Greetings JOCF community,

The children of Engari have finished their first term of the academic year, and we’ve received  a lot of wonderful letters and pictures from them. This past term, there were mixed results in terms of academic performance. This has led to much discussion amongst JOCF as to how to best support the children who have struggled. Our current plan is to have our communications officer, Mr. Owen Amutuhaire, meet with each of the teachers, headmasters, and in some cases the parent/guardian of the child who is having difficulties. JOCF will then provide support that is appropriate for each individual child. Second term began May 27th.

**Update** Our director and communications officer has met with the children who have struggled, together with their headmasters and teachers from all three schools. The parents/guardians have also been consulted. It has been for a variety of reasons that they had difficulties, such as being in a new school or social environment, or having been out of school entirely for a period of time, or being needed at home, or even being too playful during class. As a result, it has been decided that extra time will be spent by the teachers with those students who have struggled the past term. The students will continue to be encouraged, monitored, and supported however possible. One of our students has been switched into boarding school as well, so that she may be relieved of domestic chores and be able to focus entirely on her coursework.  If you have any questions, as always, feel free to ask.

Secondly, we’re pleased to announce that we have received 30 large, one-of-a-kind paintings from two different artists in Kampala, Uganda, that we will now be selling to raise funds for JOCF. They are beautiful, with a variety of styles, depicting  landscapes, animals, and people of Africa. The paintings are wrapped around a simple wooden frame and stapled to the backside. This wood was donated by Greenwich Wood Products of Hope, Rhode Island. We’re in the process of developing our website store to make these available to everyone, with shipping available. In the short term, please feel free to contact us if you have an interest in the paintings. They are priced from $250 to $450.

In other news, we will be filing our first annual report next month. Once, completed we are happy to share the report with all of our sponsors. We’ve also developed our first brochure as an organization!

Thank you for your support to JOCF, if you have any inquiries please don’t hesitate to ask.

Jesse and the JOCF staff