As 2019 comes to a close, I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the 2019 Lightforce One accomplishments that your generosity helped us to make happen. We work to provide meaningful and lasting solutions to those communities in the world who are less advantaged than others. The work that we do comes with no strings attached. We don’t ask anybody to change their spiritual beliefs because we are helping them. That is not why we are there. This is one of our core values.
In 2019:
• We filed for and received our 501c3 Determination Letter from the IRS. This makes donations to Lightforce One tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Please check with your tax professional for guidance on tax deductions.
• We helped St. Kizito Orphanage, in Uganda, open a new orphanage site (this one for secondary school children) and started sending children to secondary school who normally would not have had the opportunity to continue their education! This is in addition to the two campuses housing 500+ primary school children that already existed. Some of you sponsored children in the secondary school project and received letters and pictures from those children,
• We brought electricity to one of the two primary school campuses in Uganda.
• We purchased 7 bunk beds to sleep 14 children. (Most children sleep on mattresses on the floor)
• We funded a bean crop for food at the orphanage
• We purchased 87 blankets and 5 mattresses for members of the women’s empowerment group who help with the orphanage in Uganda
• We sent 200 lbs. of corn to northern Kenya for drought relief
We have an exciting 2020 planned! To date our plans for 2020 are as follows:
Uganda:
• Continue the first group of secondary school children to what they call secondary 2 and bring a new class of children into secondary 1, doubling the size of the secondary orphanage.
• Start a welding project in which they will be able to learn the trade of welding, make their own bunk beds for a fraction of the cost of buying them finished, and earn money for the orphanages operating budget by selling things that they make!
• Begin supplying the orphanage with computers and a copier
• We also plan to supply computers and copiers to other orphanages in Uganda and neighboring countries.
There are other orphanages in Uganda and other African countries that have requested our help too, and we will be exploring and vetting those opportunities.
Additionally, we are in contact with members of the Lakota Native Americans on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota and will be exploring ways to help them.
We have a new donation site up and running, which is a huge improvement over the GoFundMe platform that we’ve been using. Please visit our donation center at donate.lightforceone.org. In the near future we will be adding the ability to setup automatic monthly donations. For now, we have our most important fundraisers listed under the Campaigns menu.
I would like to thank everyone so much for your support. Without your donations, Lightforce One would only be able to do a fraction of what it does.
Sincerely,
Dave Bauer
President
Lightforce One