Author name: Jen

Teen Moms and the Culture Problem

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I’ve been working in the Namuwongo slum for a long time — since 2009. One of the most ubiquitous things that you see when walking through the slum is men drinking moonshine, smoking, and playing pool and cards in speakeasy, while women are hawking goods on the street, carrying jerrycans on their heads, and managing a bunch of children.

And yet, it’s the girls who get sold off for brides, who get denied schooling if funds are limited, who aren’t given sanitary pads to manage their periods with dignity, who are told as (often young) teens that “it’s time to find someone to take care of you.” Meaning a man.

Culture is a hard thing to change.

A man can find a desperate girl to live with him in exchange for food and a roof over her head. She’ll call him her “husband,” but as soon as she’s pregnant he’ll kick her out and likely disappear. No one takes responsibility for the babies except for the girls.

Culture is a hard thing to change.

But we are doing it, slowly by slowly. (Mpolo mpola in Luganda.)

We have young men volunteering with us who have sisters who got pregnant because of desperate circumstances. They have seen the desperation and downward spiral that starts with a pregnancy, and they have begun to see that their sisters, their mother, their female friends have VALUE. They are worth protecting and respecting.

Culture is a hard thing to change, but we can do it. Mpolo mpola.

Blessings,

Jennings

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Mother’s Day Was a Hit!

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Do you think Christine had a fun Mother’s Day?! Wow, that grin!

Our residential teen moms come from extreme, grinding poverty. Most have been homeless for a time. No one EVER celebrated them, that’s for sure!

When Christine came to the Ross House, her baby didn’t even have a name. During the first few days, she chose Suubi Zoei — Hope (in Luganda) and Life (in Greek). Those were things she now had, for the first time ever.

So for Mother’s Day, the “one fun thing” was a special outing. The girls walked to a restaurant in their new (to them) clothes, and feasted on their favorite things: pizza, chicken & chips, soda, and ice cream on the way home.

I know this seems small. No husbands or children gave them flowers and chocolate. But these small celebrations add bricks to the foundations of VALUE.

They are learning that they have value. They have talent. They have drive and dreams and now they have hope.

And it’s all wrapped up in pizza and chicken & chips.

Blessings!

Jennings

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Mother’s Day Is a Day To Celebrate

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I’m a mom, although all my kids are adults now. It was great when they were at home! It was also ALL THE THINGS: loud, too quiet (what are they up to now?!), hilarious, emotional, frustrating, wonderful, joyous, instructional, mystifying, magical… Being a parent will certainly expand your emotional repertoire!

This weekend, we celebrate the courage, love, dedication, and hard work of all our girls who had babies too soon.

Who are just kids themselves, but who are dedicated to providing a better life for their children.

Who go to class with a baby strapped to their back, persevere through bouts of crying, stay up all night with a sick baby but get to class the next day anyway.

Being a mom is, well, all the things. We hope that, for our teen moms, it’s mostly joy.

Thank you for your support of the Ross and Suubi Houses, as well as Skills for Life. You are changing lives every day.

Webele nyo,

Jennings

Help Gloria move!

PS Gloria is a 17 year old teen mom who has lived at the Ross and Suubi Houses for over a year. She is saving money to be able to move out on her own soon. We’re so proud of her! You can help us give her a leaving package to help with her independent life.

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Inflation Hits the Slum Hard

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Just before I sat down to write this, Ronald sent me today’s quote from President Museveni on the food crisis happening in Uganda right now:

“Africans really confuse themselves… If there is no bread, eat cassava. I don’t eat bread myself. The issue of skyrocketing commodity prices, like petrol and fertilizers, is man-made by our friends in Europe.”

That was it. Don’t eat bread. (For what it’s worth, most Ugandans never eat bread. They do make chapati from wheat flour, though.)

So anyway…

Our food budget in January of this year, which included other items like office stationery and detergent, was about 4 million shillings, or $1100. For May, it’s 4,480,000sh for just the food, and another 1.3 million for the supplies, soap, detergent, and toiletries. That’s $1585. Nearly a 50% increase.

