August 2022

Bad Things Happen to Good People Too Often Sometimes

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People ask me all the time if I am scared about going to Uganda, especially when I go alone. My answer is always, “No, but…”

Just like when we lived in Nicaragua, when you visit a developing nation, especially as a “rich American,” you have to not be, well, stupid. You don’t leave your cell phone on the table when you get a drink refill. You don’t leave your purse in the shopping cart and turn your back to examine the cereal selection. You don’t walk alone in the dark. You don’t leave your laptop bag in your car.

Petty theft is 100% going to happen when half or more of the population is living in staggering poverty. It just is. But most of the time, violent crimes are perpetrated on their own people.

Early Monday morning, thugs, hopped up on moonshine or drugs, broke down the door to Monica’s house. They broke everything they could find, stole some of the mattresses and slashed the rest, and tried to rape one of the girls. Their 13-year-old brother fought back and is now in KCCA hospital.

Neighbors caught and beat one of the perpetrators severely — he’s at the police station but Ronald said, “The police won’t do much for now.” To be honest, that should read “for ever.” Because the police in the slum basically just manage crowd control, not actual crime. It’s just how it is.

Meanwhile, Monica’s family is left with virtually nothing and a brave boy in the hospital with a bill they will not be able to pay.

We love the dancing and happy success stories and smiling kids, of course. But this is also the reality of working in Uganda. And yes, it sucks.

We have an urgent project up on DonorSee for Monica and her family, to try to help them get back on their feet. We have purchased mattresses and bedding and some necessities in the meantime, which came out of our operating budget. We could really use your help on this one! Just click – it’s super fast and easy to donate, and 100% (minus processing fees of course) will go to the project.

HELP MONICA!

Webele nyo,

Jennings

PS We’d love for you to forward this link to anyone you know who might be interested in our work in Uganda! And if you’re looking for someone to speak at your club or event, please keep me in mind.

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Thank You So Much – Mwebele Nyo!

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It’s hard to believe that I got back from Uganda 2 1/2 months ago… Time has flown by!

But one thing has remained constant: YOU!

Our monthly donors give month in and month out so we can continue our work.

You have funded 156 projects on DonorSee, with a total of $53,200 raised.

You have allowed us to purchase land for the farm, fence it, clear it, put in a latrine, and given so we could plant bananas and get ready to plant beans.

We have weathered crazy inflation because YOU have given to make up the difference.

You have funded our free clinic and daycare all year long.

You have allowed us to create a safe place for at-risk girls to be cherished and loved and educated and supported.

YOU!

We honestly can’t thank you enough, but here’s a short thank you video we made for you.

Blessings!

Jennings

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A Week of Fun!

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When I was a teen, school months seemed to drag on and on, and summer flew by. Other than getting to go back-to-school shopping with my grandmother, I didn’t find a whole lot to be excited about! (Especially since my bus came at 6:45 and we ate lunch at 10:30!)

I’m pretty sure I never looked like Justine does in this photo!

It’s hard to overstate the danger that teen girls face in the slum: starvation, rape, trafficking, sex work, pregnancy, lack of access to education. In short, they all feel hopeless and trapped in the cycle that they see all around them every day. Even their mothers will encourage them into sex work to “contribute to the family.”

We opened the Ross House to help address teenage pregnancy and its challenges. Skills for Life addresses hopelessness.

Culture is changed one life at a time. Our focus is holistic — we don’t just teach a skill, or just provide a meal, or just take in a homeless teen mom.

  • We teach literacy to those who can’t read, write, or do basic math.
  • We teach English speaking — believe it or not, English is the official language of Uganda. But it’s taught in schools. No school = no English.
  • We address trauma through counseling and peer groups.
  • We provide support through mentoring and teacher engagement.
  • We do home visits to identify family issues early.
  • We provide food and a safe space for girls to hang out, off of the streets.
  • And we teach skills for sustainable self-sufficiency.

We don’t do the easy, high-number, flashy stuff. We do the real, long, hard work to create change, for these girls and for their children and families.

