As Great Lakes Restoration looks to the future for 2010 a vista of opportunities is apparent. Because our resources remain limited and because the needs of those we serve are so great, the first concern is to select those projects and proposals on which to build from the beginning that we have made in 2009. In doing so, especially as to ongoing projects like Pigs For Peace, we have become accustomed as a matter of policy to giving great weight to the input that we receive from our partners on the ground in Africa. Without foreclosing the possibility of pursuing any other prospect to promote our Goals that may present itself during 2010, GLR will concentrate on the following as priorities during the coming year:

• Drive ongoing projects, especially Pigs For Peace, to completion.
• Begin a new initiative designed to fund and support education at every level, but particularly for children like those pictured on this page; the orphans and otherwise vulnerable victims of war (OVC).
• Growing our donor, partner and membership base to include not only funding partners, but also donors of expertise, goods, such as computer and medical equipment and supplies, and services, particularly shipping; and, to permit expansion of our operating capacity on the ground in Africa.
• Seek an award from USAID so as to continue and expand our efforts to assist the victims of rape as a weapon of war.

As we go through the year look for information as to these new efforts and progress reports as to those that are ongoing on our Projects pages and in the News & Press section.

I would like to close with a word of thanks to everyone involved with GLR, past and present; our volunteer staff, our partners and Affiliates, and the hundreds of donors who have and are helping GLR Build The Peace.

Matthias M. Cinyabuguma, Ph.D., President

Welcome to Great Lakes Restoration

Great Lakes Restoration (GLR) is a non-profit organization with the goal of “Building the Peace” by assisting the poor people in the Eastern African countries of the Great Lakes region, primarily the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, in the post-conflict recovery from recent warfare, through the development of the human capital capacity.

The projects sponsored by GLR are designed to stimulate creativity, work, ambition and hope. These are not “quick-fix” projects but are designed to establish the long term future growth, peace, and stability in the Great Lakes region.

Our projects, our “buildings”, will address the following components inherent in
“Building the Peace”:

• INFRASTUCTURES to improve the living conditions of the population and
  effectively fight poverty.
• EDUCATION to promote the basic tools necessary for growth.
• HEALTH to provide the population with the services and medicine needed to combat disease, poor nutrition, HIV/AID, and premature death.
• WATER and ELECTRICITY which are essential to sustain human life in the modern world.
• HOUSING to promote human dignity through improved living conditions.
• EMPLOYMENT to provide hope and an alternative future for people to live and prosper in peace.

Our PROJECTS page synopsizes our specific plans to address these basic needs. A detailed proposal is available upon request from GLR.

GLR is organized and operated as a tax-exempt, non-profit corporation pursuant to section 501 (c)(3).