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What a Week - What a Celebration!

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 Dear Friends! John and I just spent a week in Muko to celebrate the 20th Anniversary with our staff and the community. We just arrived home on Dec 21st. Generous and I were able to keep the whole thing a complete surprise to the staff. They had no idea we were coming until Christopher pulled up in the van with us in front of the ACT Resource Center. It was so much fun to see their faces! After Guma got over his shock and spoke, the first thing he said to me was, "You didn't send me an agenda!" With the staff, we always prepare a very detailed agenda for the time a team is visiting in Muko so we can accomplish many things while there! No agenda, Guma! Just here to be with you as you celebrate 20 glorious years of serving Muko! It felt like a bookend for John and I because the very first trip in 2006, it was just John and I and now 20 years later... As we watched the next few days unfold, we saw the work of Generous and her staff. There were meetings with many people on te
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ACT's Sustainable Future

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How can we make ACT more self-sustainable? That was the question that led the ACT US Board to charter the FUNDS (Financial Ugandan Needs for Development & Sustainability) Task Force in early 2020 to research and propose new models of sustainability for ACT, for both programs in Uganda and ACT US.  FUNDS Task Force members include (from Muko, Uganda) Alexander "Guma" Gumoshabe, Generous Turinawe, Onesmas Arinda, Ken Blickenstaff (Indianapolis), and from Midland: Bill Busch, Kelly Busse, Gail Hoffman, Mark Maxwell, Roger Moll, Dave Molzahn, Lynn Pottenger and Sue Waechter (Traverse City).  The Task Force brainstormed possible social businesses that could be run in Uganda to provide ongoing revenue to support the ACT Uganda programs. There are many business models for a social business (also known as venture philanthropy), but generally it is a non-dividend company dedicated to solving human problems. In our case, the goal would be to raise money for ACT programs, with seco
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20 Years Celebrated with Fanfare!

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Friday, September 8th and Saturday, September 16th, ACT and its friends and supporters celebrated 20 years of accomplishments and impact in Muko SubCounty Uganda and in our own lives here. It felt like a pinnacle in this beloved partnership. We heard brief presentations from our amazing staff in Muko about each programs accomplishments between 2003 and 2023.  We also enjoyed the song and dancing of these joy-filled people.  Together, we have truly made a difference. We planned our dinners to be food from Muko so people in the US could experience the good food we enjoy while in Uganda. We had chicken (prepared Ugandan-syle), green beans, chapati, roasted Irish potatoes, G'Nut sauce, cole slaw and we even added a dessert which Ugandans don't typically eat - mango crumb bars. Everyone was incredibly generous in their giving. We ended the 2 dinner celebrations with gifts totaling $12,484.76. This included handcrafts sales, silent auction proceeds and generous donations! This will b
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