Author name: Jen

300 kg of Maize! What a Harvest at Mikisa Farm!

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Most have you have followed us since we started fundraising for what is now Mikisa Farm over a year ago. You saw the shell of a brick house, the weeds, and two acres of land with nothing else. You gave, you cheered when we bought the land in August 2022, you’ve supported our projects since then, and have sent many comments here and on Instagram.

Now you can celebrate a huge milestone: our first maize harvest!

Ronald went to the farm on Friday with 3 others from the Touch the Slum team. They were joined by four of our teachers on Sunday. And this is what they did: pulled dry maize off the stalks, bundled the hundreds of cobs into bags, hauled them to the farmhouse, then helped bag the 300 kilograms (that’s 660 pounds!) of maize kernels as they came out of the thresher.

WOW!

This maize will be milled to posho, and will feed our girls (and cut our grocery budget!) for many weeks. We could not be more excited, grateful, and (speaking for the team) tired!

All of us make up the Ten Eighteen Uganda team — you, me, our Board, our staff, our students, their parents and guardians, and the community in Namuwongo who has come alongside our mission to change the culture for teen girls in the slum.

We did good, y’all!

Mwebele nnyo!

Jennings

PS We still need funds for the second irrigation tank at the farm. We’re 25% there, and just need $960 to get it purchased and installed, with the solar and piping. It’s dry season now — that’s why we could dry the maize on the stalks — so it would really help Derrick to have more irrigation to help him every day. Just click below!

FOR WATER!

300 kg of Maize! What a Harvest at Mikisa Farm! Read More »

Why Kampala City Authority Wanted Us for a Last Minute Meeting…

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Yesterday, Ronald was all set to go to the farm with three other members of our team to help Derrick process the dried maize when Sarah called from a meeting with KCCA and an organization called Plan International saying they needed HIM at the meeting, too.

So the farm trip was postponed and off Ronald went on a boda.

When he got there, he found THIS out – we’re the #1 Youth Led Organization in the city!

Plan International is conducting an initiative to make Kampala better and bring more equality for “the girl child”, so they’ve been doing a lot of research into Youth Led Organizations in all the city’s slums. (There are 5, Namuwongo being the largest.)

The next step is to go back today for another meeting (Ugandan’s LOVE long meetings!) to meet different stakeholders and see how we can fit in to this initiative.

I’ve long told you all that our team in Uganda is AMAZING, and it’s true! I’m so proud of them and the work they put in day after day — as well as the love and enthusiasm.

And I’m proud of YOU, because your support and donations are what has allowed us to grow, to deeply impact lives, and to bring culture change for the “girl child” in Kampala.

You’re making a difference!

Mwebele nnyo!

Jennings

PS If you want to join us as a monthly donor (or make a one time donation), we’d love to have you on board! Just click below – it’s easy and quick, and 100% goes to the programs.

DONATE NOW!

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Bringing Joy Never Gets Old

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This picture may be our Photo of the Year for 2023 – Monica captured the unadulterated, absolute joy in this family when we surprised them with food, mattresses, household goods, and shoes.

14-year-old Rachelle, one of the students in our Literacy program, lives with her aunt and 7 cousins in a pretty bad part of the slum. (Yes, there are bad parts even in the slum!) While it’s nicer in dry season because they have a little bit of space, it floods in rainy season, and the house is mud-and-stick and not secure or made to last.

The family has virtually nothing to their name. (You can see some videos on Instagram – click the icon below.)

But thanks to a quickly-funded project on DonorSee, we were able to get them things they need – NEED, not just want – and able to surprise them after Rachelle got home from Touch the Slum.

This project was only $375 – to bring food, mattresses, household goods, and shoes for 9 people.

And to bring JOY.

Tears. Running to the team with open arms, shouting thanksgiving, children dancing and crying and laughing all at the same time.

This is what you all do. I know you can’t feel it like my team, or see or smell or experience it. (I so wish you could!) But this is the WHY that you share with us, the simple yet profound ways we can join together to change lives.

