April 2023

Hello from Florida – a Quick Update

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I made a quick trip down to Fort Myers and Naples, just Monday to today, so I could speak about Ten Eighteen’s work in Namuwongo to the Fort Myers Rotary Club. It was so fun – I really appreciate the invite from one of our regular donors, Mark!

Today the literacy girls learned to make budgets and shopping lists. It wasn’t as fun as painting pineapples and funky chickens, but they really enjoyed it. We’re really trying to engage the literacy girls with fun projects and new things to learn over these off-weeks of the term break, and they are absolutely soaking up everything thrown at them.

Everyone is getting back to normal life after the tragic death of baby Alpha. We really appreciate all of the emails and comments from you guys — it’s really given a lot of comfort to Sylvia and the team.

So what’s up these days?

  • We are continuing the fundraising for the well at Wells of Hope. We still need about $500 so that the project is visible on the wider DonorSee platform. Since 100% of donations go to the project, ANY amount is helpful!
  • Gideon, the Director of Hopeland and Wells of Hope Primary Schools, became a father for the second time last week. His new daughter, Shalom, is doing great!
  • We are going to teach some of the hairdressing girls how to do men’s hair during the term break. We get asked by salons if we have anyone who can do both men and women, so we are going to try it out with a handful and see how it goes. Any time we can expand and broaden our skill portfolio, I’m happy!
  • I have 3 bags made by Jenifer that I will be selling – I’ve already sold one! If you’re interested, I can send you photos this week. All the money will go directly to her, and will make a big impact for her little family.

Thank you for all your support!

Webele nyo,

Jennings

PS Donations have been very slow this month, so if you’ve been thinking about giving and haven’t yet, it would be a great time!

GIVE NOW

DONORSEE PROJECTS

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A Community Well for Rwakobo

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One of our most critical problems at Wells of Hope Primary School has been access to clean water. While we did construct our first ecobrick tank there in 2020, the tank is only good during rainy seasons since it is fed with rain water from the metal roof.

This means that, during the dry seasons, our cook and students — and their families — must resort to the “seasonal wells” dotted around the landscape. These are not actual wells, they are either natural or man-made low lying areas where water collects. They aren’t fed by any water source, so they slowly dry up, and they are shared with animals and insects. In short, they are disgusting and unreliable.

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It has been our dream since 2020 to construct a real, deep-water, borehole fed well that will serve not only Wells of Hope but the entire community of Rwakobo Village — over 3,000 people. (The top photo is just a representative sample.) This will not only give them all the water they need all year round, it will save many lives from contaminated water-born diseases like typhoid.

The project is now LIVE on Donorsee! And we have 5% funding already!

We need another $500 for the project to be visible to the entire platform, and the total of the project is $10,415. There is a full budget spelled out on the project site, so you can see exactly how the money will be spent. This isn’t one of the projects we can start and fund as we go, so we can’t get fresh water to Rwakobo village until we are 100% funded.

Can you help us today? 100% of your donation goes to the project.

We so appreciate your support!

Mwebele mnonga!

Jennings

WATER FOR WELLS!

PS Starting this week, I am reducing the number of blogs per week to one, at least through the summer months. I love writing, and our open rate is way above industry standard so you must enjoy reading. (I am really grateful!) But it does take a lot of time! You can always follow us or check in with us on Instagram, where I post every day. (Click the icon below.)

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A Devastating Loss at Touch the Slum

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I am devastated to tell you that we lost baby Alpha today. His 16-year-old mom, Sylvia, is inconsolable.

Alpha suddenly spiked a high fever this morning with convulsions. Sherry got the fever down and she and Mama Santa rushed him to the hospital. The hospital REFUSED TO TREAT HIM because the pediatrician wasn’t there. By the time they got to the second hospital, he had no pulse.

Our community is in shock and mourning. They are holding a vigil all night tonight.

Please pray for Sylvia and everyone in our very close-knit Touch the Slum family.

Thank you.

Jennings

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Rescued Puppies, Rescued People

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The Friday we were in the west, we were supposed to go to Rwakobo Village and do a walking tour of the several surrounding miles. This village is the poorest I’ve ever seen in Uganda, and is where Wells of Hope Primary School is located.

The best laid plans do go awry, and it POURED down rain that morning. The unanimous decision was to cancel the time at the village and go on to the lodge to start our “safari weekend” early. Cold rain, terrible roads, and herds of cattle trying to keep their feet out of the mud by standing on any hills in the roads made the drive take twice as long.

Then we came to a herd that just would not move. They stared at us, those huge Ankole horns pointed our way, and then William saw why: there was a small puppy in the middle of the road!

The puppy was huddled up and crying and very young, its eyes barely open, and there was no way I was leaving it. I hopped out of the car in the rain and the cows let me pass. I picked up the puppy but heard more crying – and there were two more in the ditch, completely soaked and shivering. Soon all three were in the car and they quickly found the warmest spot! And the cows parted for us to pass.

Even in a culture where dogs aren’t “man’s best friend,” the staff at the lodge jumped into action, started making phone calls, and found the owner of the puppies. Everyone thanked us for rescuing them. And of course we did — no one could have left them there to die of exposure.

Every day at Touch the Slum we rescue girls who are dying of exposure – exposure to exploitation, to malnutrition, to neglect.

Thanks to you, we can offer them a warm place, safety, food, reconnection with lost family, training and education, and — most importantly — HOPE.

We can’t thank you enough! Mwebele nnyo!

Jennings

PS Our clinic restock project on DonorSee is 78% funded and we just need $85 to complete it! We’d love your help to make sure we have the medication and supplies Nurse Sherry needs to keep our population healthy. Click below!

