person/day; Level 2 roughly 1.5 meal-equivalents/person/day. These are not complete nutrition budgets. |
| Rental shelter | Level 1: 900,000 UGX ≈ $353 CAD/month for three very small rented rooms; Level 2: ~$1,284 CAD/month for the five-building rental model | Based on current project clarification. The exact Level 2 per-building breakdown still needs to be confirmed. |
| Cooking fuel | Level 1: ~375,000 UGX / $147 CAD/month; Level 2: ~600,000 UGX / $235 CAD/month | Level 1 is a derived working allowance used to complete the $1,000 model. Level 2 uses the current 600,000 UGX charcoal/wood reference. |
| Caregiver compensation | 637,500 UGX per caregiver × 10 = 6,375,000 UGX ≈ $2,500 CAD/month | Current planning assumption for Level 3; not yet a formal compensation commitment. |
The point is not to repeat the full Stability Plan here.
The point is to make clear what each number is based on and what is still unsettled.
4. Costs return on different rhythms
Not every real cost should be turned into a monthly bill.
Different responsibilities return on different schedules.
| Rhythm | Examples | How to think about it |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous / monthly | food, rent, caregiver support, cooking fuel, some utilities/data | part of the recurring operating base |
| Term-based | schooling-related fees, supplies or materials | plan around the school calendar rather than treating the cost as identical every month |
| Seasonal | seeds, planting inputs, agricultural labour, crop protection, some water needs | plan around the growing cycle |
| Need-based / variable | healthcare, some transport, unexpected repairs | learn from actual patterns before assigning a fixed monthly figure |
| Event / bounded-program | Festival, Residency periods, collaborations | active when the program is active; not automatically a permanent basic-care cost |
| Periodic / annual | mattresses, bedding, clothing, mosquito nets, tools, equipment repairs/replacement, and formal annual costs where applicable | plan around actual replacement need or the real annual cycle |
| Long-term replacement | vehicle replacement, major equipment or system replacement | build the evidence before assigning a reserve figure |
This distinction matters.
A useful operating picture should show when a responsibility actually returns — not simply divide every possible future expense by twelve and call the result a monthly budget.
5. How development changes operation
The Development Roadmap is intended to improve the conditions surrounding care.
Those improvements can also create, remove or change operating responsibilities.
| Development phase | What changes operationally |
|---|---|
| Phase 1 — Creative Activation | data/communications; power/charging; secure storage; technology upkeep/replacement; Marketplace storage and procurement transport; adult business workload; bookkeeping/cash-stock control; applicable trading/compliance costs; protected working-capital discipline; and bounded Festival / Residency / creative-community activity while active |
| Phase 2 — Daily Dignity + First Acre/Nourishment | temporary rental while active, garden labour, water, seeds and other inputs, crop protection, tool upkeep, storage and security |
| Phase 3 — Permanent Sanctuary / Stability | caregiver/team support, water and sanitation, energy, building/site maintenance, Nourishment work, security, mobility, fuel, repairs, tyres and longer-term replacement |
The Marketplace may also begin generating local income.
That matters.
But projected business income should not be subtracted from recurring care before real operating evidence exists.
The responsible sequence is:
create the capability → record real sales and costs → protect working capital → understand true operating contribution → only then decide what recurring burden the business can responsibly help carry
The detailed BWC arithmetic belongs to:
Phase 1 — Budget & Transparency →
One useful Phase 2 example is already visible.
Current Phase 2 planning includes a possible bridge of three additional rental rooms at 1.2M UGX/month total for approximately six months while that bridge is active.
That is a Phase 2 time-bounded operating responsibility.
It is separate from the Stability Plan’s Level 1 shelter model, which uses three smaller rooms at 300,000 UGX each/month to explain the Bare Minimum recurring floor.
The detailed development arithmetic belongs on the applicable Budget & Transparency page.
This page keeps the operating consequence visible.
Explore the Development Roadmap →
6. What is grounded — and what is still developing
Some parts of the operating picture are already concrete enough to use.
Others still need better local information before they should become larger public totals.
| Area | What is grounded now | What still needs clarification |
|---|---|---|
| Recurring foundation | Working food, rented-shelter and cooking-fuel references support the three-level Stability Plan | better current figures for utilities, hygiene, healthcare, schooling, transport/data, repairs, maintenance and replacement |
| Caregiver support | Level 3 uses a working 637,500 UGX per caregiver/month compensation assumption | whether and when that becomes a formal arrangement, plus roles, coverage, overnight responsibilities, relief and leave |
| Development-created operation | The basic development-to-operation relationship is clear. Phase 1 now includes a defined BWC Marketplace pilot architecture with known working storage/transport inputs and protected-capital rules; some Phase 2 bridge costs are also already specific. | actual BWC sales velocity; spoilage/loss; adult workload/compensation; bookkeeping/cash-stock controls; applicable trading/tax/licensing costs; protected working-capital minimum after live trading; Festival Supporter Pass uptake; true post-revenue repeat-Festival cost; later Café operating costs; stronger Phase 2 land/Nourishment operating costs; later Phase 3 system costs |
| Cost frequency | The main rhythms are identifiable | actual timing, replacement life and reasonable reserve assumptions |
Larger operating totals should be added only when enough of the underlying pieces are clear for the total to mean something.
As those pieces become clearer, this page can become more specific.
7. Where this page fits
Different pages answer different questions.
| If you want to understand… | Go to… |
|---|---|
| what $1,000, $2,500 and $5,000 materially mean in everyday life | Stability Plan → |
| what is happening around recurring support now and how to participate | Stability Circle → |
| specific items, practical resources or capabilities that could help | Needs / Wish List + High-Leverage Catalysts → |
| what Wonders is trying to change through Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 | Development Roadmap → |
| development-phase budgets, evidence and implementation logic | the applicable Phase Budget & Transparency page |
| legal status, fund flow, verification and wider trust questions | Transparency / FAQ → |
This page holds the deeper operating layer:
what has to be carried over time, how often it returns, and how clear the evidence behind it currently is.
Closing
Buying or building something is only half the cost story.
The other half is what it takes to keep food dependable, caregivers supported, systems maintained, repairs handled, and worn-out essentials replaced over time.
Monthly Stability & Operating Needs exists to keep that second question visible.