(cont. on pg. 2)

Executive Director Sally Stillings passes the baton

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails,” reads Proverbs 19:21. That verse is beautifully illustrated in Diane Stanton’s life-long passion for the African people.

Diane will become the Kellermann Foundation’s next executive director on September 1, when Sally Stillings retires. Diane feels that God has given her another opportunity to use her skills, under-standing, and heart to benefit the Batwa pygmies and other people groups in southwest Uganda.

Through photographs and stories from missionar-ies, Diane fell in love with Africa when she was eight years old. As a college freshman, she traveled the world on a “Semester at Sea.” Kenya was her fa-vorite stop. “I was determined to study anthro-pology and one day return to Africa to live among the tribes to better understand the differences in our cultures,” Diane said.

God had different plans. Two years later, Diane married now retired Bishop James Stanton.

“As a pastor’s wife, I realized I would not be the ethnologist that I had planned to be,” she ex-plained. “But I happily took a different direction to accommodate our various moves around the coun-try.” After earning a degree in public administra-tion, she worked as a university administrator, travel agent, real estate agent, museum archivist,

and chief operations officer for the American Anglican Council.

Her husband was consecrated the VI Bishop of Dallas in the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in 1993, and the Stantons were invited to visit Uganda. While there, they met Bishop Livingstone Nkoyoyo, who later became Archbishop of Uganda. Soon after, Archbishop Nkoyoyo asked Diane for help to save the displaced indigenous Batwa. “He told me that thousands of native people were dying and he needed my help to resettle them,” she remembers.

As she prayed through the process of what it would take to resettle the Batwa, God gave her a revelation. “It occurred to me that the very tribe I was studying in college some 30 years prior was the Batwa,” Diane explained. “God knew my heart, and after years of hard work raising our family, the bishop’s request came at the perfect time to help a group of people I had been enthralled with in college.”

As part of the resettlement plan, Diane secured church assistance and a substantial grant from a Diocese of Dallas mission fund.

Diane and Bishop Stanton in Uganda

The Kellermann Foundation is blessed—from its very beginnings through today and now into the future! In our walk with Christ, we know that where one door closes another opens by God’s grace and guidance.

Sally Stillings walked through the open door six years ago when she agreed to be-come the first executive director for a young, international foundation serving southwest Uganda. God had been preparing the way, as Sally had visited Bwindi and had developed a heart for the people.

Carol Kellermann describes those early days: “Our mission had grown to the point of being overwhelming. Sally took a tangled mess of an organization without complaint or derision….She was the answer to our prayers. With her incredible competence and calm-

ness, she made everything neat and orderly, creating the structure that was necessary. How different the Kellermann Foundation is today because of Sally’s ceaseless devotion that got her up early, working long hours, and finding the right people to join a team that would take KF to a place of respect with its ability to get the job done. What a blessing and an honor to know you, Sally, and Jeff, your dear husband. God sent you to save an organization that was doing great but needed support. I am forever grateful.”

Working collaboratively with the board, Sally organized the administration of the Keller-mann Foundation from the ground up, which included developing diverse, international partnerships and building on existing rela-tionships with programs and people in

Bwindi, including Bwindi Community Hospi-tal and the Batwa Development Program.

Sally is a prayerful servant of God who is willing to go where He calls. With her gifts of administration, organization, financial skills, dependability, passion, and

“I'd just like to say that Sally is the best natural leader and manager I have ever met! She is incredible in her ability to work with the many ambi-guities and all the diverse personalities involved with the Kellermann Foundation. It has been a true honor to work with her over the years.” —Simi Lyss, MD, former KF Board President

By Lana Valenta

Sally at Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

Diane Stanton is called as KF executive director

The Kellermann Foundation Newsletter

Issued quarterly by the Kellermann Foundation,

a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization

Volume 7 Number 3

July 2016 God paves the way to Uganda with a lifetime of experience

(cont. on pg. 3)

Over 350 acres of land was purchased in trust to the Diocese of Kinkiizi as a permanent home for the Batwa. On it was built a multi-purpose building for a clinic, school, and chapel. A large primary school was con-structed. Farm implements were purchased, and local tribesmen were paid to teach the Batwa farming skills.

Only comprehensive medical care was lack-ing. Through a series of God-ordained events, Diane met the head of the Episcopal Medical Missions Foundation (EMMF), spoke to a group of doctors about the plight of the Batwa, and saw the EMMF post the need for a volunteer to survey the Batwa. Dr. Scott and Carol Kellermann answered the call. The rest, of course, is history.

“Dr. Kellermann is a man of huge vision and faith,” Diane said. “His plans for Bwindi were remarkable.” Thus began Phase 2 of the re-settlement project and the launching of the Kellermann Foundation.

Diane is thrilled to again work with the Batwa, the Kellermanns, and now the Keller-mann Foundation. During the time that the Kellermanns were living in Bwindi, Diane was executive director of Uganda Partners, a non-profit that supports Uganda Christian Univer-sity (UCU) near Kampala. Diane helped devel-op UCU by raising scholarship support for students, helping with capital projects, and organizing annual short-term mission teams to Uganda. During her 12-year tenure at Uganda Partners, UCU grew from its original

120 students to over 12,000 students per term on five campuses throughout Uganda, offering 50 academic majors. Both the first approved law school and the first BSN/MSN-level nursing school were opened, as well as the addition of a 65,000-square-foot library.

