2023 - Year in Review
We are so thankful for all that God has provided in 2023! Below are some highlights from our ministries in the past year, as well as financial summary data. At V127 we are committed to transparency in how funds are allocated and we are always excited to celebrate what God has done along with you, our V127 family!
Child Sponsorship
We started 2023 with 162 sponsored children. We received 20 new children through the course of the year, and had five children that moved away, and one that graduated. We finished 2023 with 176 sponsored children. We have supported 212 children since the inception of the ministry in March 2013. We sent a total of $69,800 for school sponsorship payments in 2023.
Scholarship Fund
We had fifteen students in higher education in 2023. We had two at university studying agribusiness and civil engineering, two in technical school studying electrical engineering and water engineering, and 11 in vocational school, studying fashion and design, catering and hotel management, welding & metal fabrication, accounting, building and construction, agriculture and animal medicine, and journalism & media studies. We sent $23,510 in scholarships to fill in the gap between sponsorship and the cost of higher education, and also to support our secondary students who incur extra costs from boarding.
Rice and Beans
We sent $15,980 in 2023 to support our families with gifts of food, including rice, beans, sugar, potatoes, fruit, etc. We were able to help sustain many struggling families as well as supplement our food offerings at Victory Primary School. We are continuing to offer our children a nutrient-packed porridge every morning, and our team is seeing the results of that in the health of the children.
Construction Projects
We completed construction of Victory Primary School Phase 3/4 in Sept 2023. The third and fourth floors will provide us with more classroom space, additional bathrooms, office space, and a large multipurpose room for national exams and other events. In addition, we built a beautiful new playground for our school. We also built a new retaining wall at Victory House, a safety wall at Victory Primary School, and completed renovations on our House of Hope. The total we sent for construction in 2023 was $60,510.
Community Christmas Celebration
We raised $40,391 for our Christmas in Uganda project in 2023. With those funds, we blessed 1245 families with gifts of food, saw 35 adults give their lives to Christ, sponsored a large Community Christmas celebration, provided personalized gifts for each of our 176 sponsored children, sponsored Discipleship Fridays, where we ministered to 841 kids, and 73 of them became new believers. We also sponsored a Christmas dinner for community leaders, and held a Christmas wedding and reception for 12 couples who could not afford a ceremony. It was an amazing celebration of the birth of our Savior, and the entire community was blessed with the love of Christ.
General Fund Usage
Through our general fund, we paid for medical expenses, glasses, dental work, covered missed sponsor payments, paid for electricity, bought new Bibles for our 20 new children, paid for registrations for national exams, paid for our students to go on a study site tour, paid monthly support to our two administrators, and met many other needs. We sent $20,620 in total from our General fund in 2023.
Trip to Uganda
We took a team of six to Uganda in Feb of 2023. It was a great opportunity to see how God is working in the community and to see first hand all of the changes since we were there in Oct 2019. It was amazing to see our girls and boys dormitories completed and in use, and to see the ongoing construction of the Primary School. It was then that we realized that we desperately needed a new playground, and God provided the funds for that just a few months later. We had an opportunity to interact with many of our children, teachers, and families. Our team in Uganda is doing a great job, but the needs there are overwhelming. The poverty is extreme, and so our mission remains unchanged: “To provide food, shelter, and education to children and families in need.”
“In that day you will say: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things; let this be know to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.’”
Isaiah 12:4-6
“The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy”
Psalm 126:3