Dear Supporters and Friends,

This will be the shortest update since January this year. We did not have many activities but we have registered achievements and progress in the schools and sponsorship programs.

The month of June has been a busy one for us, ensuring that we made all the necessary innovations and availing the necessities to start Titan Schools of East Africa – Jinja Nursery and Primary School. You may be wondering why we started this school when we are still struggling to sustain Portland schools; the financial model of Titan schools is to target middle-class families with affordable tuition rates.  Once the school grows  to a population of 200 learners, it should be self-sustaining, and no longer dependent on donations after June 2025.  The paid fees can subsidize vulnerable (non paying) students – ratio of 5 to 1, at Titan.  Titan Schools of East Africa – Jinja Nursery and Primary School is in Buwenda community and will serve middle income parents who spend so much in not only school fees but also transportation of their children to and from Buwenda village to Jinja city schools.  These families make up 48% of the population. Our  tuition is far more affordable in comparison with the school fees and the cost of transportation of such children to the city schools. 

The enrollment for  this term is low because we opened the school in the middle of the term and parents had already taken their children to different schools in the city. We expect more learners to enroll in September (third term) but will see even better enrollment at the start of the new academic year in January 2025. On the side of Portland schools, academic progress has been steady; teachers are busy with classworks and activities of integration under the new curriculum which is more practical. Additionally, all the teachers of the candidate classes (Primary Seven, Senior Four and Senior Six) are working so hard to make their learners excel in their respective subjects. There will be extra rewards for every student who scores distinction ONE and both  for the teachers and for the learners. One major challenge lately is issues with the solar power due to drained batteries. The school runs 100% on solar power because there is no electricity in Amor village.  

Good news for Portland schools:  10 bunk beds were donated for the boarding students by Ted and Lindsey Copeland. This is a great achievement because there was a shortage of beds. We are promoting all the sponsored students to board at the school  because of their vulnerabilities as commuter students. 

Additionally, Mission of Hope Evangelists from the U.S visited Portland schools today. They shared the word of God with them. I received news that both schools were very welcoming.

The sponsored students at College and University levels are making us proud again!  Six students are done with their degrees and diplomas. Their graduations start in December all the way to March of next year. I am happy to join them in January for my MBA graduation. Three of these young people are orphans, the rest were vulnerable. One girl had gotten married to a man twice her age in 2020. We worked hard to get her out of that marriage even though she was already pregnant. Now she is the mother of a baby girl and is also graduating soon with a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and Resource Governance.  She is so proud of both accomplishments.. 

We have re-branded the bakery from Dancing Heart Bakery to Karen’s Kitchen because the former name was not approved by the registrar of companies who associated Dancing with the Music industry. Upon re-branding we also reduced the number of the young people in the production and in the product sales due to the wear and tear  on  the equipment and the difficulty of transporting  products to various locations. It is going well with the reduced number of staff and trainees.

There is no major report on other projects. We appreciate you for being part of these developments and for uplifting rural communities, helping to break bad cultural practices and for nurturing our vision of empowering communities to take charge of their own developments.

We continue to call out to anyone who is able and willing to support us to please get in touch with me.  We still have a lot of needs  both in the Portland school community and in Titan,  including solar panels and batteries, computers, furniture, textbooks, more classrooms and ramps, among others . We also still have many young people in need of educational sponsorship.

Thank you for your time. We hope that you will share our work with others  who might be interested in supporting our work in any way. We need volunteers with any expertise, fundraisers, donations and people who will give us feedback and encourage us.

We wish you a happy  new month of July and a great official start of this half of the year, 2024!