3. The Land/Building Project
The Land/Building Project Fundraising
The Land/Building Project
Currently, Ronald has opened up his home to the 35 orphans at The Lord's Mercy Foundation and space is extremely limited. It is a home he is renting, and the owner wants it back. While there are many smaller projects going on, our biggest project right now is the purchasing of land to build a real orphanage on. We have a vision of building a home for them so that they have plenty of space. You can see the home that everyone lives in in the background of the below photo. The children are literally lined up along the walls of the bedroom and hallway to sleep on the floor each night. Now they have their mattresses to sleep on but space is still extremely limited.
Ronald selected a large plot of land for $5,000. We began to raise the funds for the land but another person bought it. Ronald decided to try to purchase a smaller lot that he had found, which was $3,000. In the beginning of 2018, we began the fundraiser for the land project.
We prayed and prayed to own the new land by the end of 2018. In December 2018, after a year of fundraising, we were able to raise $2,000 out of the $3,000 for the purchase of the new land for the orphanage, and the seller decided to agree to make the sale with the $2,000 as a down payment, with the agreement that we had until the end of January 2019 to raise the remaining $1,000. Ronald was very worried. I told him there was nothing to fear, that if God wanted us to have the land, we would have it. A few days before the end of January 2019, a donor reached out to us and told us that God had instructed to use tithe to finish the land purchase, to bless the land. Therefore, we were able to make the final purchase and the land is now ours!
The next step is to begin building the orphanage on the new land. Ronald has consulted with engineers and experts and obtained blueprints and an estimate for the buildings.
If you would like to help donate funds to provide for the orphanage, please click on the link below or contact Ronald for more information.
OTHER CURRENT PROJECTS:
- 10 More Bibles are needed. The children currently share 10 but need 10 more.
- School Fees (see details on our Daily Bread General Fund page)
- Mattresses for the widows
PREVIOUS PROJECTS:
1. Mattresses for all of the children.
In 2018, we successfully raised $700.00 to be able to purchase 35 mattresses for all of the children at the foundation. We were also going to be raising funds for bunk beds after that, but we realized that the more immediate need was land for the children to have a real orphanage on. I believe Ronald is accurate in feeling that a home with space is a higher priority at the moment than bunk beds. So once we are able to give the children enough space, we can work on raising funds for the bunk beds again.
We have bought three piglets for The Lord's Mercy Foundation. They are named Wilbur, Babe and Piglet. The piglets live in a homemade shelter on the grounds of the property. The older children are involved in caring for the piglets. All of the piglets are female. Once the piglets are grown and have piglets of their own, Ronald will sell the new piglets for income to help take care of the children. He has a neighbor not to far away with male pigs that will contribute when the female piglets are grown.
A generous donor has also purchased 3 adult goats for The Lord's Mercy Foundation. Goats are a source of milk and meat for the citizens of Uganda. Ronald built a shelter for the goats and the children help care for them and play with them. Unfortunately, one of those goats died, and she was a pregnant female. The children had grown attached and were very sad. However, another generous donor then stepped in and purchased 3 baby goats for the foundation.
Originally there was no restroom. Ronald had constructed a small area at the side of the house with sticks and banana leaves for the roof. Thanks to faithful givers with genuine hearts, he was able to build a brick shelter with theee holes and a tin roof over it. Now the children have facilities to use the restroom.
Walking miles back and forth each day takes a lot of time and energy while carrying 50 gallon jugs of water. You will often see these bright yellow containers in the backgrounds of pictures. Adults and children alike take these daily trips. A water tank is an efficient way to store water on site and cut back on the daily trips. Cost was $30.
5. A Roof over the Eating Area
Meal time is a feat when you don't have a roof over your head to eat! The children have always eaten outside and Ronald constructed a small eating area out of wood from the trees, but it was lacking a roof. He needed a tarp and nails to hold it down. The tarp was purchased and now the children are able to eat in their eating area during rain and also have shade from the sun.
6. Chairs for the eating area
The children were used to sitting on the floor while they ate, as there were no chairs before. Now we have raised the $280 needed for 35 chairs and the children are enjoying sitting in seats while they eat.
7. A New Food Preparation Area
In Uganda, the kitchen is an area with no electricity or plumbing, usually separated from the house. It is a food storage area where the food is also prepared. Residents will build a small fire with wood and boil water in a kettle over it. Fruit will also be cut and prepared in there. The old kitchen at The Lord's Mercy Foundation was made of a few branches of wood tied together as beams and palm branches over the top; it was completely open to the elements. Therefore, it flooded in the last rain. We were able to raise enough money to build a small brick structure with a roof, door and window, to safely house the food and maintain protection from rain and animals.
8. Closed shoes for walking to school and back in the rain ($15 each for 35 children = $525 total).
School uniform requirements include black closed to shoes. However, due to the cost, the children continued to wear sandals to school. Then, 29 out of the 35 children lost their old flip flops and now had no shoes at all. The rains were making it very difficult for the children to get around on the muddy grounds, and standing water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which carry Malaria in Uganda, so Ronald does not want the children near the puddles after the rain. *** We had started raising funds for these but we decided it was more necessary for the children to at least have sandals so they were not barefoot. Therefore, we used the funds we had to purchase sandals and will begin fundraising for this again. With generous donations, we were able to purchase school shoes for all of the children.
A generous donor decided to help us with purchasing 2 boda boda's (motorcycles used as taxis in Uganda), so as to cut down the costs of paying for rides each trip into town for supplies, groceries, medical care for the children, and any other needs the orphanage may have.
While on the mission trip to the orphanage in July 2019, we bought and planted trees on the new land for the orphanage. We purchased fruit trees, such as mango, apple, papaya, strawberry, etc., for sustainability on the new land. The children will be able to eat these as they grow older. We also purchased pine trees, which we planted along the border of the property, in order for the branches to be used as firewood, so the orphanage will not have to purchase firewood for cooking or go long distances to collect it.
In 2018, we sent $200 to the orphanage for Ronald to use to purchase items for the widows. He purchased bean seeds for planting (since many of them are farmers and use that for income, and also for the children to be able to eat the beans that the widows grow), he purchased bibles for them to own and read, he purchased blankets for them, and toothpaste. Click on the link above in "Gifts for Widows" to view a video of the widows receiving their gifts.
Our Certificate ● Our Children
