Pastor John and Grace prayed and sought God's guidance on how to make this Christmas meaningful to their students and their families. Thanks to the generosity of Educating with Hope supporters, Pastor John and Grace will be able to provide 4.4 pounds of rice, 2.2 pounds of sugar and 2.2 pounds of beef to 82 school families. This will cost about $5 per family.

There is still a need for beds and mattresses for the new girl's dorm. Currently there is a need for 20 more double bunk beds that cost $80 each for a total of $1,600. Also needed are 40 more mattresses that cost $22 each for a total of $880.

Schools reopened today for candidate classes after 7 months of government closure due to Covid-19. Candidate classes are for grade 7 students. These students are required to pass an exam at the end of the year before being admitted to senior classes. Churches were also partially released from the Covid-19 lockdown as well.

COVID-19 is continuing to wreak havoc around the world. The effects are hitting hard in countries like Uganda where schools continue to remain closed under government orders. Liberty is a boarding school and provides meals and a place for students to sleep. With the school closed since mid-March, students have been back at their homes. Many families cannot afford to feed their children when they are at home. The article featured here describes what is happening as a result in not only Uganda, but in numerous other countries as well.

On March 19, Uganda issued a lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, Liberty School had to close its doors and the students returned to their homes. Here is an update from Pastor John on the current situation:

"Famine to most families is the worst challenge, most families can't feed themselves, thank God we've a banana plantation to feed us. Vehicles are restricted, but movements on foot and bicycles is allowed. Motorbikes carrying cargo and food are allowed to move. Trucks carrying cargo are allowed to move too. Many people in the community do spend most of their time in gardens till 7pm, some fail to observe social distancing. At Liberty we spend most of our time, cleaning the school and doing some farm work. We're in touch with most of our school kids and are all doing well. Apart from the class work organized on pieces of papers we gave them, we don't teach online."

Continue to pray for Liberty and Uganda as we all try to get through these unprecedented times. Students will hopefully be able to return to school in a few weeks.

The new year has started in an AMAZING way! The last few days of 2019 a generous donor offered to give $2,500 if other people would step up and match that amount. The response was AMAZING! From the time the challenge was issued on facebook until midnight on December 31, we were able to raise a total of $9,347. This money will be used for the girl's dorm project.