Since childhood, Brenda has been fascinated with Africa and knew one day she had to visit. In 2012, an opportunity presented itself within her church to travel to Uganda and she immediately jumped on board. Her first trip was spent taking it all in and in complete awe of the culture and how completely different we live our lives. Throughout the trip, the question repeated itself over and over in her mind…”how in the world can we have everything we could possibly need and these people are struggling to meet their basic needs and even feed themselves?” After returning home, she spent much time processing her experience and feelings and felt strongly about doing what she could. The following years, she has developed a deep love and passion for the people of Uganda and God has been very clear that this is one of life's paths she was meant to take .

During the past 10 years she has worked on penpal sponsorship and created our stories of hope program, the wellness club, and our microloan project. She works alongside our ugandan leadership daily, oversees our vocational, our microloan programs and works with Ugandan medical providers to help people with advanced medical needs. She has been fortunate to take eleven trips to Uganda and is looking forward to leading a mission team in the Fall of 2022. While she considers Project Hope Uganda her full time job, Brenda also works as a labor and delivery nurse in Portland, OR for the past 23 years. She is married and has three daughters, two of which have traveled to Uganda with her and have had unforgettable experiences. In her spare time she plays city league tennis, enjoys working out, spending quality time with friends, reading, hiking, meeting new people and travels any chance she gets.

Nine years ago, Craig was in a very dark time in his life battling drug addiction that began at a very young age. He was near death in ICU as drugs were winning the battle. Once he recovered, he surrendered himself to treatment and the life long journey of recovery.

Five years ago, Craig decided to take the leap of faith into the unknown and joined our Uganda team. He has taken five trips to Uganda and is a tremendous help to running our organization. It was in Uganda that he discovered a true passion. Giving back has given him a sense of purpose in his life which he felt he lacked for most of his life. He absolutely loves Uganda and the people of Uganda. Craig helps on a daily basis with the needs of our children. He currently runs our weekly food supplement program and is in charge of funding several of our monthly budgets along with all primary and secondary school budgets.

Outside of Uganda, Craig has been married to Michelle for 25 years. They have a 24 year old son and an 9 year old great niece that they are raising as their own. He has worked in the transportation business for 12 years and enjoys hiking, camping, watching baseball, hanging out with friends and traveling. When football season comes around, you will find him rooting for the Ducks, as he is an avid Oregon fan.

Deanne and her husband, Dave, have been married for 33 years and have raised three wonderful children. Deanne has always been very involved with volunteer work and now that her children are grown, Deanne is looking for more ways to give back. She became aware of Project Hope Uganda by helping Brenda with small projects over the years. Brenda’s love for the people of Uganda is contagious. While hearing Brenda talk about their needs and what the program was provides, she always hoped that one day she would be able to become more involved. In addition to being our secretary, Deanne oversees the penpal sponsorship program. She is very excited to see how God will use her in this journey to bless the people of Uganda.

Amy has been a member of our Pen Pal program since 2017, and has enjoyed watching her buddy, grow. She loves getting his letters telling of his life in Uganda.
When a vacancy for the Treasurer position opened up, her husband, Kiley encouraged her to get involved. Kiley is a huge help as he has amazing organizational skills.
Kiley and Amy met in high school and are getting ready to celebrate their 27th Anniversary. They have 3 sons and 1 daughter who were all born in different states across the country due to Kiley’s 20+ years of service in the Coast Guard.
Amy was a dental assistant prior to starting their family. Once her first child was born, she became a stay-at-home Mom who was constantly busy attending her children’s various activities and sports. Her family has always been her greatest source of happiness.
With her love of children, she became a substitute in her school district about 9 years ago. She is also involved with an outreach for foster care families in her community.
Amy loves the outdoors. She loves kayaking, fishing on the river, camping, hiking in the mountains or even just laying on a hammock with a good book.
She looks forward to traveling to Uganda one day and giving her sponsored child a big hug.

Twelve years ago, John and Karen Williams became aware of the large number of orphans living in Uganda and decided they could impact some precious lives. In 2006, with the help of friends and God’s leading, they built our current orphanage home in Western Uganda. Many wonderful friends have joined in. John has owned and managed a distributing business for over 40 years and Karen has worked as a medical doctor for over 30 years. The couple have two adult children. John has traveled to Uganda several times and the couple considers the opportunity their lives’ future work. John and Karen are also hoping to serve not only the needs of orphans but look upon the Bundibuygo district as a field for medical and economic projects. John has created and funds seven toddler schools in Western Uganda. He also has helped create a teen club that encourages students to practice absinence. He and his wife invite others looking for meaning to share their joy and join our organziation. The Williams enjoy a rounded life of recreation, travel and a nice home in beautiful Washington state.

