Dear Supporters and Friends,
Welcome to our July update which features some amazing achievements by PCE-supported students, updates on Portland and Titan schools, and a step forward in the farm project.
Today allow me to start with the great news about three young women and one young man who have recently completed their studies.
- Beatrice Amal (24) was disowned by her father in 2020 because she got pregnant after he worked so hard for 4 years educating her. It was his commitment and love for his daughter that struck me to look for her and give her safety as well as support her further education. We forcefully took her out of the man’s house – a divorced man who was twice her age. She lived with me and gave birth soon after she joined Kyambogo University in 2021. Today she is waiting for her graduation date with a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and Resource Governance; a proud mother with clear goals of laying a better foundation for her daughter. Her father is super proud of her now.
- Joan Nafula has been supported by PCE Foundation since 2014; she awaits graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Nutrition. She had battled with her own health issues for nearly 4 years before she joined the university where her research project focused on the use of highly nutritious cricket meal in cookies.
- Gift Florence Athieno is graduating as a certified Midwife. She has saved so many lives already in her hospital internship practices and is improving her own parents’ lives who have battled HIV/AIDS for many years.
- Isaac Oketcho will soon graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Computing. I got to know this young man in 2014 when he came looking for a job rearing pigs on our school farm. He worked with a lot of passion and dedication and I saw a great potential in him that I did not want to waste. He has certainly lived up to my expectations.
All four of these young people are done with their class work and research, and are only waiting for graduation. Many thanks to Khatija Begum and Abdilar (Singapore), Shelby and Max Young, Kathryn Gray (U.S) and Krystina Kilde (Norway) for respectively sponsoring these young people.
School news:
Titan Schools of East Africa – the Jinja Nursery and Primary school which is a pioneer school in a small village of Buwenda Jinja has started rabbit farming as a cheap meat option for the children. This school opened in June 2024 as documented in our previous newsletters. We would like to integrate farming and nature activities in this school from its initial stages. We appreciate Dana Janssen (Germany) for her contribution towards this project.
We are also looking into setting up a poultry farm in Buwenda for Titan Schools. There is farmland a few meters away from the school which was purchased by Karen Bentlage. The poultry will produce food for the students, provide training for them, and also boost the income of the school to support the education of especially vulnerable children in the area.
Titan Schools Jinja was begun using rooms in a residential house converted to school house, and currently goes up through Primary 3. The rooms are small and can’t support the full range of classes (up to Primary 7) nor the number of students expected in the future. Soon, standard classroom facilities will be started with the help of the Titans (GOT members and supporters) which will be able to handle the planned classes. More about GOT is in our April newsletter; visit our website for details. Updates about the donations and progress of this school construction will be shared every month. We very much appreciate Karen Bentlage, April Lukasik, Tamara Loehr, Rick Sapio, Stephen Kearley, Marcus New and Brian Scudamore for the donations already made through our fiscal sponsor in Canada.
At Portland High School, the ICT classroom and solar power systems have been rejuvenated after the solar batteries were completely drained. Portland Schools do not have electricity; they fully rely on solar power. When we identified an urgent need for solar power for the ICT classrooms, additional computers, a printer and plastic stools for the laboratory, Alison Harrower (Australia) stepped up. We are very grateful to her. Her generous donation was made in memory of her childhood friend Thelma Bryan who passed away in 2022 at 92 years of age.
In other good news, Portland High School’s first floor classrooms (the section with stairs of the multi-story building) is ready to be used for classrooms after seven months of waiting for the slab to set. It has also been wired and solar power installed for lighting. Alison’s donation stretched to providing solar power for these three additional classrooms; and Ted and Lindsey Copeland, Citizen and Natasha Sigmund and Sumru Erkut provided financial support for the demolition of the slab support timbers and wiring of these classrooms.
For all the good news, there is bad news as well. We have not been able to fully pay the staff at Portland Schools for the past two months. We have used up all the contributions from the parents, the monthly donation for the few students who have sponsors, and the monthly administrative donations from Shelby Young and Rita Reutner, and are still struggling to pay salaries and feed those in the school. Julie K Thompson has donated USD $2,500 to help with these expenses. An additional USD $5,145.20 is needed for salaries and $1,191.78 for foodstuffs. We are requesting financial help to allow us to settle the June and July salary arrears and cover the feeding costs.
In Other News:
The bakery business has run into a number of issues recently which are preventing its profitable operation. The Probox car has repeatedly broken down, which has created challenges with the sales and delivery of the products, as well as being a financial drain. Additionally, although we now have trained employees who can handle the baking, the equipment is wearing out. If the bakery could afford a truck, a newer oven, a dough mixer and a generator (when the power goes out, whatever is being baked is ruined), we could revive this business and make it profitable. It was contributing significantly to Portland Schools up through 2022; we would like to reach that level of success again.
In farm news, this month we explored 4 bee hives and harvested 6 liters of honey which is worth USD $50. Thirty Seven (37) more hives will be harvested in the next three weeks. This is the Kabowa apiary; the farmland was purchased by Karen Bentlage (U.S). Our goal is to set many more hives on this farm within the next 5 years. We are working hard at generating local revenues in order to be able to help meet future urgent needs of the schools, thereby reducing our donor dependence.
We are pleased to have secured a partnership and fiscal sponsorship in Canada. Pearl Community Empowerment Foundation and Myriad Canada are pleased to be working together on School Construction and Community Empowerment in East Africa. Myriad Canada is an International philanthropic network that brings together donors, philanthropists, and organizations. You can support our project by making a donation at: https://www.myriadcanada.org/en/project/school-construction-and-community-empowerment-in-east-africa/ You will receive a donation receipt from Myriad Canada. Many thanks to Jensine Larsen of World Pulse for helping us acquire this partnership.
Lastly, next week I will be inaugurated as one of the Board of Trustees for the Tieng Adhola Development Foundation; an organization in the Jopadhola Kingdom. This foundation serves a population of over 700,000 people of the Jopadhola. It is our successful community work that brought me to this organization’s attention and has elevated my leadership. I appreciate you all for making possible the change that has been seen in our supported communities over the last 13 years, and hope that some of our lessons learned will be helpful in this additional role.
Finally, our 2023 annual report is out. We hope that you will take the time to read it through.
Thank you so much for your contributions and encouragement. We wish you a fruitful month of August!