Teresaw Care Ministries (TCM) aids orphaned and needy children in the Kamuli District of southeastern Uganda by enabling them to attend school and thereby prepare for a better life. Without a quality education, these children are doomed to a peasant life in the villages, living a day-to-day existence, barely providing enough food to sustain life.
TCM is not a brick and mortar facility, but rather a program which benefits children whose families cannot afford to send them to school. These children are being fostered by relatives or church families after losing one or both parents. Most of the foster families earn less than $20 per month, and many already have multiple children of their own whom they are struggling to support. They lack the funds to provide the fostered children the education which can provide them with a more promising future.
TCM was created in June 2008 to address these needs. We provide otherwise unavailable funds for school fees, uniforms, and supplies necessary for learning, as well as clothing, shoes, mosquito nets, and food assistance to the guardian families. Our Ugandan Board of Directors interviews the applicants and their families, then accepts and monitors those admitted students to ensure they are receiving the provided supplies, attending school, maintaining good grades, and are healthy.
Each student receives annual medical and dental exams, and the needed treatments as they arise. The most common ailment is Malaria, but Typhoid, Dysentery, and Ulcers are also treated. Malaria (which is spread by mosquitos) is still the number one cause of fatality in children younger than five and the elderly.
One of the requirements for continued sponsorship is that the students attend church regularly, so they are nurtured spiritually as well as physically and educationally. The other requirement is for the students to study hard, maintan good grades, and progress each year. Our 2009 Christmas project was to provide each student with their own personal Bible, so they can grow in a personal relationship with God and learn to live the holy, spiritually mature life God intends for them. Each new student admitted into the program after that time has also been given a Bible. Each year the students are presented with practical gifts, paid for by Randy and Teresa. Sponsors and others are offered an opportunity to contribute to these extra gifts, but always at their discretion. Such gifts include a female goat for every student, two hens for every student, new mattresses and bed linens, and every three years a new mosquito net is given.
After our 2011 visit, and seeing the drastic need for clean fresh water, Randy and Teresa donated $10,000 to build a water well in the village of Itukulu where many of our students live. On returning home, a matching funds campaign was begun to build more water wells. Funds for seven more wells was raised and by our 2013 visit they had been completed. None of the sponsorship donations were used in this project.
The cost to sponsor a child is $500 per year and is tax deductible. Randy and Teresa Woodruff, founders of TCM, pay 100% of all administrative costs, including a small stipend to the Uganda Board of Directors, to enable them to attend board meetings and visit the children in school and at home. Administrative costs also include rent and utilities for the TCM Uganda office building. This insures that 100% of all donations are used to benefit the students.
TCM is a 501(c)(3) US registered organization, therefore all donations are tax-deductible. TCM is a fully registered NGO (Non-government Orgnization) in Uganda.