Mwebele nnyo,

Jennings

PS We have a large project up for another irrigation tank at the farm. With large projects, they have to be 10% funded to show to the wider DonorSee platform. We’re at 5% — the project total is only $1274 total, so small for a “large” project! Can you help? $65 will get us full exposure so we can get the tank in to help with this dry season.

Bring the water!

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Dancing in the sun…

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“There’s a great joy in my giving. It’s thrilling. It’s exhilarating. It’s important to be a part of sharing.”  W. Clement Stone

Well, the well adventure is complete!

It may have taken Ssewak Engineering longer than they said to actually get out to the site to dig, but boy, did they hustle once they got there! Here’s the timeline:

Thursday, June 29 (a national holiday), they arrived at 2:00, ate lunch, set up, and started to drill. Drilling went on until 8:30pm, after dark.

Friday, June 30, they hit water! After letting the water run until it was clear, they stopped to let the bore hole dry.

Saturday, July 1, they built the bore, attached the filtration box and pump, and started the cement pad. My team didn’t leave the site until 11:30pm!

Sunday, July 2, we woke up a sign painter who created the sign. The cement pad and small adjacent wall were finished, with the sign cemented into the wall.

Monday, July 3, the well was officially handed over to the community! (And the LC asked Gideon if, since we’d built a well, we could now build a good road! hahahaha NO.)

Y’all… this was truly miraculous. As you can see from the photo, Gideon, the Wells of Hope students and staff, and members of the Rwakobo community celebrated and danced, even under the blazing dry-season midday sun.

WE DID GOOD!

All of us! The donors who made it possible, the supporters who sent prayers and encouragement and declarations of celebration, my team who walked the project all the way though despite the obstacles and setbacks, and everyone who has encouraged us on social media as they’ve seen the progress videos.

It was a team effort, and we all deserve an atta boy! We truly can’t thank you enough!

Mwebele mnonga!

Jennings

PS Yes, stuff was still happening at Touch the Slum, even while Ronald, Fauza, and Ritah were in Rwakobo documenting the well. We’ve got a number of important projects up on DonorSee, including a new irrigation tank for Mikisa Farm, some of our Literacy girls who are in truly dire need at home, and more. You can check out all our projects on DonorSee — as always, 100% of donations go to the program!

Take me to DONORSEE!

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We Have Water!!

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WE HAVE WATER!

The trucks arrived in Rwakobo around 2:00 yesterday afternoon with very little notice. Gideon quickly called Ronald, who got on a bus with Fauza and Ritah to head back west – it was 9 hours, since it wasn’t a direct bus. Villagers quickly cleared roads and the land where the drilling would happen.

After a quick lunch cooked on a charcoal stove, they started drilling.

And 30 minutes, as I was driving home from an appointment, Ronald Face Timed me (I pulled over!) and showed me the water!

Even as I watched it got cleaner and clearer. How we rejoiced!

It was very loud, and the team was getting other footage, but it was the next best thing to being there for it. I’ll have more soon, but by Sunday or Monday it should be DONE.

THANK YOU ALL for your kind support and encouragement – we hope you are celebrating with us in this historic moment for Rwakobo village.

Mwebele mnonga!

Jennings

We Have Water!! Read More »

When the Ladder Has No Rungs

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14-year-old Rachelle, on the left, lives with her aunt and five other children in a bad part of the Namuwongo slum. (Yes, even in the slum there are bad parts!)

Earlier this month, Rachelle started in our Literacy program, the first time she has ever attended any kind of school. As you can see, she is now beginning to read simple books out loud! Hesitantly, with a little embarrassment, but still — she’s READING.OUT.LOUD. in less than a month!

When we were planning our Literacy program, we knew that most of the girls who came through would have never attended school before, and even those that had would have had only a few terms under their belts. Teen girls are not known for their ability (or desire!) to sit still and be serious — as my mom, Susan, said on our trip a few months ago, “They are JUST like giggling teenage girls everywhere!”

