Introduction First December, the home turned three years old. It was a great day for us and we continue to thank you all for your continued prayers, financial and moral support. It is our God who has brought us this far. Thank you. We had a get together on that day with the parents and the children of the good neighbor project and cut a birthday cake in commemoration of His grace that has been sufficient in all. The day was graced by the President of GICF Mr. Rob Marshall who had arrived for a one week's working visit that morning from Houston USA. About Children The children continue to grow in stature, knowledge and spiritually. They are all doing well save for some isolated cases of malaria, cough and flu. In all they seem to be happy and feel at home each passing day. Health Due to the Ebola scare that had engulfed the nation and our eastern region, we could not take Ritah for the scheduled operation on the abscess near her ear. However we are working towards having her surgery before the end of the school holiday. The Medical team from Hospice visited the home for the routine medical check up. Most of our children had continued to gain in weight and physically were all doing well. Allen and Fiona had developed some skin rash that had failed to respond to the treatment for some time, but finally they were given some injections that have now worked and their skins have improved greatly. Some of our children have some dental problems and I do intend to handle then in the course of the month of January 08. Some have rotten teeth others have some holes and they are inconveniencing them a lot. Education All the children are in school recess as they await a new year. They will be going to new classes as they were all assessed and performed well. We are also working towards admitting some of the community children into our school in the year 2009 so we will put in place all the necessary logistics to make it possible in the course of 2008. The teachers were trained in the newly introduced school thematic curriculum for Primary one, and early in January 2008 they will be trained in thematic curriculum for Primary 2 We are also working with the District to license the school and we hope that by January 2008 we shall have got all the requirement to apply for the license. Christmas Day celebration We do send our gratitude to the GICF board for the Christmas gifts that you sent to the children and the staff. We managed to buy new clothing for all the 70 children. On the 22 of December we took all the children out at Mt Elgon Hotel for a children's Christmas party. The hotel subsidized the entry fee for each child and all our children had a good time -- many won some gifts and toys. On Christmas day, we spent the whole day together enjoying and thanking God for the many blessings that he has given us through many people around the globe, particularly from USA. We continue to thank God for you all and pray that He will continue to use you for the good of many suffering children of Uganda. Social wellbeing On 29 December, we hosted as usual the Good Neighbor project children and the holiday fun continued. All the sponsors of the Good Neighbor project we pray for your continued blessing from Him who rewards abundantly. The children participated in singing and dancing for the Lord and shared in a sumptuous meal.

Development The GICF Board approved some infrastructure development at the children's home. We are grateful for such development that enhances our ability to serve the children even better. Work on improving the water supply was started and as I send this report we have installed a 24000 liters water tank on the ground with a pump to send water up the existing tower for effective pressure supply of water to all the critical units at the home. This has brought big smiles on our faces. Thank you for making our work less stressful it has been a wonderful gift of the New Year. Work on the school latrine has also started and within the next two weeks we may have it up and running. This will ensure that the children no longer have the long distances to travel back and forth to ease themselves. The proposed pour flush toilet we are constructing will only require a water reservoir nearby for its effective use. This is some thing we request you to consider also. Work to recruit another 20 children has also started in earnest and we target 20 January to have all those children at the home. Our desire is to prepare these children and ensure that they start with the rest of our children when the school year begins in February 2008. School Rebecca heads the school and as a requirement for its licensing, they have set a structure to manage the school and run it professionally. Jimmy is her deputy. Nicolas is the Director of Studies. Favor is the senior woman teacher and Sylvia, Eva are class teachers for kindergarten and primary two respectively. Teacher Natalie is in charge of phonics and Religious Education. Kitchen Florence prepares the morning and lunch meals for the children, while Harriet prepares the dinner meal. The mothers and the children do assist them both, and on Sundays the mothers and their children take care of their meal requirements. Our children during the school holidays continue to play a major role in the upkeep at the home. They virtually do all the activities under the watchful eye of the staff members. Garden Julius and Geoffrey take the responsibility of the gardens and the animals of the home. We are also encouraging the children to take keen interest in what is going on so that as we go along they also take on this responsibility also. Mothers Christine, Nusula and Rita continue to play the blessed role of being the mothers of these children. They have exhibited tremendous commitment, care and concern to the children. They have integrated well with the children and under our support they continue to lead these children to grow into responsible adults. Adults that we look forward with anticipation as they will transform this nation through serving in different areas and calling as God leads Cleaning Enoch and Mike continue to provide a clean working environment for the home as they mop, scrub and tidy up all areas that need to be handled. In the execution of their duties, the children and other staff members play a complimentary role Shuttle Moses is our driver and continues to ensure that the staff are brought for work since the majority of them come from Mbale town and he takes them back in the evening after their day's duty is done. He also ensures that he takes one of the mothers for shopping for food and supplies for the home at least twice a week. In the first year of our operation he used to be on call 24 hours a day as a means to respond to any emergency. However over time we have developed the capacity of other staff to respond to such issues in case of any emergency.

Laundry Work Florence, Annet and Lydia are the ladies that ensure that all day around all our children are clean. They labour to wash the children's clothing daily and their beddings at least once a week. Margaret is in charge of mending and sewing the children clothing. General office work Betty works with Edward to ensure that everything runs as expected. They ensure control and effective use of all the resources for the good of the children. Volunteers Currently the home has two volunteers, Glenn and Carol who have completed their Social Works and Social Administration degrees from Uganda Christian University- Mukono. I have engaged them in different activities that enhance the performance of the service delivery to the children at the home. Jared has been requested to train the children in piano keyboard and has been assisting the mothers to conduct the evening bible class fellowship. He has been also helping Betty to develop the singing talent of the children. Looking forward in Year 2008 The challenges that we need to tackle relate to the future self-sustainability of the home. This continues to pose a serious challenge to us all. Things do change and therefore we need to be prepared to ensure that the children under our care will remain unaffected despite the diverse changes that may happen in the future. To mitigate such situations, we need to consider building facilities that could generate income locally. Such units could include; a medical unit, a primary school and a guest wing for accommodation. Land for farming continues to be needed if we are to contribute adequately towards the food needs of the home Sponsoring of the children is still needed particularly as we are in the process of recruiting another 20 children at the home bring the capacity to 90 Children. Summer visitors and visiting your sponsored child when ever you are ready is a welcome gesture. We continue to pray that our living God will continue to sustain and enable you to come to see and together share in what God is doing at Lulwanda Children's Home. Finally we do thank you all for supporting us for the years past and we pray that through His grace you will continue to support us until such a time when we shall all hear "Well done good and faithful servant" from Him. May you all be blessed as we start our fourth year. Edward Mukiibi, Administrator