In Uganda, women can’t inherit land. We are giving them a legacy that no one can keep them from passing on.

Thank you for your amazing support and encouragement. We couldn’t do it without you!

Webele nyo!

Jennings

PS We always have a lot of great projects up on DonorSee. We now also have sponsorship opportunities, where you can support us monthly. Two are up right now, for the clinic and for the residential program. Click to check them out!

Sponsor the Haven Clinic

Sponsor the Residential Program

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Skills for Life Term 3 is Underway!

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Monday was the big day!

20 girls in Literacy, 10 in both Hairdressing and Tailoring, the 5 finishing up exams in Advanced Tailoring, the new Literacy class, and some of last term’s Literacy girls in the computer lab. Over 65 in all!

After a month off, the teachers were ready, and the girls were at the gate early.

Touch the Slum has become a hub, a home, a hangout for our teen moms and teen girls.

A safe place out of the Namuwongo slum and its challenges and temptations.

A place of HOPE and OPPORTUNITY.

Those are very, very few in Uganda in general these days, much less in the slum.

This week, Ronald posted a reel on Instagram of girls who have graduated from the Literacy class doing orientation in the computer lab. Someone commented that “they need more than ‘computer skills’. What other non-digital skills are they being taught? The internet is a fictional place full of delusion and requires electricity… when the screens turn off indefinitely what else will they have to fall back on?”

For you, and anyone who actually follows us, the answer is pretty clear – we post all the time about all what/how/why of our vocational program. And the fact that these girls, who were ILLITERATE in January, are actually able to learn to use a computer is nothing short of amazing.

But the positive of the comment is that we can say, “YES!” We believe in holistic literacy. We believe in vocational training. We believe in sustainability and self-sufficiency – whether the internet goes down forever or not!

Thanks to YOU, this vision is a reality, not a dream. We can’t thank you enough for your support…

Webele nyo!

Jennings

PS If you want to make sure that the girls aren’t left with “nothing to fall back on” when the internet goes down forever, you can help us with supplies for Skills for Life! Just click!

For life after the internet

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You’ll Never Guess What We Forgot In the Farm Budget!

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Weekend before last, Ronald and Betty spent the day at the farm supervising and helping with the fence project. At some point in the late morning, they had a sudden realization of what we forgot in the planning and budgeting… a LATRINE!!!!

Now, as many times as we went over everything, and as careful as we were in thinking of all the small details, somehow this never occurred to us. Honestly, after I got over laughing hysterically, I went back over all our Signal chats, meeting notes, and emails. Nope, not once did either of us ever think about, well, the very basics.

(If I could do emojis on here, there would be literally thousands of laughing ones here!)

Whew, anyway…

Thankfully, you all have been so generous so quickly that we had money in the savings account that we didn’t need right now. So, as you can see from the photo above, we contracted to get a pit latrine made. (And y’all, there is a guy way way down in that hole digging by hand… no thank you!)

We’ve adjusted our goal on DonorSee to reflect this additional expense (and yes, we’ve double checked to make sure we didn’t leave anything else big out, let me tell you!). We are now 63% funded and have a goal of $25,900. It’s only been a month, and we are WAY further along than we expected. All thanks to YOU!

The land is cleared, and we have a lot more cassava than we thought. We’ll be planting beans very soon, thanks to our volunteer farmer Moses, and maybe a few other things to get us started. (We’re thinking tomatoes and eggplant – Moses is checking out the soil conditions for us now.) The bananas are planted, there is matoke growing, and we’ve got papaya and a big mango tree. We couldn’t be more excited and thankful. (And we’re including those latrine builders in things to be thankful for, let me tell you!)

We so appreciate all your encouragement and excitement.

Blessings!

Jennings

PS If you want to help us out with the latrine and the rest of the farm, just click the button!

Pay for the potty!

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Term 3 of Skills for Life Starts Monday!

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This week is the end of our first-ever term break. Normally, we end one term on Friday and start orientation the next Monday!

