February 2024

An extra day of sunshine

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Happy February 29th! If it’s your birthday, aren’t you so glad it’s finally here?!

The past month (except yesterday!) has been hot and dry in Kampala and at the farm. While that’s not so great for the last of our cabbages, it’s been wonderful for our heat-loving veggies like the eggplants Ronald is picking in the photo.

We’ve got more seeds going in almost every day for new produce and the girls at the compound have been excited by the changes in their diet — which is also a great nutrition boost!

We have a new project in the works, which we’ve been talking about for 2 years now:

Adding in a Farming class to Skills for Life!

We will be starting with a shorter course with 5 girls, timed for weekends and the term break to work out the kinks — like housing and feeding them for days at a time, who will be the chaperone, what Derrick will teach them exactly, etc.

But we are VERY excited that the farm is at the place now where we can bring this skill to our girls. For, while some grew up in the village, many were born in the Namuwongo slum and have never grown the first thing. The Rotary Club in the area has built a greenhouse in the slum… but hardly anyone uses it. What if our girls develop the skills to use it, and can provide fresh produce for their families?

GAME CHANGER!

We’ve also had the neighbors of Mikisa Farm coming to ask Derrick how we’re growing so much — and so differently than the traditional (inefficient) way. This will give us an opportunity to bring in some of them to learn, too.

What do we say? Go deep to change a culture!

We are so appreciative of all your support and encouragement.

Mwebele nnyo!

Jennings

PS Our project to make liquid soap for the next couple of months is 84% funded – we just need $40 to finish it and buy the materials. If you’d like to donate today, here’s the link!

LIQUID SOAP!

PSS Last year, either the IRS or our accountant made a keying error on our address and it currently shows we’re in Butner NC (27509) instead of Raleigh (27609) in their database. We thought we’d fixed it with a new filing, but it is still showing incorrectly, so searches in their database for 1018 using the correct zip or city aren’t showing us. Rest assured we ARE still a registered 501c3 — you can just put in our EIN of 26-3867682 and NC and find us. We’re still working on getting it corrected!

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When your bed is dirt

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The older I get, the more I appreciate a good mattress (and grumble about a bad one!). One of the things I appreciate about Kampala Forest Resort, where I always stay when in Uganda for work, is that they have *real* mattresses, and not just large pieces of cut foam. Quality sleep is underrated!

As you can see from the photo, our kindergarden class at Wells of Hope naps on the dirt floor of the classroom. These kids go to school for TWELVE HOURS! (Yes, at 3, 4, and 5 years old!)

I know what you’re thinking, and (as a retired homeschool mom) I think that, too. But let me tell you why I don’t get too agitated by it:

  • These kids get a meal at school every day, but do not get a meal at home every day.
  • Their parents work in their fields or at another job from sun up to sun down, often leaving children as young as 2 at home alone or in the care of marginally older siblings for all that time.
  • Extreme poverty, rampant untreated diseases like syphilis which can effect the brain, and alcohol abuse with homemade waraji (moonshine) often lead to abuse.

So. Am I okay with kids this young going to school for twelve hours and taking naps in the dirt? In principle, no. In practice, based on the above issues in their homes… yes.

And remember, many of their homes look like this. See that little toddler in front? He/she was there alone… there were no adults around.

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All that is to say, we have a project coming up to purchase small foam mattresses for these children to sleep on during their naps. It’s going to be too large of a project to post all at once on DonorSee, which only allows one project of over $500 at a time. The mattresses are about $10/ea.

If you’d like to contribute to this project, please make a donation through Donorbox using the button below, and we will tag that donation for the mattress project.

Buy Mattresses!

We so appreciate all you do for the impoverished kids in our programs!

Mwebele mnonga!

Jennings

PS Did you know we have tee and sweatshirts available on our Bonfire store? Just in time for spring! As a registered 501c3, we get about 20% of the purchase price, so it’s a win win!

Bonfire Store

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Farming for food

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I grew up in a farming family — citrus growers in Florida — and am always growing something either hydroponically or outdoors. North Carolina, where I live, is a heavily agricultural state, so we have access to many wonderful farms and farmers markets.

But let’s be real… For virtually everyone in the US, we are growing for pleasure, for fun, for the taste of a fresh picked strawberry. But we can get food, any time, in any number of stores.

For the families of our girls in the slum, the cheapest things to buy are posho (finely ground maize) and beans. If they’re lucky, there’s one tomato and a small onion cooked into the beans, perhaps some semawiki (collards). But that’s “special” and doesn’t happen often.

We’ve always had a small “grocery” budget at Touch the Slum, which covers produce from a small local market. Like everything else over the last few years, the prices have gone up. You can’t grow food in the slum… so you have to transport it from villages, then the vendors have to walk or take a boda to get it from a Central market. All that adds to the cost.

When we started Mikisa Farm in last 2022, we did it to provide the nutrition that fresh produce brings, and that is so lacking in the typical diet of those living in Namuwongo. Now, thanks to your generous donations to get the farm, finish the farm house so we could have a full time farmer, and for seeds and tools and irrigation, we are getting weekly fresh produce.

It’s literally a life changing thing!

Ten Eighteen and Touch the Slum are not “rack up big numbers to get big grants” organizations. We are small, but we are deeply touching and changing lives every day. We don’t focus on one quick fix… We focus on deep change and education that will ensure a sustainable future for our girls.

