Dear Friends,

First and foremost, mark your calendars for Busoga Trust America events in NYC on September 24th and in Fairfield County, CT on the 25th. Several of us will be recently back from a visit to Uganda and will have stories, pictures and video to share of our water development work in Masindi.

Since last updating you in January, BTA has been quietly going about its work (i.e. Robin’s team in the field has been knocking the cover off the ball, we have been remiss in keeping you all updated).

We have:
1. Hit our production targets in Africa
2. Brought on several new members of the team
3. Prepared for a visit to Masindi this August by several BTA board members and supporters
4. Worked to secure our fundraising base here in the U.S.

Here are some details:
Hit First Year Goal: Our 15th well was installed (village of Nyakabale) during the second week of April. Our goal for our first year of operation (ended March 31, 2009) was 15 wells. Masindi Director Robin Waugh, his predecessor Matt Fay and the team they built deserve plenty of accolades for battling a host of obstacles in our first year and staying on track. With an average of 500 people served by each well, this first year effort has resulted in nearly 7500 people with fresh water and access to better sanitation and hygiene. We are now working on our 19th site. We are happy with our progress but note that the job is now just 10% done. Our original baseline surveys identified a need for approximately 200 new water sources in rural Masindi. Our goal is to complete 20 new wells this year.

New Team Members: Several new team members have joined the BTA effort and some key contributors are moving on. First, many thanks to outgoing Masindi Director Robin Waugh and Treasurer Bob Colgan. They were each instrumental in BTA’s successful first year. And welcome to several new people who we expect will help take this to a new level:

Ryan Jennings is a member of the team that originally designed our website. Ryan joined the BTA Board earlier this year and has taken on an expanded role helping with our communications and fundraising efforts. Ryan’s creativity and his technology and marketing savvy are proving to be invaluable to BTA.

Ned Morgan, our newly hired Director in Masindi, has taken over from Robin Waugh. Since graduating from George Washington University in 2006, Ned has worked in international development with most of his time spend on projects in Uganda and Kenya.

Ned will be filling very large shoes when Rob heads back to Scotland next month. We all owe a great debt to Rob for his creative and tenacious approach to solving problems and keeping the program on track this past year. Congratulations Rob and welcome Ned!

Allison Miyake has recently taken over from Bob Colgan as our Treasurer. The transition has been smooth. Thanks to you both.

Emily Polet is BTA’s First Africa Intern. A Junior at Rochester College, Emily raised the funds for a three month internship in Uganda. Thus far Emily has spent her time figuring out which African-native plants best repel mosquitoes and determining which model of latrine is both sustainable and available to construct using local materials. Emily will also be working to keep the Busoga Trust America web site fresh with content from the field.

Kevin Reed: An equities trader at Raymond James in New York, Kevin will be helping out with our grant writing program.

August Trip on Track: A group of us are headed to Masindi in August to meet our field team, assess needs, review our progress to date and visit prospective villages. Our group includes Scott Hancock, John Sabino, Jeff Kaplan, JoeAnna Greenberg, Dave Wiener and Ted Huber. It’s not too late to decide to join in – just let us know.

Securing and Expanding our Fundraising Base:
Our new efforts include:
1. An expanded foundation grant writing effort
2. Online marketing
3. A school sponsorship program.

Jeff Kaplan is leading our efforts to get schools involved in supporting BTA as both a new source of funds and a way to empower kids to help those that are less fortunate. Jeff’s Harlem-based Goal after school program raised $1,700 in a series of events this spring hosted by the kids at P.S. 171 in Harlem. Read more about the event here. Also, a Girl Scout troop from Lynbrook, Long Island raised over $500 through their efforts educating their local community on the issues related to clean water in Uganda.

Let us know if you’d like to organize an effort with a local school or other organization. Jeff can show you the way.

See our web site www.busogatrustamerica.org or Ned’s Twitter feed from the field for more detail on all that is going on. You may also make a donation online to support our next project in Kifuruta Village. Thanks for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you all in September.

Best regards,

Ted Huber, Jeff Kaplan, Ryan Jennings, Andrew Pearson
BTA Founders