We do have a project up on DonorSee to help with some of this cost, and we’re working on some other ways to increase fundraising around food costs. One thing we AREN’T doing is not feeding our girls, their kids, and our staff.

If you’d like to help, there are buttons at the bottom of this email where you can either give a one-time donation to the DonorSee project or become a monthly donor in any amount to help us with our ongoing costs. We’d so appreciate your support!

I am also attaching a link to a new video that Bob Ditty’s assistant helped us make from the footage they shot in March at our compound and in the community. It’s really great! Click this button. (Yeah, I know there are a lot of buttons today… Sorry about that!)

Let me see the new video!

Thank you so much for your ongoing support! I know things are challenging everywhere right now, and that you have a lot of places you could invest your money. We really appreciate that you choose to invest in the future of teen moms and girls in the Namuwongo slum. Webele nyo!

Blessings,

Jennings

Take me to the DonorSee food project!

I want to be a monthly donor!

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Exciting Update on the Literacy Class

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When we started the Literacy program in January, we were starting from scratch. We weren’t teaching little kids, we were teaching teen girls. We also wanted to make it FUN, something that Ugandan schools aren’t exactly known for. We weren’t even sure exactly how long each term would last!

As with all our entry-level vocational classes, after a couple of weeks of assessment, we divided the class into two classes, morning and afternoon. The girls who had already had some amount of early schooling were in one class, those who were illiterate due to lack of school were in another.

We had an enthusiastic teacher and teacher’s assistant, some ESL and early primary “western”-style curricula, and enthusiasm. And a VERY motivated student body!

Three months later (yes, just three months!), we have girls getting ready to move on to a vocational skill in Skills for Life. This means they can read, write, do basic math, and speak basic English!

IN.THREE.MONTHS.

We have incorporated games, puzzles, songs, poetry, reading aloud and all sorts of other things to make it fun. And they are THRIVING!

We do have some girls who haven’t progressed as quickly, of course, and they will continue on until they have achieved functional literacy. When I’m there in May, I will do several training sessions with the teachers on learning styles and learning disabilities (odds are good we have at least one girl with some learning difficulties). I’ll also be bringing a few board games and decks of cards. And we’ll use this first term’s successes and struggles to map out a more formal curriculum.

Suffice it to say, our girls are taking full advantage of the opportunities presented to them, and we couldn’t be more proud!

If you’d like to support this important work by becoming a MONTHLY DONOR, it would be a huge blessing to us. (Just like everywhere in the world, Uganda is suffering from rising prices on food and other necessities.) Just click the button and sign up – 100% goes to our programs!

YES, I want to be a monthly donor!

Webele nyo!

Jennings

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Graduation Was Simply Amazing!

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Graduation was AMAZING on Saturday!

We had 20 girls who never thought they’d ever wear a cap and gown or walk the stage to get a diploma or certificate who laughed and cried and danced and feasted to celebrate their own success. It was wonderful!

Every girl has a story. Stories like 17-year-old Sharon, who is the firstborn of five children. She did attend school for a few years but soon had to leave because her family couldn’t afford the fees.

Sharon gave up hope and turned to drugs and alcohol.

But our team identified her on our community outreach, enrolled her in Skills for Life, and now she has completed her hairdressing course and is ready to work in a salon or start her own business.

THIS IS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT.

Education in ways that make our girls able to sustain a livelihood.

It’s why 100% of donations go to Uganda and our programs. YOU are changing lives every day!

Webele nyo!

Jennings

PS We currently have a project on DonorSee to fund the graduation, which allows us to put on the *next* graduation in August or September. We’d love your help to continue celebrating our teen girls’ amazing accomplishments! Just click the button below!

PAY IT FORWARD!

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What’s My Uganda Trip Itinerary?

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The last time I went to Uganda was January 2020, before the world fell apart. At the time of that visit, I’d been re-starting Ten Eighteen after a several-year hiatus, and our entire project consisted of

  • Providing food for Hopeland Primary School and the Arise Africa Babies Home
  • Funding a soap-making vocational project for teen girls in Namuwongo
  • Consulting on the teenage pregnancy problem

That’s it.