We can do that because of YOU, and we can’t thank you enough!

Mwebele nnyo!

Jennings

PS One of our Literacy girls, Anita, became homeless and her mom brought her to live at Touch the Slum so she could continue her education. The project for her entry package (toiletries, mattress, clothes, etc) is 65% funded and just needs $95 to be complete. We’d love your help!

Anita’s Entry Package

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Acclimation, Orientation, and Graduation

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It’s hard to believe we’ve all been home for more than a week! It was a great trip, and everyone who went has had a blast sharing their experiences with their friends and family. I think I can safely say “fun was had by all!” (And hard work and emotional growth and jet lag!)

At Touch the Slum, things are moving on apace.

The new term started on Monday with Orientation for all the incoming students for Literacy, Tailoring, Hairdressing, and Media. Today was Day 1 in the classroom, and it was all smiles!

Trust me when I tell you (and as my grandmother would attest, given her unsuccessful attempts at teaching me to sew) — it’s hard enough sewing a straight line with a fast electric machine. Sewing a straight line with a slow-moving needles while pumping the pedal with your feet… super challenging! So the girls start out on paper, making straight lines with a ruler and pencil, until they’ve mastered it.

In Hairdressing, they spend a lot of time with head dummies before they get to a real person’s real head — and this is definitely for the best! Braiding in straight lines isn’t much easier than sewing in them, and braiding fast? Forget it.

Media spends a lot of time on digital camera basics, and also on phone photography/videography techniques beyond point-and-shoot. Editing will come soon, as they learn what they need to be professionals.

And the Literacy girls jump right into (or back into, for the ones who’ve remained for the next term) the three-r’s, games, puzzles, and art.

We also have a dozen girls out doing internships, with our Community Officers following up and keeping track of how they’re doing.

In short, controlled chaos has resumed! And we thank you all for your support that makes it possible for us to welcome these girls, give them a free education and food, and a safe place to learn and grow.

Mwebele nnyo!

Jennings

PS Oh, I forgot about graduation! The girls who just finished up while we were there will be graduating on February 24th. As you know if you’ve followed us for awhile, this is a HUGE deal for these girls who have never been to school before. They get official Certificates, wear caps and gowns (make in-house), get tee shirts, local leaders come to the ceremony, and they have a feast and party. It’s such an important milestone and one we make as big as possible to celebrate girls who’ve never been celebrated before.

We have a project up to fund the graduation – we’d love your help to make it the best yet! Just click the button!

GRADUATION ROCKS!

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Home with a side of Kenya

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Dear {{contact.first_name}},

Hello from North Carolina! Where it is quite chilly and I’m thankful for Ugandan coffee this morning.

It’s hard to believe the trip is over, but wow, what an amazing job this team did last month!

  • Bertie and Harriet, our nurses, did an amazing hand washing campaign in the community, giving away 10 hand washing stations and conducting a very well received workshop on hand washing and hygiene. They also did a lot of small- and large-group work with our girls on baby care, hygiene, personal care, and more; plus helped Nurse Brenda in the clinic a LOT. my favorite story is one of the girls coming in with “arm pain” and wanting medicine. Turns out she’d been carrying heavy jerry cans of water the day before and she was just sore – it was a great lesson that every pain isn’t “bad” and requiring meds!
  • Connie led the enthusiastic girls in making really cute things with a type of paper-based clay she brought. When they were dry, the girls painted them and make 2 amazing collages in frames to hang up. She also had hand-made a bunch of beautiful glass beads which were made into jewelry and decorated picture frames. She worked with Charity, who has been filling in for Mama Santa in the kitchen, and made both mendazi (like donuts) and bolognese for the girls and staff.
  • Susan taught many classes in drawing and painting, and also led the staff in several workshops on stress and stress management.
  • Bertie, Harriet, and Connie went to the farm and were promptly put to work – and they had a blast!
  • I got all the paperwork, reports, and plannning done for our upcoming NGO application, which is now in progress thanks to our wonderful Legal Officer, Jimmy. This is an “upgrade” from our current community organization status and makes us a nationwide organization.

We finished out the trip with 2 nights at Lake Mburo for safari, where we were fortunate enough to be literally in the middle of (on foot!) over 30 giraffes – half of the total giraffe population of the Park! (Including a less-than-2-month-old nursing baby!)

The return journey for me was longer than expected, as my initial flight was cancelled due to technical issues. They put us in a hotel, then rebooked me on Kenya Air the next day. When we flew into Nairobi I was so shocked at how flat it is… Uganda is so beautifully green and hilly, I guess that’s what I expected! I had a long-haul (15 hour) flight to JFK, then home to NC on Tuesday. I’m now in post-trip recovery/regroup mode — and very thankful both for the going and the coming home.

Thank you all so much for your emails and comments on Instagram during the trip. It means so much to all of us! Your pre-trip donations helped us get supplies for art, get soccer balls for Wells of Hope and Hopeland Primary Schools (and have a fund to supply them for a year!), and make sure all the classes had what they needed for exams.

Now it’s back to work here, while missing there…

Blessings!

Jennings

PS. We have some great projects up on DonorSee, including moving the residential program to a separate compound. Check it out and see if something moves you — and also, you can become a monthly donor to either the clinic or the residential program, right there through DonorSee!

To DonorSee!

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