But they are consumed with a desire to learn, to speak English, to read and write and know how to use money (and not be cheated). To be MORE.

Without Touch the Slum, the girls in our program will always only be less-than. They are less than the boys in their family, who get to go to school if there’s the money for it. They are less than the younger children, who get food first because the teens should be able to “go out and get money” (meaning from sex work) if they need incidentals like food and sanitary pads.

They know they are at the bottom of the social ladder — and that, without basic literacy and a skill, that ladder has no rungs.

But YOU believe in them, and so they believe in themselves!

And that’s enough.

Mwebele nnyo!

Jennings

PS Our monthly sanitary pad project for June is 87% funded – we just need $44 to get sanitary pads to 250 girls. If you want to help, click the button!

JUNE SANITARY PADS

PSS The well contractors have still not shown up. (Don’t worry, we haven’t paid them anything except for the surveyor who came twice.) Apparently, they’ve been trying to line up multiple jobs in the region to do back-to-back, but didn’t tell Gideon that until Friday. Our Touch the Slum team took the overnight bus back to Kampala Sunday night, and will return once the trucks are ON SITE! This is Africa…

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Two Mondays in One

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The bus had a flat tire on the way to Mbarara. Because of course it did!

Having worked and lived in developing countries, I’m (reasonably) immune to the frustrations that come with the life: tons of bureaucracy, weird priorities (ie when we lived in Nicaragua, we could have built a 3rd story on our hotel with virtually no oversight, but if we didn’t add the mosquito pellet to our well in a timely fashion, the health inspector from MINSA would come sit with a police officer in our rancho until we did!), and lots and lots of waiting.

While patience isn’t my strong suit, I’m used to this kind of thing. THERE.

But when it’s on this side of the pond, WOW, do I lose my mind!

The good news:

They found a great spot to drill the well AND a cooperative land owner. The team from Ssewak Engineering Solutions is traveling to Rwakobo as I type this, and the drilling starts tomorrow!

The frustrating part was getting the money to Gideon to pay Ssewak, and getting the money to Ronald to be on the road at 5am this morning with the media team. It took ALL.DAY.LONG. (Normally, sending money to Ronald using the SendWave app is instantaneous, and bank wires aren’t supposed to take 8 hours to get sent!)

SO WHERE ARE WE NOW?

Ronald, Monica, and Fauza have arrived in Mbarara and are doing some filming at Hopeland School this afternoon. We are working on more video for our new Sister Schools initiative, as well as some DonorSee projects.

The bank wire is in cyberspace somewhere, but should be available by the time work starts tomorrow.

Our team will be out at the drill site for the whole process – including when they hit water and it shoots high into the sky. I would so love to be there for that!

By Sunday or Monday, we should have a complete, finished, deep water well providing clean water to the over 3000 people in Rwakobo village!!

Many of you helped us with project with your hard earned money, with encouragement, and with cheers of celebration. As the surveyor has traversed the village with community leaders, Gideon, and others, the universal sentiment is, “We NEVER believed this would happen for us! They forgot us…“

But the forgotten are our specialty and our heart, and we know they’re yours as well. We can’t thank you enough!

Mwebele mnonga!

Jennings

PS With the Term 2 now underway, we have several new projects (and some older ones that still need funding!) on DonorSee. Check them out, forward the link to people you know, and/or say a prayer for them to be funded. All it makes a difference!

CHECK US OUT ON DONORSEE

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“Hope fills the holes of my frustration…”

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Can you remember a time where something you longed for was finally about to arrive, and then, for no apparent reason or fault of your own, it didn’t? Frustration, anger, perhaps a few muttered words (the kind we call “magic words” in our family)… until you accept your disappointment.

But then something happened that you didn’t expect, something even better than the thing that threw you for a loop. And looking back, you realize that this — had you known about it — was the thing you needed all along.

