Dear friends of TCI, As we approach the end of another unusual year we are so grateful for your gift of love and support. "Alone we go fast but together we go far" is our motto - and we've recorded a little video to share what we have accomplished together.

We first met Justine as a young teenager in Kiburara in 2010 (photos with Frank and Sue above, 2012). She was attending the Kiburara Annual Youth Conference and though she was a somewhat shy girl, she was bright, enthusiastic and willing to help wherever it was needed.

We are so thankful that in spite of significant hardships, many of you have given generous support to our work in Uganda. We have been able to bring help to hundreds of families through food-packs and radio teaching even in the midst of the lockdown.

The walls of the small hut were made of woven sticks plastered with mud and as they walked up to it, they could see the holes in the walls and patches where fresh mud had been attached to try and repair the damage. There was a roof, but there were gaps between the top of the walls and the roof.

As the Covid-19 pandemic has continued world-wide, Western Uganda has endured double challenges to the food supply because of drought during what should have been the rainy season. In the midst of this food crisis, last night in Kiburura and surrounding villages, a fierce rainstorm toppled trees and homes and caused tremendous floods, wiping out most of the meager food crops that had survived the drought.

Here in the USA the COVID-19 virus pandemic has us in various degrees of isolation; 6 feet apart, “shelter in place”, and under “lockdown” and we can’t easily buy toilet paper or wipes or masks. However, we still have many resources and comfortable homes to be quarantined in compared to our friends in Western Uganda.

Abandoned by her husband, Annah was left to provide for her family. She works all day farming and is barely able to eke out an existence and provide 2 meals a day for her six children.

It was a fine afternoon. We were visiting a small village where one of our new friends, Caroline lives. As we entered the village, a group of children came running to greet us. We greeted them “Agandi!” (local term for ‘good day’). Some of them were carrying empty jerry cans and pointed to where they collected their drinking water.

For the past four weeks, Eda and the Local Ugandan TCI team have been enthusiastically training students, teachers and villagers in Capacity Building and Leadership development along with preparing for the TCI Launch.

It was a beautiful morning as Mama Sarah and I took our morning walk along the Ibanda-Kamwenge Road. We tried to be regular in our morning exercise by walking about an hour before starting our day's work.

Changing paradigms of dependence and powerlessness to a paradigm of hope and belief in our dreams is the theme of next week's Board Meeting and Project Planning of Transformed Communities International (TCI) - Uganda which will run for three days in Kiburara, Ibanda District, Western Uganda.