In the two years since, we’ve created the Skills for Life vocational and Ross/Suubi House residential programs; provided well over 300,000 meals; started a free daycare and free clinic; built an eco-brick water tank at Wells of Hope Primary School in Lake Mburo National Park; and grown from zero to 18 paid Ugandan staff.

So… There’s a lot of talk about!

Currently on the agenda for my trip:

  • A full day staff retreat, geared towards problem solving, team building, communication, and growth strategies
  • Several days of training with the Literacy Class teachers to discuss learning styles, learning disability assessment, and teaching modalities that are different than the Ugandan system
  • Formalizing the Digital Literacy curriculum to ensure competency in day-to-day use of needed computer skills
  • Speaking at the various group meetings during the week, such as Strong Minds, Teen Talk, and Turning Point
  • Visiting the families of participants in Skills for Life and our residential program to assess the home-life conditions of the girls in the program
  • Visiting Western Uganda to spend a day each at Hopeland Primary and Wells of Hope Primary Schools where we provide food

AND MORE!

I’m also taking some of the mountain of stuff that’s been donated to us over the last two years. I can’t take it all in one trip, but I’ll be going through and taking the most needed items: clothes, shoes, electronics, medical equipment, books, games, and toys. THANK YOU ALL for your donations — I’ll have photos galore once the items are distributed!

Sometimes I get asked WHY I go to Uganda, with the accompanying expense. The fact is, it matters that I am there, on the ground, getting to know the staff, the girls, representing YOU and YOUR donations, using my skill set of problem solving and “project” mentality to streamline and help make things run more smoothly.

In short, accountability, for all of us at Ten Eighteen Uganda and Touch the Slum.

Thank you for your continued support! If you’d like to help me pay for the extra luggage I’ll be taking, just click the button. Every $100 extra baggage fee will save us $500 or more — that’s huge!

Click Here!

Webele nyo!

Jennings

What’s My Uganda Trip Itinerary? Read More »

Securing the Compound

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When we opened the Ross House in November 2020, one of the first people we hired was Mr. Aziz, our security guard. He has done an AMAZING job keeping our girls and compound safe, but even he has limitations.

Every day, we have over 60 students, 18 staff and volunteers, 30 kids, and various deliveries and repairs going on. We also now have a room full of electric sewing machines and another room containing our computer lab (5 desktops and 5 laptops, a projector, and a printer). AND a fully stocked clinic.

It’s a LOT!

Now, we’re really proud of how we’ve been able to grow (thanks to YOU!). But we also want to steward the donations we’re given to the best of our abilities.

Last week, we installed a security monitoring system. At a cost of $325, we installed a complete system that Mr. Aziz can monitor — and there are no monthly fees.

That money came out of our general budget because we felt it was vital. We have a project up on DonorSee to reimburse our budget for it, and your donation of ANY amount makes a big difference. (While you’re over there on DonorSee, give us a Follow and/or a Review – that helps a lot, too!) Just click the button – it’s almost like magic!

Make some magic!

More to come soon on my upcoming trip to Uganda!

Blessings,

Jennings

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It’s Rainy Season & We Need Mosquito Nets!

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Last week we had 7 girls to come to the Haven Clinic with malaria. Nurse Sherry didn’t get her Sunday off, because she was tending to all the cases!

The treatment for malaria is a week-long course of IV infusions. It requires a temporary canula that is left in for the whole course of treatment, as well as the nurse to administer the medication. With 7 girls currently receiving treatment, that’s a lot of medicine and supplies!

Malaria makes you feel terrible, but left untreated it can cause brain damage, or lie dormant in the liver only to cause relapse and illness later. We had a boy in the basketball camp we held in 2013 who had been quite severely impacted by cognitive impairment due to untreated malaria.

Why now?

It’s rainy season, and that means lots of puddles, filled drainage ditches, and other areas of stagnant water. While we have mosquito nets in our residential houses, those do get torn, or mosquitoes can be trapped inside during the day.

Currently, the tailoring class is repairing all of our mosquito nets, but that still leaves all the girls in our program who go home to houses without. We have a project up on DonorSee right now for 25 nets, the first effort to get nets to 100% of our students and staff.

You can help – a donation of any size gets us closer to a net for everyone!

Let’s buy some nets!

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