PRAISE REPORT
Dear Friends and Supporters ,
We would like to share briefly our journey and praise report together with you for the last 16 years of operation. Thank you for walking with us and many of you still do to this day. You have nothing to lose if you still do. Believe me, the poor will always stick around and it pays off if we can think about them. We lost none of you and we will not lose any of you due to the spirit of love we share and can never be broken. I guess this is the reason for our existence and never to lose each other under any circumstance. We lost funding in some incidences, but we cannot lose our friendship. We can protect this with our own lives. It’s priceless!
We built 11 homes in 7 districts, and Bushfire Children Home included to support 1000 vulnerable and orphaned children in 2003. The of these homes were handed over to local churches equipped with beds, beddings, kitchen utensils and clothes. We settled in Bulange Sub-county, Namutumba District and set up a Nursery, Primary and a Secondary school, Community clinic, Vocational school, four Church congregations together ministering to nearly 1000 members in total. The schools have grown to over 600 students and still growing. The clinic supports a community of 40000 members in Bulange Sub county. Our impact is evident and shared about with pride in churches, funerals and other community gatherings.
The question of giving and sharing what we have is a gift of God to mankind and I am certain there’s no limit to this exercise regardless of our status, poor of rich we have something to share. It is one of those things I will cherish as long as I live. Over the years I’ve learnt that serving to humanity is an endless exercise that brings unspeakable joy and fulfillment. And no doubt accumulating to spend on ourselves only breeds misery and pain.
PRAISE REPORT
In the last 16 years of operation we gained friendship and family form every continent on earth including you.
We have fostered over 150 children in Bushfire Children Home. This year we saw at least over 20 trained and qualified in various fields ad have jobs. Some are doing interns but with part time jobs helping at Bushfire Children Home and schools.
Most of the children became truly a part of our extended family and our fellowship is indescribable! And some have come of age and got married legally to responsible husbands. About 2% walked their own way but it’s expected in such a large undertaking.
We managed to provide land as a resettlement package to some of our older children that have lived and passed through the program. Some are starting their own small scale businesses and investing in farming as well. A few of them have bought land out of their own savings.
Our initial 10 acre land grew to over 200 acres of fertile land and its one of the reasons we can resettle those who have nothing to inherit form their family and can now own a plot at least.
Bushfire Children Home has paved a way for some to attend courses at University and other College levels and we see a bright future for the rest as well. Today we employ some of our own grown up children, trained and skilled in Building and Concrete practice, Carpentry, Motor mechanics and other machinery, Welding and design, Painting, Nursery and Primary School teachers, Hospitality & Catering and Office Practice. We have hairdressers employed elsewhere and some find work at Bushfire Base. Tailoring is developing a new culture, making bags which are sold in Germany and Australia.
We are investing big in farming this year and the work just began with developing a commercial rice farming and fish farming. This is becoming possible with our own grown up children keen to put their weight behind the plow and to supervise it. This was merely a dream in the past years, but we are putting our past and its regrets behind us and make every effort count on what lies ahead.
Caretaker’s shelters have been built on our farm sites for ongoing supervision. We’ve employed and hired nearly 30 people (these include older Bushfire Children and local community members) developing rice paddies, digging water channels, growing Maize and Soya Beans.
Some activities will include rearing chickens and goats on a larger scale as part of a learning but can fetch income as well.
This year will see our Secondary school children engage in farming, growing vegetables and learning about modern agriculture skills from the garden experts. September this year when we are seeing most of the farm activities take off.
As part of our strategy to develop and delegate capable staff, we employed 2 couples who are practical and will be leading and directing all schools and farm practices.
The new couple on board have experience in running schools, and both have offered their existing school registration and recruiting stations to market and recruit for Bushfire Schools instead. We are emphasizing recruiting more paying students from a wider community for cost sharing due to our “shaky and sometimes unpredictable donor stage” in recent years.
This has been primarily a faith venture in the last decade and a half. It will require out team to work hard in developing the loyal funding base from school fees revenue and exploiting the land at our disposal.
Our ability to delegate to other leaders is getting a bit easier but I realized no one can delegate FAITH to anybody. It’s a personal choice we make in our daily lives and can NEVER be imposed.
We would appreciate your prayers especially between now and March 2020 when our hopes of recruiting more students could happen. This period will give our farms a bit of room to produce enough food to cater for the growing number of students and staff in the schools and subsidize its budget.
This is a roadmap to our sustainability dream and sef-sufficiency. It’s our deepest heart desire that we work together and enjoy the journey of treansforming society across the globe. Each one of us bringing in one grain at a time, done in love and self-driven will create a lasting effect to humanity. I believe we’ve been and still are a great team making a difference to the present and future generation.
I thank you all form the bottom of my heart,
Uganda Family
UK Family
USA Family
Norwegian Family
German Family
Stewardship Services UK
Global Development Group Australia
Australian High Commission Nairobi
Ugandan Government for providing a peaceful platform. Finally I thank God Almighty for the gift of faith, wisdom, love and grace to serve, and life itself, without which we would not see all these great experiences of ordinary men and women changing lives and touching future generations today.
God Bless,
Sam and Eva Kitalya (Directors, Uganda Family Resource Link/Bushfire Children Home Uganda)