Clinic Restock

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We’re Back! Hello from the USA

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Dear {{contact.first_name}},

Hello from NC! I’m looking out of my sunroom at the bright green new leaves of spring, fighting off cats who are so happy to see me, and feeling enormously grateful to be home!

Our travels went well and Susan and I both slept “normal” hours, so we are hopeful that we won’t be jet lag casualties for more than a day or two. (You can’t recover from 28+ hours of travel overnight, no matter how much sleep you get!)

I got the above photo from Ronald while I was in the Brussels airport and I *love* it. There are a lot of things to love: the traditional gomesi that the Tailoring class made for me as a surprise, the uber successful 4th graduation of our biggest Skills for Life group yet, the fashion show where I was showing off the dress and my (questionable) Ugandan dance moves, Peace dancing in the background.

But what I love the most is that it captures why Touch the Slum has been so successful.

Genuine respect and partnership. Friendship. Fun and laughter. Hard work. Collaboration. Gratitude. Celebration. Cross-culture.

The whole team did a phenomenal job putting together the graduation. (You can see some videos at Instagram, icon below.) The speakers — the local Council Chairman, a pastor friend, a bishop, parents, students, and teachers — all spoke of the profound innovation and real changes they have seen. There were a lot of happy tears.

There’s a lot more to come. We have new challenges all the time, an unlimited stream of teen moms and teen girls who need help, the usual constraints and obstacles any nonprofit faces.

But we have YOU. We have the support of the local community. We have all the things that photo above sums up.

We can’t wait to see what’s next!

Blessings,

Jennings

PS We’re going to be posting our new Large DonorSee project this week — a deep well for the Rwakobo/Wells of Hope Primary School community, which will serve 3,000 people with clean, fresh water every day. We’ll need to get to 10% quickly so it is visible to the wider DonorSee audience. We’d appreciate you thinking about what you might be able to give over the next couple of days so we can hit the ground running. If we can fund the well quickly, the students and residents of Rwakobo Village will have a deep well by dry season!

This photo is one of the “seasonal wells” (aka large puddle) where they currently must get water to survive – yeah, it’s as bad as it looks!

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Our Time Is Coming to an End

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I can’t believe we leave in just a few days! The time has flown by, but we’ve gotten so much done while we were here.

Last time I wrote about Susan’s art classes, which continue through today. She taught a group of boys (and Fauza) yesterday, and they painted funky chickens. Today I’ll assist on a class for the staff, who were feeling left out!

Our trip west was great. We had LOTS of dancing and singing presentations by the students at both Hopeland and Wells of Hope Schools. We filmed video for some upcoming projects – one of which is introducing “Sister Schools” to US elementary schools to try to connect and reinforce ties with kids the same age.

We didn’t get to walk Rwakobo Village with Gideon as it POURED down rain all morning that Friday, but we did get to do the boat and driving safaris… And saw a leopard! (Rare!) We were 10′ from giraffes as we walked along a trail, and saw everything from a huge croc to young zebra to an eland at the top of a hill.

Now all the focus is on graduation!

This is our biggest one yet, with 33 girls graduating Skills for Life on Saturday. (See the PS for more!) The ceremony starts at 9am and celebrations will go (literally!) until dark… My mom and I will bow out after lunch and let the girls dance and celebrate to their hearts’ content!

We’re so proud of the work they’ve done, the skills they’ve learned, and the effort they’ve exhibited. We are equally proud of the creativity, compassion, and playfulness they’ve shown –– these aren’t found in great abundance in the slum, but will lead to a gradual change in the culture.

Thank you so much for your encouragement here and on social media during our trip and for everyone at Touch the Slum. We’re very grateful!

Mwebele nnyo!

Jennings & Susan

PS The biggest graduation means the most costly one. We had to make more gowns, and while we’ve limited each girl to one guest only, we also have speakers and staff to feed as well as a very big tent to protect us since it’s rainy season. If you can help with our graduation celebration, click below – 100% goes to the project!

GRADUATION ROCKS!

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Art in the Slum

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One of the two main reasons my mom, Susan, came with me to Uganda was to teach art classes to our Literacy class girls. (And the staff is begging for their turn, so they’ll get a class on Thursday!)

Susan has been an artist pretty much all of her life, and currently paints in both oils and watercolors. (Find her on Instagram at @susanfloridaartist) She teaches classes in our hometown in Florida, and loves to share her love of art.

When kids are in school here, there are occupations that are acceptable — the ones the parents want their kids to choose — and then there are those that are actively discourages. If you want to be (or say you want to be) a doctor, teacher, or lawyer, that’s great. An artist or musician? Absolutely not.

Since our girls haven’t been to school, they were thrilled to get art lessons. We’ve done one class for each Literacy class, and today they’ll do a combined class (all 20 girls!). As with anything, some girls took to it faster than others, but they all loved it and can’t wait to do more. We’ll be leaving all our supplies here, and Ronald has already started looking for more paint sets, paper, and brushes, for when these wear out.

It’s very important to us that we bring creativity, art, books, music, and fun to our programs. These are things that are rarely seen in the slum, and that are vital to critical and creative thinking.

And the girls love it!

This is our last week in Uganda, and will culminate with graduation on Saturday and Easter dinner with the residential girls on Sunday before we head to the airport.

On Thursday, I’ll update you on our trip west to Hopeland and Wells of Hope Primary Schools! It was long (3 car breakdowns!) but good (except the car breakdowns…!).

Thanks for all your well wishes and comments on Instagram! If you haven’t checked out our videos there, click the icon below.

Blessings!

Jennings (and Susan)

PS We could really use your help for our graduation. It’s the biggest (and therefore most costly) one yet, with 33 girls graduating! Click below to help – 100% goes to the project!

GRADUATION SUPPORT!

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