We couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe and gratitude for all that we have achieved together. Your unwavering support gave the girls of MGRC their best year yet! And so we want to take a moment to reflect on all of the amazing things that happened in 2023.

By far, the biggest event of 2023 was moving MGRC to our new location, and the girls into their permanent homes. It was something we all looked forward to, but there aren’t adequate words to describe how much it meant to girls who have experienced so much trauma and upheaval in their lives. We saw such a difference in the girls as they realized they were finally home.

And what a home it is!

Our new facilities include:

• Three houses for the girls and their house mothers, reconfigured so each house holds 20 girls instead of 12
• A vocational building that setup to teach sewing, baking, computer skills,
• A preschool building which includes a nursery for our youngest girls, and where the over 18 year old’s are housed
• A kitchen and dining hall that allows us to feed up to 120 girls, as well as staff and visitors
• An administration building where staff manages day-to-day operations
• Housing for our founder, visitors and volunteers
• A sports field and playground

In addition to all of the buildings, a key part of creating a safe environment for the girls is having our own water source. The government water supply was unreliable and intermittent, often shut off for weeks at a time. But in 2023, thanks to a generous donation from the Larson Financial Foundation, we secured our own clean water source and the infrastructure to store enough water to last several days.

The girls are thriving at the new facilities. The homes provide the family environment that we feel is so important to their development. They have ample room to run and play on the sports field and playground. What a joy it is to watch them learning to swing and lining up for a trip down the slide! The large dining hall not only provides a place to eat, but also to study, celebrate birthdays and gather with visitors. And there are spaces for all ages to learn and prepare for the future.

We feel extraordinarily blessed by the support you have given to get us to this place! And we look forward to the next phase of building the ecoLodge which will be a huge step towards financial independence. Our fundraising for the ecoLodge is off to a great start. We surpassed our goal by over 20% during the Christmas campaign and hope to start construction by March this year, to be operational by early 2025.

In the next post, we will talk about the amazing things that happened in the girls’ lives in 2023.