Jinja
Forty HIV+ children live at Our Own Home located on the northern tip of Lake Victoria in the City of Jinja.

One of only two HIV+ Children’s Homes in the entire country of Uganda, Holly and William Pheni founded the Home in 2007 to provide quality, loving transformational care to a growing number of HIV+ kids who have nowhere else to go.*

Horizon is currently raising funding to purchase the following for the kids who live at Our Own Home:

Furniture (two sets of couches and chairs made out of Ugandan wood for a cost of $575, and sixty plastic chairs for $11.50 each for a total price of $690).

Kitchenware (four cooking pots at $23 each, four dozen plates at $13.80 per dozen for a total of $92, and two dozen cups at $17.25 per dozen for a total of $55.20).

Library Books (dictionaries, encyclopedias, African history books, and textbooks for a total cost of $1,000).

Musical Instruments (a bass guitar at $345, traditional African drums at $175, and a xylophone at $60).

Sports Equipment (a basketball hoop for $145, and balls—soccer balls, basketballs, and so on—for a total cost of $200).

Fort Portal
Since 2005, Horizon has sponsored over two hundred AIDS orphans in Kabarole and Kasese Districts, in southwest Uganda.

A number of these kids are now in high school (secondary school) and need to learn a job skill to help them transition successfully into adulthood.

In 2007, significant acreage for a future Vocational Training School was purchased on the main road from Fort Portal over the Rwenzori Mountains to Bundibugyo Village. 

Architectural drawings have been completed for a Vocational Training campus encompassing job skills training in carpentry and the building trades, tailoring/embroidery, computer, and auto mechanics/body shop.

One of Horizon’s emerging priorities in 2011 is to raise $24,725, the remainder of the funding needed to purchase the additional land.

Fort Portal
Fifty children, orphaned by the AIDS pandemic, currently live at the Ibonde Children’s Home, located on the outskirts of the City of Fort Portal, on the main road over the Rwenzori Mountains to Bundibugyo Village.

One of Horizon’s priority projects in early 2011 is to increase the infrastructure capacity of the Home so that an additional twenty children can live on this twelve-acre site. 

In early February, 2011 funding was wired to purchase two water storage tanks; twenty bunk beds; sheets, blankets, pillows, and towels; mosquito nets; kitchenware and cupboards; a generator; an electric sewing machine; toys, dolls, and balls; Children’s Bibles; and chickens.

Several items are still needed:

1. three refrigerators at a cost of $575 each for a total of $1,725
2. forty mattresses at $31 each for a total cost of $1,245
3. play yard equipment for $1,150
4. large tent for $1,150.

Fort Portal
In 2007, Horizon partnered with the Covenant Rural Development Co-operative Savings and Loan Society to make available loans of $100 to orphan caregivers and older orphans to help them start small businesses.

Known as microfinance, this ministry of empowerment is a cost-effective way of helping caregivers to support themselves and their loved ones.

Songo started a goat herd. Ednasi planted a corn field. Charles raises chickens and sells chicken eggs. Becky makes paper necklaces, while Alice makes bamboo hats. Angeli sells fish and vegetables at a roadside stand. Rehema started a used clothing business.

For a gift of $100, you can empower others like these individuals to launch a small business enterprise, assisting them toward self-sustainability while reducing dependency on others.

Fort Portal
Donors through Horizon's Gift Catalog have made it possible to launch a dairy herd in Fort Portal.

And these dozen milking cows are making quite a difference in the lives of the kids who live at the Ibonde Children's Home. Each morning and evening, the fifty kids who live at the Home are treated to fresh milk generated from the dairy herd.

And the herd is growing.

Some months ago, Horizon was able to buy a bull for a cost of $800. Now, calves are being born and will soon join the herd.

In addition, through the generosity of the good people of First Church of God in Monroe City, Indiana, an additional four milking cows will soon be added. The church raised $1,685 in a special Christmas offering in December, 2010.

The increases in the dairy herd couldn't come at a better time. Horizon will soon launch its second Children's Home—this one in Kasese District. At that time, the dairy herd in Fort Portal will be split in two, and the kids who live at the Kasese Children's Home will be blessed with fresh milk like those living at Ibonde.