war orphans

We were thrilled with the results of our oldest students. Each one gave it their best (as did their teachers) and the results showed it. Ocen (far left) scored the top and is about to start at Restore Academy! Richard (2nd from left) is now moving to 3rd year in high school, one of our older graduates who’s so reliable and dependable, he heads up work teams during holidays.    Read more about The Final Stretch

The new school year is off to a lively start. The kids are happy to be back from the holidays and are getting back into the swing of school life. The first of what we hope will be four children’s housing units are almost finished, with the cement curing and being finalized before the painting can begin. A second unit is also well on its way so everyone is looking forward to being able to decongest and move into new quarters soon. Read more about And We're Off With a Bang!

For those of you who pray, we have a group of armed gunmen who have been roaming our area robbing people. There are only 3 places of development within a very large area--Father John's mission, the Health center 4 and us. Thanks for praying for our protection. We're changing from a bow-and-arrow guard to one with a gun, but the Bible says "Unless the Lord watches the house, the watchman stays awake in vain" so thanks for praying for the safety of our project and our beautiful kids and staff. Thanks! Read more about Please Pray for Protection!

We have hit the 200 mark! We now house, educate and feed over 200 Acholi children at our Family Care Uganda School. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we have to do all the work ourselves. Our FCU students love being a part of the work and action, whether it’s fetching water from the nearby well, or spending half an hour in between classes moving bricks. These creative kids love finding fun in whatever they do. In this case, a fun game of Toss the Brick helps get all the bricks for our third brick kiln moved before the rain starts in a few days. Read more about Many Hands Make Light Work!

We have been so busy during the school holidays building before the children return. Our current project is to build 4 new dorm rooms. In the first picture above, you can see the completed foundations. Our surrounding community have been coming over asking if we would be building again this year. They are thrilled to help with any job, to raise school fees and bring income to their sparse existence. Read more about Four New Dorms and a Kitchen, Coming Right Up! | Activated Ministries

Today was guardian visitation day and Open House. It was so cool that quite a few of our children's guardians got to make their way to our school and spend the afternoon with their kids. Everyone got to enjoy sitting around picnic style, relaxing and catching up on recent news and the latest progress by teachers and staff. Many of the guardians rented a pick up or vehicle together. The mirale is the vehicle actually made it. Check out the picture of their ride   Read more about Open House - Getting a Visit from the Children's Guardians

Here are a few pictures we took on one our class excursions to see the famous Samuel Baker Fort with some of the older classes. Samuel Baker fought against slavery and this fort had previously been used by Arabs to hold and even kill slaves.

In these pictures you see the kids and their teacher Douglas in Samuel Baker’s house. The bedroom is behind. The original house was made of stacked stones, on a high rock formation that gives a safe view of all the surrounding area. Read more about Class Excursion in Gulu

It’s been so exciting for our children to not only be participating in cultivating in our farm, and studying hard at school, but of course they’ve had a lot of fun sports time. For many, this is the very first time in their lives they’ve been able to eat 3 meals a day! Now being in a stress-free environment where they don’t have to hustle on the streets to sell a few onions or to carry water or do brick laying to bring in enough to pay for their only meal a day–in the evening, it’s meaning they are just radiant! Read more about The Face of Change | Activated Ministries

We want to say a special thank you for the donations we’ve received that have been designated for food purchases! We use those funds to feed 100 people (86 children boarding and staff) 3 meals a day. We're on the brink of the cheapest time of year to buy food.  Once dry season hits in January and February, prices soar 4 or 5 times higher. So we've been busy going to key places, and working with local farmers in the community to buy maize and beans at excellent prices! Read more about Stocking Up on Food Supplies | Activated Ministries

All our students are studying hard to get ready for the upcoming end of year final exams. We got off to a great start in third term with exams to help the kids return from holiday mode and gear up for the most important term. With only 2 months till the main exams though, there's no time to lose, especially for our dear new students who hardly know any English and have a lot of ground to cover. Read more about Preparing for Final Exams | Activated Ministries