Dear Friend.

As you sat back to watch the Olympics wherever you are around the world, did you know that your Grace Villa children in the hills of Kabale were watching too? See photo below. In real time! And on a spectacular screen, no less, gifted to us just last month by Uncle Manish. It’s a beautiful thing - the way the Olympics unify us all around the world as we sit in front of our screens on the edge of our seats to root for our favs, groan, laugh, cry, cheer.

Read on to find out what we’ve been up to this year.

You'll find 4 inspiring stories of how we harness the power of sports to uplift your children in Kabale, and our community. And you'll find our August 10+10 campaign, which we are counting on you to kindly Donate & Share widely. Because individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean!

Gratefully Yours,

Ruth for the Grace Villa family.

We Rise By Lifting Others

“Individually,

we are one drop.

Together,

we are an ocean!”

4 Sports Stories

In 2016, we started Grace Villa Soccer Club to create a distraction from the many vices typical of urban poor neighborhoods. And simply because our girls wanted to play. But whenever boys would find them on the local playgrounds…

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What’s DAC!

Every June 16th, the world commemorates the African Union International Day of The African Child (DAC). Grace Villa received a mandate to host the Kabale District official event! But with great honor comes with great responsibility…

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Roke.

Finally.

For years we hoped for access to internet and all the amazing doors it opens. Roke Telkom came through and in a generous act of CSR, gave us free, fast, unlimited internet! They said NO to our children being left behind.

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Gotta

Have Faith

Baby Faith crawled into our home, and into our hearts on June 24th 2024. Just over a year old, she is the youngest child we’ve ever had! So we find ourselves suddenly in need of a high chair for meal time, and all other baby gear

Cont’d…

Our Movie Premiered!

Much to our joy and gratitude, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) announced that they selected our movie MORE GRACE to screen in theaters across the country! The first showing was at Century Cinema Nalya…

Cont'd...

Visiting

Days

We terribly miss our children (like Allen & Susan above) when they are away in boarding school. Thankfully, schools across Uganda open their gates for Visiting Days (VDs), Academic Days, and birthdays too.

Cont'd...

Beautiful Friendships 🌸

Grace Villa has an annual education budget of 105 Million Uganda shillings.

$28,492 USD

Our school year is divided into 3 school terms.

We raise 35 Million shillings ($9,500 USD) per school term

to keep 215 Primary, High School and University vulnerable children in school.

As each term begins,

we say a prayer that God surrounds our children with only good teachers and friends,

protects them as they walk to school & back every day,

helps them flourish in their studies,

and that we are able to raise their school fees.

How do we do it? It’s a tough struggle every term, but we have never failed…

thanks to amazing people along our journey.

Below are some of our stories, and different ways that you too can help.

Little did we know that while Momo was on her knees doing fun art afternoons with our children, she had a plan! 6 months later she went back to Belgium, designed beautiful T-shirts & postcards out of this art, put our name on the label, & (with our permission) sold them across her land. She raised enough to ensure that 25 Primary School children & 3 high school girls went to school this term! A nurse, she also created a FirstAid guidebook just for our kids called “First Aid in a (G)Nutshell by Dr Grace”! She returned to Uganda last month with her lovely mum, for a joyful 2 week reunion with her Grace Villa sisters. More…

Before Kendegye moved to the hills of Kabale to build Grace Villa, she lived in Boston, Massachusetts in the USA - a place where the Ugandan community is large, vibrant and unified. Many of her friends there follow and support this journey.

One of these old friends - Medie Tonda - has a daughter in high school named Amaya. She heard about Grace Villa, and was so moved that she started a GoFundMe - which raised enough to pay school fees for 22 Primary School children! Then she traveled with her parents across continents to Kabale to deliver the funds and meet the girls themselves. More…

August is the birth month of a beautiful lady who prayerfully walks our journey with us: Kristin Fredette McCool of GO Overflow Ministries…. a conduit for churches, businesses, and individuals in the USA to partner with faith-based organizations around the world who are committed to impacting their communities.

6 years ago, they chose us! And since then, they travel to Kabale every year with wonderful people for a mission trip. Beyond this we experience their presence every day. From their monthly food donations, to their child sponsorship program through which 4 of our children now have access to a quality education. More…

August is also the birth month of Michael Mbareba. For the last 6 years, he has brought his birthday celebrations to us. One year he sent a goat ahead but we refused to eat the adorable thing, named it Billy, and bought food instead. Little did we know that this was the beginning of our goat farm! Today we have 15 goats, all Billy’s offspring.

2 years ago, Michael invited our children to perform at his wedding, and paid us the most we had ever received! Thus setting a new precedent. The funds paid for 4 childrens school fees that term. The next day was his birthday. He began his honeymoon with a birthday breakfast celebration at Grace Villa, coming with friends who all pledged their support. Daniel is an accountant. Today he oversees our bookkeeping. Gonza is a IT guru. Last year he helped us create an online registration platform for our marathon and other events, and even installed Quickbooks - pro bono for us! Daniel taught us how to use it. Hannington, an Economist with the National Planning Authority of our nation brought in his kind friends - a team of experts - to help us craft our 5 year Strategic Plan. More…