So it is with our well at Rwakobo. Last week, my email contained the exciting news of a spot with an 80% chance of success. Everyone was ecstatic! Cue the marching band!

Until the landowner decided we were trying to “steal” his land and demanded nearly $6,000 to use approximately 1/15 of the an acre for the well. (For the record, for $7,000 we bought 2 acres of farmland in a more accessible and desirable place than Rwakobo!) No assurances by the LC (local councilman) or Gideon made any difference. Appealing to his “better nature” and community spirit was a dead end. (We think he knew a mzungu was involved, but can’t say for sure.)

So we are back to square one, with the surveyor/engineer returning and the quest for a good spot starting once again. This time, several of the LCs are getting involved, though, and the whole community is taking ownership of the project to see it through.

And this is actually better!

It’s not Ten Eighteen Uganda’s project, or Wells of Hope School’s project, or Celebration Tabernacle Church’s project. Now that one man said no to clean water for 3,000 people, those 3,000 people are invested in making it happen! It’s now Rwakobo village’s project, and that is the hope filling the holes of our frustration. We are more optimistic than ever!

We’ll keep you updated on the progress this week, and I expect to have big news soon. We appreciate your support and encouragement!

Blessings,

Jennings

PS We have a project up for resident teen mom Leticia’s hairdressing supplies. She’s 1 1/2 weeks into the Hairdressing course and loving it! The project only needs $145 to be fully funded – we’d love your help! Webele nyo.

Leticia’s Project

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New Term, New Skills

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Do you remember your first day of a new school year? Even if you knew most of your classmates from the year before, it was nerve-wracking! New teachers, new expectations, a different schedule and flow, the feeling of starting from scratch…

Term 2 started on Monday with 75 students — up 10 from last term — and a lot of nervous excitement. Half the girls from Literacy moved up to a vocational skill, which involves a lot fewer games and a whole lot more equipment!

We also expanded our literacy class so that we have 30 girls, divided into two sessions of morning and afternoon. (No more showing up for both – we don’t have the space!) More than half of these girls have never been to any kind of school in their lives.

THEIR LIVES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!

In other news –

In case you missed it, we have now funded over 250 projects on DonorSee since we began on the platform in September 2021. We are so grateful for those of you who have given there (and through DonorBox!). If you’ve never checked out our page on DonorSee, click here to see what it’s all about.

Unfortunately, as I’m writing this on Tuesday afternoon, Ronald has emailed me to tell me that a would-be thief knocked him off a boda and tried to rob him on his way home today. His phone screen is broken and his laptop won’t start. Other than a bruised knee, he seems to be okay — I’ll know more tomorrow. We may need to do a project to replace or repair his vital equipment. (He’s using the media team’s basic phone at the moment.)

And also on Tuesday, I got confirmation from Gideon that they have found a location for our well in Rwakobo with an 80% chance of water. (They won’t mobilize until they have a 75% chance, so 80% is great!) The surveyor stayed several extra days and scoured the area all around the school, going above and beyond, and we are SO thankful. They are negotiating with the landowner for the right to use his land, and we should be ready to drill very soon!

We can’t thank you enough for your support and encouragement. You really have no idea how many lives you are changing every single day!

Tweyanzizza nnyo, tweyanzeege — we are so grateful, thank you very much!

Blessings,

Jennings

PS Resident teen mom Leticia has just started in Hairdressing and we have project up for her supplies. You can see it by clicking the button!

Leticia’s Project

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A Quick Exciting Update

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Last evening we had our 250th project funded on DonorSee!

That’s 250 projects in 20 months and almost $104,000 that you have donated to Touch the Slum, Hopeland Primary School, and Wells of Hope Primary School + Rwakobo village.

We can’t thank you enough!

Mwebele nnyo and mwebele mnonga,

Jennings and the team

PS If you’ve never checked us out on DonorSee, just click the button to visit our page.

DONORSEE PROJECTS

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