March 2022

THE NEW HAVEN CLINIC

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Our new clinic, which we decided to call the Haven Clinic, opened on Valentine’s Day. Its function is to serve the girls, children, and staff in our programs — right now that’s about 60 people not including babies.

We already need to restock some supplies and medications! Our full-time nurse is doing well-baby checks, dispensing medications for cough, doing malaria and typhoid rapid tests, and keeping records on all the babies so we can make sure they’re healthy and developing well.

This is HUGE. Health care, even for very serious illnesses and diseases, is out of reach of almost everyone in the Namuwongo slum. We’ve done a lot of DonorSee projects to help us cover the costs we’ve incurred over the past year. The average has been about $90 — while the average income in the slum is less than $10 a month.

But now, we have scenes like this. Teen mom and Ross House resident Christine’s joy at baby Zoe’s first-ever wellness checkup. Free of charge.

It doesn’t get much better than this!

Thank you for all your help and support as we’ve set up this clinic. Obviously, we will have ongoing costs of medicines, supplies, and the nurse’s salary. You can become a monthly donor (in any amount!) or donate to our current DonorSee project by clicking the button below if you want to help.

Webele nyo!

Jennings

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TEN EIGHTEEN IS IN THE PARTNER SPOTLIGHT ON DONORSEE!

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When we began using DonorSee in September 2021, we really had no idea what we were doing. (I mean REALLY…!) It’s a truly unique fundraising platform that relies on lots and lots of relatively small projects, shown in video format, with follow-up videos so donors can see exactly what their money accomplished.

Switching from a general “please donate to help us” to dozens and dozens of individual projects, figuring out the best way to create compelling but short videos, and doing timely follow-ups around time differences, and power and internet outages — not to mention just learning a whole new platform’s algorithms and rules — was a pretty steep learning curve.

BUT

We did it! It helps that I’m really stubborn and a natural problem solver. It also helps that DonorSee is extraordinarily responsive to our questions and suggestions, as well as committed to our success.

And now we’re in the Spotlight! You can click the button below to see my interview and hopefully get a broader overview of our work, our challenges, and our dreams.

We’ve raised over $11,000 on DonorSee in 5 1/2 months, and we’re very excited to see where 2022 takes us!

Thanks for being here!

Jennings

PHOTO CREDIT: Bob Ditty Photography

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VALENTINE’S DAY IS FUN IN THE SLUM, TOO!

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Ok… For most people in Namuwongo, Valentine’s Day is not fun. It’s not any different from any other day: it’s hard.

But we don’t do “normal for the slum.” We just do NORMAL.

That means we celebrate, laugh, dance, and promote joy every chance we get.

So for Valentine’s Day, we teamed up with our good friend Rinty’s social-enterprise Lekker Bakery to give heart shaped brioche buns to everyone, along with soda. Our residential girls got a special chicken-and-chips dinner as their February “one fun thing”.

“TRUE LOVE IS INEXHAUSTIBLE: THE MORE YOU GIVE, THE MORE YOU HAVE.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

THANK YOU for all your support!

Blessings,

Jennings

If you want to support our work, just click the button! Every donation makes a difference, and 100% goes to the program.

YES! I WANT TO HELP!

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THE CLINIC IS OPEN!

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During 2021, we had a LOT of medical issues come up for our girls and babies. The most common were malaria and typhoid, but we’ve also had intestinal parasites, pneumonia, and burns… to name a few.

We have a wonderful doctor who sees our girls at a discount and without requiring payment up front. But he does, of course, require payment in short order, as does the hospital where most treatments have to be done. (Many meds for advanced typhoid and malaria, as well as antibiotics for children, are done through an IV canula that stays in for a week). Plus there’s transport to and from the hospital on boda bodas.

We’ve done a LOT of DonorSee projects to cover medical bills… So I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it before, but in January it hit me: OPEN A CLINIC, DUMMY!

So we did! We’d contracted for more space within our compound in August, and at the end of the year most of it was finally ready. That allowed us to move the Ross House girls to a more private apartment area and free up rooms in the main house. VOILA! A clinic was born.

We are now officially open for business, with a fully stocked medicine cabinet, first aid supplies, IV supplies, a bed, and a full time nurse.

We’ve already had our first patients!

Of course, this is free to our girls and their children (and our staff). But it’s not free to US. We will have ongoing expenses to restock medications and supplies, as well as the nurse’s salary. We also had the expense of setting it up. If you’d like to help, just click the button below – 100% goes to the program.

Thank you ALWAYS for your amazing support! We’re so grateful to have you with us.

Blessings,

Jennings

SUPPORT THE HEAVEN CLINIC

THE CLINIC IS OPEN! Read More »