Dear Supporters and Friends,

We have great news for the month of October; both for Portland schools and Titan! Thanks to Canadian and United States Donors; Myriad Canada was able to support us in undertaking a number of projects going forward into the month of February 2025. These include the sponsorship of 173 students in Portland schools, training of 77 school staff members, purchase of a printer and stationery for the schools, repair of the school bus, purchase of a laptop computer and internet access, feeding 401 students until February 2025. 

We also received a donation through A More Balanced World for the purchase of land for Titan School construction projects.

We are very grateful to our GOT supporters and collaborative partners, Myriad Canada and A More Balanced World. More on this exciting news will be shared in our November newsletter but we are very appreciative of their support.

The bakery, our plan B income backup venture, received a donation of $5,000.00 from Nina Hahn. These funds were used to purchase a cake mixer, sealing machine, repair of both the 50kg dough mixer (purchased a new mortar for it) and the ice cream machine, and purchase of raw materials for the bakery. This donation is boosting the bakery from a critical failing point when its resources were used up by the schools’ needs. We are very grateful to you, Nina!

In October, we received four guests; Alison Harrower from Australia, and Debi and Cheryl who came as a team of two and Natasha Sigmund from the United States. Alison is our longtime supporter, sponsoring students at Portland High School and donating to support various projects. Debi and Cheryl support an orphanage in Jinja, they visited as a benchmark and in the end offered to sponsor a young man whose sister is already being sponsored at Portland High school. Their father abandoned their mother with 6 children, leaving them with no house, and no food whatsoever.  Natasha is our long time supporter who donated library books and makes monthly donations towards construction and renovation projects. 

The students of Senior Four (S.4) at Portland Schools sat for their national examinations in October, after studying for four years. We are hopeful that they excelled in their examinations and will earn their Uganda Certificate of Education by early March 2025. Portland Primary Seven pupils and the high school Senior Six (S.6) candidates will sit for their national exams in November.

For the past 9 years during the Christmas season, we have purchased and distributed clothes, shoes and bedding to extremely poor and needy children and families in remote villages. This tradition has been greatly appreciated by the recipients who least expected these gifts. In rural communities, most people wear new clothes and/or shoes during the Christmas festive season. We are appealing to you to help us reach out to 1000 children this festive season. We can purchase clothes and a pair of shoes for a child from $9.5 USD. We are grateful for the donation of $400 from Shelby Young towards this cause.

On a personal note, the month ended on a sad note for me; my stepbrother who has lived with HIV since 1996 became extremely ill in October and passed away in early November. I was emotionally drained having already lost all 7 of my brothers to HIV. I still have one stepbrother and one paternal cousin brother who are currently living with HIV.  Things have been difficult, which is the primary reason for the delay in sharing this newsletter. Losing so many people to HIV is a hard reality here in Uganda.  We pray for strength and courage to move on with a positive mindset and Grace to shoulder the responsibilities that come with it.

We look forward to sharing more about the funded projects and activities in the month of November.

Wishing you all a happy ending of November, 2024!