Pastor Morris Ogenga chairs the management team of Grace International Children’s Foundation (GICF), a registered Ugandan Non-Governmental Organization. He will speak about the Uganda ministries at the Rotary Club of San Marcos on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at noon at the VFW Hall, 1701 Hunter Rd.
There are well over 2.5 million orphans in the African country of Uganda, primarily because of HIV AIDS. Most of the orphans live with an elderly grandparent or other caregivers, but some have no one to care for them. Lulwanda Children’s Home was established in 2004 to provide care to orphaned and abandoned children and currently is home to 80 children.
Located near the city of Mbale in Eastern Uganda, the Lulwanda Community consists of the Children’s Home itself, Lulwanda Primary School, a medical facility for onsite first aid care, and the Lulwanda Farm, a ten acre parcel with a piggery, tilapia pond, gardens and a mango orchard, which provide food for the Children’s Home and some income to offset costs for the operation.
Lulwanda supports an additional 50 young adults through a youth home and training programs.
In addition to their work with the Lulwanda Children’s Home, Ogenga and his wife Aida also oversee a network of Presbyterian Churches in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. One of those churches is the Akalabai Bible Presbyterian Church, which received $4,500 from the Rotary Club of San Marcos in 2024 to build new latrines for their school. The Ogengas have also been instrumental in providing aid to the squatter settlement of Namatala, made up of the internally displaced nomadic tribe of Ugandan cattle farmers known as the Karamajong.
GICF USA Inc. is the operating and fund-raising arm in the United States. It is a 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit in the U.S. and raises much of the money that supports the GICF operations in Uganda. To learn more, visit ugandaorphans.org.
Rotary is a nonprofit, nonreligious and nonpolitical service organization that addresses needs locally, regionally and globally. The San Marcos Rotary Club is 104 years old. To learn more, visit SMTXrotary.com
MORRIS OGENGA