When Diane retired from Uganda Partners, she knew her work there was complete, but her call to missions and Uganda remained.

“I am excited to see what God has planned for the next phase of our relationship,” she said. “Without Him, we can do nothing!”

Diane Stanton (cont. from pg. 1)

Page 2 The Kellermann Foundation Newsletter

Staff Spotlight: Kenneth Turyamubona, Batwa Development Program

exam not only for Primary 4, but also for Pri-mary 5. He placed first in Primary 4 and sec-ond in Primary 5, so he was promoted to Pri-mary 5 for the third term.

Scott and Carol Kellermann arrived in Uganda in 2001, and Kenneth first met them while in Primary 6, where he continued to hold first place in the class. Kenneth recalls how Scott took an interest in his education

At the Batwa Development Program (BDP) at Bwindi, Kenneth Turyamu-bona wears several hats. He is the assistant coordinator, head of the Home Building & Land Acquisition Program, and head of the Education Program.

Every month, Kenneth budgets for fees and school supplies, ranging from pencils to beans and posho (corn pone), for 257 Batwa pygmy children attending 18 schools from nursery to post-secondary technical schools.

“Sometimes it feels like being a grandfather,” says Kenneth. He makes sure that the children attend regularly, collects their grade reports each term, and arranges transportation for boarding students.

Kenneth, himself a Mutwa, benefited from others taking an interest in his education.

Kenneth tells of his Primary 4 teacher Hope Mfite (now Rev. Hope). He was first in his class and Hope encouraged Kenneth to take the

and provided study gifts: a watch, a flashlight, a reading lamp, and four textbooks to study for the Primary 7 exams. “The watch had an alarm. I would set it for 3 a.m. and then get up and read,” Kenneth stated. When Primary 7 exams were given, Kenneth placed first in the district.

The Kellermanns started the Batwa Development Program in Bwindi, and Kenneth was the key translator for the Batwa whenever he was home for school breaks. In 2010, he went to Kabale College on a schol-arship from the Kellermanns, ma-jored in business administration,

and was first in his class.

In 2011, Kenneth moved on to Bishop Bar-ham University College on a scholarship provided by Diane Stanton at Uganda Partners. He received a diploma in project management in 2013.

Kenneth is encouraged by the changes he sees in Batwa attitudes toward

The Kellermann Foundation’s partner programs proudly employ Ugandans in every level of staffing and leadership. This regular feature will introduce you to some of the dedicated staff members you support.

Diane greets Batwa friends.

Students at Bishops’ Primary School help carry supplies for the term.

Diane visits the Kitariro clinic named in her honor.

The Batwa Development Program runs activities aimed at improving the lives of the indigenous Batwa, including education, home building and land acquisition, agriculture training, spiritual outreach, the Batwa Women‘s Center, and several income-generating projects.

(cont.)

commitment, KF has grown into a well-respected, highly regarded foundation. She implemented best practices in nonprofit man-agement and long-range planning. Sally set up the foundation’s financial systems and record keeping, as well as its donor management system and software. Year after year, she established and met the foundation’s budgets in a challenging fundraising environment and doubled revenue from when she started. By hiring and putting the right people in place, Sally built the Kellermann Foundation into the well-oiled machine it is today.

Under Sally’s leadership, the Kellermann Foundation became recognized as a top-tier nonprofit organization by Charity Without Borders, the Giving Library, grassroots.org, and the Combined Federal Campaign; earned the GuideStar Exchange Gold designation; and earned the very prestigious Best in America seal from Independent Charities of America. Less than 2,800 of 1.8 million US charities achieve this status!

We are so grateful for all that Sally has brought to KF and to the people of Bwindi. We pray for God to continue blessing her and the ministries to which He calls her as she moves into retirement. He is not done yet!

We will miss you, Sally.

Empty piggy banks and happy hearts. That’s what came out of Cindy Waits’s and The Rev. David Houk’s Change for Africa campaign at St. John’s Episcopal School and Church in Dallas, Texas.

Cindy Waits, her husband Jim, and St. John’s are longtime supporters of the Ugandan people. When the Waits were introduced to the Kellermann Foundation, they were very moved at the plight of the displaced Batwa pygmies and wanted to help, inspiring several trips to Uganda.

In February, Cindy gave a heartfelt homily at St. John’s Episcopal School, kicking off Father Houk’s pocket change drive. Capturing their attention with a soccer ball made of banana leaves and twine, Cindy went on to paint a picture of a typical school day for a child in Bwindi.

“What really moved the children was the idea that many kids don’t have food for lunch and that school fees are too much for most fami-lies. It was one of the things that impacted us most when my husband and I first went to

Uganda. Seeing hundreds of children in school and only a few lunches sitting in the corner…. My husband burst into tears,” says Cindy.

