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A Year in Review |
January 2012 |
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H4U
Presentation
&
Outreach
by
Ariane Drake
Willow Bay Baptist Church
246 Lee Street
American Falls, ID
Sunday, January 29, 2012
9:30 am
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Ariane Drake
with Unknown Child,
Uganda 2011 |
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Greetings to our Friends and Sponsors!
Happy New Year!! It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone so quickly. As we say goodbye to 2011, we reflect on a year of tremendous growth and success for Hands4Uganda. God's blessings on our work continue to confirm our efforts with progress both financially, physically, as well as spiritually. We are thankful for all the prayers from our friends, the generous giving of our child sponsors, the support from various churches, the individual gifts and the hard work of all those who have helped to make our fundraising events such a success. Thank you! We couldn't have done it without you!
Just nine short months ago Hands4Uganda was granted 501(c)3 tax exempt status and the administrative progress we have made since then has helped to kick-start the organization. With our bank account opened and an independent accounting and electronic funds transfer process in place, we needed to establish a secure contribution program. PayPal brought a sense of security to our donors and helped us to streamline the collecting, protecting and transmitting of their payment information. With PayPal in place we began seeing 3-4 new child sponsorships per month and secured a total of 26 child sponsorships in 2011 through PayPal alone. And with tax season now upon us, we are also happy to report that we have acquired Giftworks, software for non-profits, which enables us to quickly and efficiently retrieve donor data. In fact, if you were a donor in 2011 you should have already received your donation receipt. What a blessing these tools have been for us as we close our first year as an official non-profit.
In addition to the business side of things, we worked aggressively to implement tools that would enable us to spread the good news of the work that we are accomplishing. We launched our website late spring at www.hands4uganda.org and began the distribution of a monthly newsletter to keep our friends and donors in the know about the progress we are making. And most recently, we launched the H4U Facebook page! Become our friend to help spread the word.
The progress we are most excited to share with you, though, is that related to the children and the school. Rock of Ages was registered with the Ugandan government allowing us to take vaccines, educational material, equipment and supplies for children into to the country duty-free. We took advantage of this when Ariane, the president of our executive committee and then 17, hosted a mission trip to Mbiko, leading three other young adults and one adult supervisor on a trip to support Rock of Ages School. The team delivered new shoes to all 126 kids enrolled at the time along with sponsorship packets and letters. Additionally, the team worked to secure packets for all unsponsored kids! What a blessing for these children to know that people half way around the world care enough about them to provide gifts of such basic need.
Though we continue to work to raise funds for the purchase of land and a new school, we were blessed to have raised enough money in 2011 to be able to add two new classrooms to the existing ROA building, allowing us to host kids through 2nd grade in our existing structure and to add 30 new students, bringing our total enrollment to 155. Again, thank you, we couldn't have done it without you!
God Bless,
The Hands4Uganda Board of Directors
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The H4U 2012 Vision
People often ask me what our most important goal is and I generally stumble just a little bit, because H4U started with the dream of Betty Waswa to have her own school for children in PK-3 through 8th grade and the vision of Hands4Uganda was to make that dream come true. So, our inital goal was simple, raise money, buy land and build a school for the children of Mbiko. We quickly learned that though this was an awesome long term goal, we had children attending school who needed to be able to stay in school. So our most important short term goal is to secure sponsorship and or funds to secure 100% of the student's attendance at ROA. We are currently at about 50% and our prayers are that we can continue to increase enrollment, but this can only be done by ensuring our existing students can continue to attend.
God-willing, the students will be sponsored making our next goal the addition of another classroom enabling the children an education through 3rd grade. The current 2nd grade class will soon be graduating and we have no facility to school them further. We are confident that God has great plans for the work we are doing in Mbiko and for the children of ROA so as we continue to secure sponsorships and the funds to add another classroom we will also move forward with additional fundraising efforts to add money to the land and building fund, knowing that eventually we will run out of space at the existing location and will no longer be able to facilitate additional add-ons.
 | | Current Second Grade Class |
As our efforts continue to be blessed and our organization grows, we plan to expand our Board of Directors and will look for talented individuals who can help to improve over site and connection to the community. Our hopes are that with the added support, we will be able to improve our connections with our sponsors here in the US and expand our outreach to the adults in the Mbiko community. Of course, the best way to foster the outreach is to "be there". And that's what we hope to do with two mission trips this year! Stay-tuned, God might be calling you to join us!!
In his name,
Ariane
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 | | Jovan Tugumikirize |
Meet Jovan Tugumikirize
Jovan is four years old and lost his father earlier this month. His family are refugees from Rwanda, with no relatives in Uganda. Jovan's mother gave birth to another child the day before her husband passed away. She has been working as a digger to earn a living, but with a new baby and the devastating loss of her husband she will not be able to work for some time. Please prayerfully consioder sponsoriong Jovan so that he can remain in school at Rock of Ages.
Your $20/month sponsorship guarantees a spot in the school for Jovan and enables him to continue receiving an education by qualified teachers, a meal & juice each school day, and a school uniform. If you are able you can upgrade to a premium sponsorship of $40/month and a monthly food pack of rice and eggs will be provided to Jovan's family the first of each month during the school term.
Please prayerfully consider sponsoring Jovan or making a one-time donation in his name. A one-time donation in any amount will help offset his tuition or if you like, you can specify your funds in Jovan's name for support to his family. Learn how by visiting the Hands4Uganda Donate page now.
Update: Patricia Nampala, the child we highlighted last month is still available for sponsorship.
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How Can You Help?
Hands4Uganda's success is dependent on people like you. No matter your skills, financial well being, or theological knowledge, God can use you to move mountains and change lives forever. 2012 brings opportunities for individuals of all ages to
"love differently..." by participating in fund raising efforts, local promotional events at your church, traveling to Africa on a mission trip, praying for the ministry, sponsoring a child or helping promote child sponsorship. How can you help make a difference in our world?
Email info@hands4Uganda.org for more ideas.
Child Sponsorship Update
We have over 150 students enrolled at Rock of Ages and approximately 50% of those students are still awaiting sponsorship. The need is so great and we are at a point that we are having to turn kids away as we stretch dollars to meet the needs. The ultimate goal of H4U is to build a new school for ROA. However, this goal will not be attainable until all the children are sponsored. Please consider sponsoring one of these beautiful children today! Visit the Hands4Uganda Sponsor a Child webpage to find out how.
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  Our Mission
The mission of Hands4Uganda is to make a positive difference in the lives of the children and youth of Uganda, primarily through a faith-based education, and to assist them in achieving their highest potential as they grow to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults, by providing compassion, love, economic, and spiritual support.
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