Teacher Gilbert

My name is Gilbert Mujulizi. I teach Bible and English at our school, the Center of Hope. I also serve as Refuge and Hope's sustainability manager. I joined the Center in 2012 fresh from university and have never regretted working here. Why? Because I've seen our work transform the lives of many people I thought I'd never see smile again. 

As a Bible teacher, my role is to share the love of Christ with all the people who come to our center. I feel very blessed to do this since I've seen many people's lost hopes being restored through Christ Jesus.

The people we serve here mean so much to me, but I never realized how much I meant to them until I had the chance to spend time with them outside of the classroom. I've spent some time doing that recently and I'm feeling very encouraged about what they have to say about me and the impact Refuge and Hope's services are having on them.

I mentioned that in addition to being a teacher, I'm the sustainability manager at Refuge and Hope. This is a very important and challenging role. In this capacity, my job is to generate new, steady sources of income to ensure that our programs can continue running, even if we see a drop in donations from our supporters.

One of the programs we've implemented to generate an additional source of income in an evening English class for non-refugee Ugandans who want to learn to read, write and speak English more proficiently. This program targets middle-class Ugandans who can afford to pay the full fee for the class (unlike our refugee students who's fees are highly subsidized.)

I'm also responsible for ensuring that all of our programs and operations are running as efficiently as possible to ensure we're not wasting resources unnecessarily. It's not a glamorous job, but it's critical to the longevity of our programs and organization.

Every year, we see an increase in the number of refugees we're serving. This means we need to work even harder each year to secure more support from donors and to operate in a more sustainable manner.

My prayer request is that everyone -- existing donors and students, future donors and students, other agencies working with refugees, and the community at large -- will recognize the impact Refuge and Hope is making on the population of the refugees it serves. I also pray that God will continue to provide for our organization as we continue to extend His love to those we serve.