There were a lot of reasons for the break this time, but rising food costs are the number one. It seems like every month we look at the food budget and try to figure out what we can cut or reduce or substitute while still offering a daily meal to all the students — often the only one they get in a day.

Today it was, “Can we cut back on rice and do more posho? How about cutting g nuts and doing more cowpeas?” We try to make sure that the girls are getting a complete protein, and there are foods like silverfish that we need to have for our nursing residential teen moms. Of course, we’d like to offer more variety and fresh fruits and vegetables than we can until the farm starts producing.

Skills for Life is FREE to our students, and that’s not going to change. We provide the instruction, the materials and supplies, and other support that’s needed. Completely free.

But none of it is free to us!

If you’ve been thinking about making a donation and haven’t yet, now is the time! We’ve got some great projects on DonorSee for supplies, medical care, and more. You can also make a donation on Donorbox in any amount, or sign up to be a monthly donor. We use 100% of your donations (minus processing fees unless you donate those as well) on the project, always!

The buttons are below — we so appreciate your support!

Webele nyo,

Jennings

DonorSee Projects Here!

Donorbox Donations – any amount!

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Self-Sufficiency In All the Ways

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I’m kind of an old fashioned gal. I like to garden and can and use things in ways their creators didn’t intend to solve a problem. I love being self sufficient.

The girls in our program have been largely bypassed by their community. If there is lowest-rung on the social ladder in the slum, it’s teen girls.

But not at Touch the Slum!

We believe in self sufficiency, sustainability, and personal responsibility. They go hand-in-hand: if we teach a skill that allows a girl to make an income, they then have a sustainable way to continue to earn that income and can be responsible for their own lives.

In short, it’s HOPE.

This week we made liquid soap, thanks to a generous donor. It’s MUCH cheaper to make the soap than to buy it, and we get to do a mini-workshop for the girls on how to do it. Then they can make and sell it while they’re learning a bigger skill.

Win-win.

Every program we have and every program we think of having is within this context. We don’t want to create dependency, we want to create opportunity for IN-dependence. Always.

Thank you for always standing with us – we can’t tell you how much your support and encouragement mean, and how many lives you touch every day because of it!

Webele nyo,

Jennings

PS Teen Jackline was in the Literacy class last term, and will be starting hairdressing on the 15th. The project for her supplies is almost 65% funded – we just need $95. We’d love to have your support!

Jackline’s Supplies!

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Who’s a Farmer Now?!

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One of my earliest memories from childhood is being awakened in the middle of the night to go to the groves and light the oil pots due to an imminent freeze. I didn’t get out of the car or (of course) play with fire, but I remember it clearly. I also remember playing in the packing house as the conveyor belts ran full of beautiful oranges.

My grandfather always had a small vegetable garden at his house and would eat sweet onions like an apple as we walked back to the house. (Which I found horrifying!)

As an older (cough cough) adult, I dream of having a farm one day. I just didn’t know it would be in Uganda!

But we are farmers now!

We officially own the land (with paperwork started), witnessed by the neighboring landowners and the local community leaders. It has been surveyed and marked and we will start building our fence soon.

Honestly, I keep having to pinch myself that we own this land. Land that already has papaya and cassava growing and soon ready to harvest. That already has a partially finished brick building ready to be finished into a home for our caretaker and storage.

I’m still hoping for a farm a bit closer to home one day, but I am absolutely staggered at your response to our need for food, and for another vocational skill to teach our teen moms. It has so far exceeded our wildest expectations that I’m not sure there are words to express our gratitude.

In Luganda, “Tweyanzizza nnyo, tweyanzeege!” (We are so grateful, thank you very much!”)

Blessings,

Jennings

PS While we may be farmers now, we aren’t actually farming yet! Our project to help us bridge the gap between our budget and rising costs is 30% funded on DonorSee – we’d love you to help us so we can fully restock in 2 weeks when classes resume. Click the button – it’s super easy, and 100% goes to the program!

Click here for FOOD!

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