“Change for Africa allowed the church and school to come together to support the Batwa people in a very personal and tactile way,” ex-plains Father Houk. Younger children at the school were paired with older children, and together they created beautiful cards and letters to send to the children in Bwindi.

Although many children were stirred into ac-tion that day, one St. John’s student was par-

ticularly inspired. Although the drive was for pocket change, he wanted to donate $60, even though he is on financial aid himself.

“Inspired” is also how Father Houk recalls Scott Kellermann when he first met him. “He made quite an impression when he came through here. He lifted up the diocese.” His own experience in Uganda was much the same. “When a woman came in [to BCH] for an emergency C-section, they saved her and her baby; people started dancing… They dance during the offertory at church services.”

The letters will be shared with the children at Bwindi in August when the Kellermann Foun-dation team of board members and support-ers travel there.

Thank you, Cindy and Father Houk!

July 2016 Page 3

education. Students now attend at almost every class level. Parents show responsibility when their children attempt to drop out of school. Some students who complained about a recent cut in spending money still complet-ed their term. Some who dropped out are writing BDP to ask if they might return to get an education. Kenneth feels good about his job when the students receive good report cards and when parents and teachers express appreciation for what he does.

As he looks back, he is very grateful for the people who answered the Lord’s callings to

Staff Spotlight (cont.)

Donor Corner: Change for Africa

Sally dancing with Batwa at Byumba, 2007

Stillings (cont. from pg. 1)

Kenneth with his father at his graduation

Cindy with St. John’s students

Carol and Scott Kellermann (ctr.) with the board of directors and Sally (second from left), 2016

support his own education. The Lord used them at just the right moments to change the projection of his life. Now he works to im-prove the lives of others.

Lana Valenta, President

Dallas, TX

Stacy Lippert, Secretary Park City, UT

Bob McLendon, Treasurer Richardson, TX

Julia Amaral, Grass Valley, CA

Kathleen Cook-Hunter, Dallas, TX

The Rev. Clif Gardner, Dallas, TX

Gina Lambright, Silver Spring, MD

Gayle Porter, Dallas, TX

Dan Weston, Dallas, TX

Ex Officio: Scott and Carol Kellermann Nevada City, CA

Executive Director Sally Stillings

Executive Assistant Victoria Briscoe O’Connor

Manager of Donor Relations Lara Korba

Staff

Kellermann

Foundation

Board Members

2016

P.O. Box 832809 Richardson, TX 75083-2809 Phone: (972) 685-0279 Email: info@kellermannfoundation.org Website: kellermannfoundation.org

Tidbits Staff Updates:

Best wishes to Victoria Briscoe, executive assistant, on her marriage July 3 to Michael O’Connor!

Prayers and good thoughts to the staff and board during our transition period, as Sally Stillings retires and Diane Stanton becomes our new executive director.

Volunteer Needs:

A long-term volunteer to coordinate BCH Watsi patient cases.

A volunteer to create a land use and site plan in Bwindi for the 12 to 15 acres owned by BCH and UNSB. The start date can be flexible within 2016 or 2017.

A long-term volunteer to help oversee BDP accounts, starting in January 2017.

Call our office at (972) 685-0279 or email volunteer@kellermannfoundation.org for more information.

Prayer Team: Interested in joining the Kellermann Founda-tion’s prayer team? All you need is a willing heart and access to email. You will receive about one email a month with our prayer requests. Contact info@kellermannfoundation.org.

Our vision: By the grace of God, the Batwa and surrounding communities will achieve life in all its fullness.

The 5th Annual Batwa Challenge race will be held on Saturday, August 27, in Nevada City, CA. This year’s events include a 5K walk and 5K and 10K runs. The events start at Pioneer Park, traveling through downtown and winding through beautiful mountain trails and streams.

A reliable source says that last year’s “gorillas” are expected to return to the race again: you do not want to miss out! Additionally, there will be a Kids’ Run offered, where children can chase a “gorilla” across a grassy

field as he runs for a big bowl of bananas!

To register for the race and for information, visit batwachallenge.com.

Photo courtesy Andrew Wright / Lighthawkphoto

Batwa Challenge Race

In the beginning of its third year of operation, Uganda Nursing School Bwindi (UNSB) recently welcomed a new class of students. On May 21, 70 new students moved into the campus hostels and began their journeys to become certified nurses and midwives. One of the ways in which UNSB is supporting these new students is by supplying each one with a Kindle e-reader. The students can easily access textbooks and reading materials on the Kindles. Nimwesiga Abeth, a new student enrolled in the certificate-level program, comes to UNSB from the Isingiro district, several districts from Kanungu where UNSB is located. Abeth says she joined UNSB because of the advanced technology the school uses in deliv-ering its lectures: “I am so happy about the Kindle that was given to me. I will use the technology to research about the medical conditions in my area." As seen in the photo, the students were very excited to start school with knowledge at their fingertips! UNSB expects their total number of students to reach 150 by the end of this year, the most the school has ever enrolled. The Kellermann Foundation sends our best wishes to the all of the classes of UNSB

students as they begin the new school year!

UNSB students begin new term