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Boys love to help with the laundry. Really? or love to play in the water? You decide!
L-R Godfrey, Christopher, Dan, Emma and Mark
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Greetings from Lulwanda's Administrator
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"Praise the Lord! I bring greetings from the Lulwanda family; we love you and appreciate the assistance you render to us. Thank you for the sacrifice and continuous planning to ensure that all our children have a brighter future. Every child knows that Lulwanda is their home and nobody desires to leave this Home. I have seen older children who have been resettled with their relatives wanting to live together with their Lulwanda brothers and sisters because they have such a great attachment. What makes my heart happy is seeing these children having a spirit of sharing and caring for one another. Children have a strong attachment to the Lulwanda caregivers. All this has made Lulwanda to be a loving home for every child."
We pray it blesses you to know that our children who have grown and are now in University make it a point to encourage, even travel to visit their Lulwanda sisters and brothers on their school days off.
Administrator Paul Isabirye
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Anthony W, in the white shirt, grew up at Lulwanda and is now studying his Bachelor of Science in Water Resources Engineering at University in Kampala! He recently traveled to St. Mary's College, a Secondary Boarding High School to see some of his Lulwanda family members. L-R Wycliffe, John, Anthony and Sarah K. Abel is kneeling in front.
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Lulwanda Village Construction Update
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We are grateful for the outpouring of donations in response to the Challenge Grant we were given by a generous family to construct the small homes for our children. The first two homes are coming along well and it is so exciting to see. We are gathering funds to begin others once these are complete and we still need your support as we continue Building for the Future.
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The roofs are on, windows are going in, ceilings and tiles are to happen next week!
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Building Necessitated Some Changes
The animals at Lulwanda needed to be relocated to allow space for the future small homes to be built. Our farm animals are thriving! We had over 66 pigs with more coming! Pigs are a good money maker for Lulwanda and we recently sold 40 young pigs to a broker who used a grant from Child Fund to purchase the pigs for Compassion International and World Vision. The new piggery is being constructed between Lulwanda Primary School and the soccer fields at the west end of our 33-acre campus. In the photos below you can see the new piggery taking shape. We will also relocate our 6 dairy cows and 1 calf into a new barn! One cow recently calved providing an educational experience for the children and one that was fun to watch! Three other cows are expected to give birth soon supplying even more milk for Lulwanda's children.
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Construction begins on a new cattle barn. In the background you can see the completed piggery.
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Children watching the cow about to give birth.
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A new fence will surround the entire relocated animal farm.
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The gate to the fence which will soon surround the farm.
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Septic tank being expanded to accommodate additional buildings
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Lulwanda Missionary, John Palmer, has overseen construction making calculations and changes whenever needed based on soil and rock issues.
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Much planning has gone into the construction of the new homes, animal barns, and infrastructure and we are very grateful to John Palmer for his skilled leadership. John was recruited from a review of over 700 resumes to move his family to Uganda four years ago. He was the Director of Planning and Business Development for an engineering company that designed subdivisions before coming to Lulwanda. One of the things originally discussed was the building of Lulwanda Village to allow our children to grow up in smaller homes. We will be forever grateful to John for his tireless efforts to pour himself into the children, the staff, the farm and now the village of homes. John is also very active in the missionary community in town and has fostered for Lulwanda many mutually beneficial relationships with other NGO's and businesses. It is very bittersweet for us as John will be repatriating his family back to America in mid-June. We love John, his wife Bobbi, and their children, Jackson and Lilly. They will be dearly missed but we are grateful that John will remain connected to Lulwanda by supporting GICF USA in an advisory role on this side of the world.
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Audrey, Lilly, Emma, Lucy, Simon, Jackson.
Our wonderful missionaries' kids in downtown Mbale.
In order for our missionaries to serve successfully in a foreign culture, their children need to thrive in that culture. Please remember to pray for these dear ones and their parents. Especially for Lilly and Jackson as they prepare to leave behind their friends, move back to America and will attend new schools in the fall.
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New Playground Equipment!
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Earlier in the year, Lulwanda missionaries, John and Bobbi were honored by a gift of new playground equipment by a church in Georgia where their relatives attend. You can tell by the squeals of delight that the children highly approve of this improvement!
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Click to enjoy this short video
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The children also enjoy the new swings and whirly roundabouts
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Another Missionary Volunteer
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Hillary Jackson, an American missionary who has been in Uganda for over a year volunteering at Tyler International School for missionary kids in Mbale, (where Bobbi Palmer is the Principal), is now also volunteering daily at Lulwanda Primary School in the Math department. She is carrying out research on how to integrate the Ugandan and American curriculums in teaching Mathematics. Hillary grew up on a dairy farm in Ohio and has a lot of experience with farm animals! She recently came early to help milk our cows! She even showed our animal husbandry staff how to lay out the feed for the cows to allow it to dry out before feeding in this very wet rainy season. We are grateful for her help. Welcome and thank you, Hillary!
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Three of our talented older boys with a passion for art helped paint a new sign to mark the turn off the main road to Lulwanda! The artists, now all attending Secondary Boarding Schools are, left to right, Ambrose, Joseph and Benard.
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Trade Schools, Specialty Schools and Internships
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The Lulwanda Social Workers in collaboration with the District Education Officer for Special Needs Education, took Marium one of our Special Needs children, to a Special Needs School just across the border in Kenya (about 30 minutes from Lulwanda). She is doing very well and likes the school. We are blessed that Marium can finally receive an education geared specifically to her needs and are grateful to our amazing Social Workers who searched for this accommodation for Marium who has been at LCH since the beginning.
Lulwanda's other Special Needs child, Betty N, continues to thrive at her school outside Mbale.
Sylvia and Allen, two of our girls who graduated from living at Tendo are studying Social Work at University. They are currently serving in rare but coveted internships with Jenga, a local NGO in Mbale! Jenga has referred orphaned and destitute children to Lulwanda to be rescued as they discovered them while working deep in some of the poorest villages around. We are grateful to Jenga for helping our girls get excellent practical experience.
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Sylvia on left and Allen on right are now studying to be Social Workers
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Kamadi enjoys Trade School to learn Auto Mechanics and Driver Training
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A very important aspect of the work at Lulwanda is the discipleship of the children. They are growing in the Lord and the older ones are leading Bible studies in their dorms at University and Secondary School. As Missionary, Ryan Kelley shares in this video, please be praying for our children's spiritual health and growth as well.
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A Motorcycle Group Visits Lulwanda
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Over 20 members of a motorcycle club from Kampala visited Lulwanda earlier in the year and the children were thrilled!! The group blessed the excited kids with rides around the campus and allowed them to sit on each of the bikes. They also brought donations of household goods. Such a fun day! Welcome back!
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We cannot say thank you enough for your generous partnership with GICF through prayer and finances. You are being used by the Lord to change lives of children who once had no hope. "Real, true religion from God the Father’s perspective is about caring for the orphans and widows who suffer needlessly and resisting the evil influence of the world." James 1:27 The Voice
May God bless you and return to you blessing in abundance.
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