Emme has been a huge support to Project Hope Uganda even before we became an official organization. She has always been readily available to help with any needs that arise along with volunteering her time to help get us ready for our missions. She was elated to join the penpal sponsorship program in 2013 and currently sponsors five of our orphan children. She enjoys finding pictures and scriptures to send and goes above and beyond to keep in touch with them. She will be the first person to tell you that the greatest, and most humbling experience, comes from reading the touching letters that she gets in return. She loves being involved and enjoys watching her Ugandan children grow and their letters become more detailed. One of her prized possessions is a t-shirt that has the autographs of all the orphan children. Recently, Emme has started and leads our sports club for our students in Ntandi.

Emme grew up on the Oregon Coast. She loves to travel, see new places and meet new people. Her eyes and heart for the international community started when she attended EXPO in Vancouver BC where her jazz ensemble performed. After graduation from Western Oregon University she moved to Portland where she started a career in the transportation industry. Emme has 2 Japanese sisters from college and was blessed to be able to attend their weddings in Japan. She has also had the opportunities to travel to France and Germany. Emme enjoys spending time in the great outdoors, whether it is in the mountains, river or ocean. Emme lives in Washington State with 2 cats, a dog and a very understanding better half. God answered her prayers for children by providing over 20 Godchildren and 1 God grandchild. She is looking forward to making a trip to Uganda one day where she will be able to see and love her Ugandan family in person. She will always encourage anyone to get involved in our program as it has provided much meaning to her life.

Isaac grew up in the zero income village of Bwera in Kasese district in Western Uganda. He is 28 years old and has a daughter (1) and a son (4). He will be marrying his life partner, Nelly, in February 2019.

Because of extreme poverty during his childhood, he is the only child out of seven in his family who has been able to complete college. Growing up, his parents could hardly afford even a single meal a day. They lived under a small grass thatched house with very limited access to basic needs. Isaac is a self starter and was able to earn school fees at a young age by making bricks from mud, working in the neighbor’s fields, providing general labor at construction sites and picking coffee and cotton from trees. The same struggles happened throughout college, but even with the hurdles, he was able to make it. He credits the Lord and also support from two important gentleman in his life. Given the hardships he went through during schooling, he made a promise to God to help the vulnerable and the needy as the only way to thank the Almighty for allowing him to succeed. He earned his diploma in accountancy from Liberty College of Management.

In 2013, he was offered a job as an accountant at Three Angels High School in Ntandi where Project Hope Uganda operates their orphanage. Little did he know God was drawing him nearer to his dream. In 2017, he began employment with PHU as director at Fort Portal Vocational Home where he works with our older children. Isaac still works as the school accountant but is passionate about helping our orphan children. Since two jobs don’t keep him busy enough, he is currently studying at Bugema University pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting & Finance to enhance his career.

He plans to start a project in future which will focus on helping the underprivileged in his home village to pursue their dreams. PHU is blessed to have him as part of our organization.

Nelly Muhindo is our matron at the Fort Portal Vocational Home. She is 27 years old and comes from Bwera town in the Kasese district. Nelly is married to Isaac, the leader of our vocational program. They have two children, a son, Award 4 years and a daughter, Reward 1 year. Nelly is the second born of her parents among 8 children. She completed high school in 2010 and joined the vocational level of education at Mbarara training institute. She earned a certificate in secretarial studies. In 2014, she worked as a secretary in a stationary store in Bundibugyo. Nelly worked as a secretary of Hot Springs Secondary School in Ntandi in 2015-16. Nelly currently oversees 11 students at our vocational home. Four of students are still in secondary school and were chosen to move into our vocational home based on behavior and school performance.

She also cares for 2 kids with the disabilities, Marriam with cerebral palsy and Nyakato who is deaf. We also have 3 girls and 2 boys in our vocational program. Nelly also just is in charge of taking food supplement to all 22 of our kids at the Fort Portal Secondary School weekly. She really enjoys mentoring our students to become responsible and successful citizens of Uganda.

Kule is 25 years old. He is married to Juliet and they have a baby boy, Hayley. Kule comes from the Kirambe village in the mountains of Bundibugyo in Western Uganda. He and his parents still live in the mountains. He is the youngest of four children and came from a very poor family which made his education difficult to achieve. He attended Moons Secondary School and Bundibugyo Teacher’s College for his teaching certificate. He currently teaches math and reading to primary students at Ntandi SDA Primary School where our young orphanage children attend school. In 2016, Kule was hired as the Wellness Club President sponsored by the Project Hope Uganda. He does a fabulous job at managing all our handwashing stations, daily vitamin program, administering parasite medication, running the food supplement program as well caring for our children on school breaks. In his free time, he enjoys watching movies and sports games. He has never left Uganda but hopes to one day visit Kenya or South Africa. He dreams of one day going to America, Germany or England.

Richard Mugisa leads our seven toddler schools located in remote village throughout the Bundibugyo district. He is 33 years old and grew up in zero income village of Bumbwende in Western Uganda. He is married to Janet who is teaches in our toddler program. He has a six year old boy named Lawrence Mumbere.

Richard completed his Bachelors Degree in Secondary Education at Mountains of the moon University in 2014. He loves telling stories with the children, reading books and newspapers. He currently teaches history at Three Angels Secondary school. Project Hope has 11 orphan students attending this school so he oversees their education and personal needs.