When a Mzungu Makes Chapati

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I drove down to Florida on Sunday to visit my mom and also for two speaking engagements: the Cocoa Rotary Club and to launch our Sister School program at St. Mark’s Academy.

Both were really fun, but the one that stressed me out was St. Mark’s. I usually talk to adults, plus a lot of what we work with is “mature audience” stuff like sexual trauma, early teenage pregnancies, girls being sold off as brides when they’re 13.

I had a fun video tour of the Hopeland campus, a powerpoint presentation on getting to know Uganda and Hopeland, and a dance video. (The dance video was actually the Muganda dance from the Buganda trip in the Kampala area, but I didn’t figure anyone would know that!) I took fabric, a mosquito net, a phone charger plug (since the plugs are so different), and a bunch of handcrafts. We made beans and chapati and I burned the posho.

And yes, I made those chapati from scratch!

Derrick, our former Liaison and friend who now lives in Boston responded to my Instagram post with “Oh no you did not!” Ronald said it was pretty good “mzungu chapati.” hahahaha yes – I’m laughing even now!

Long story short, the kids had a great time, almost everyone loved the food (and the teachers snuck back in for more!), and our pilot program now has wings of its own.

Do you need to know how to make chapati to feel a connection to Uganda? No – and be thankful, because they’re pretty labor intensive! (I’ll send the recipe to you if you want to know how to make them, just hit Reply.) But do you need a connection to care about the kids at our two schools or the girls at Touch the Slum? Yes.

The point of these newsletters isn’t “news.” It’s connection. People tell me they look forward to them every week, almost like a serial story from earlier days. It’s why we’re launching the Sister Schools program and why I post real video from everyday life on Instagram.

Connection.

We can’t thank you enough for being part of our family!

Mwebele nnyo!

PS Sadly, Nurse Sherry is leaving us to go back to school. Today is her last day. Sherry has been an absolute rock — and rock star! — for over 1 1/2 years and we will miss her so much! We wish her the best in her new endeavors, and welcome Nurse Brenda, who Sherry helped us choose, to Touch the Slum. We have a project for restocking the clinic up on DonorSee that’s 46% funded, if you’d like to help. Just click below!

Clinic Restock

PSS I’m going to post the St Mark’s videos up on YouTube this weekend, and we have some other great videos there, so check those out!

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I Could Talk All Day…

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Since our trip to Uganda in March/April, we’ve been working to launch our Sister School program. While I do (of course) hope to raise some money for Hopeland and Wells of Hope Primary Schools over time, my main focus is just on connections. A broadening of the world for kids that are 8,000 miles away from each other.

While we’re all so “connected” all the time, I think real connections might have gotten lost. I remember my pen pal in elementary school, patiently (or not!) waiting for a letter to arrive, and trying to use my best handwriting to send one back. I honestly don’t remember much about her — not her name or age or even what country she was in. But I remember that feeling of connection and how special it was.

We need that to feel empathy, to feel curiosity, to feel that people “over there” are real.

So we’re launching our Sister School program, connecting Hopeland Primary School with St. Mark’s Academy (which is my elementary school alma mater). With the wonders of the internet, kids won’t have to wait for the postal service to bring the much anticipated letters and drawings.

They can share photos and videos, too!

Both sides can learn natural history and geography and zoology — and mostly about each other and make new friends.

Think of me next Wednesday morning! I’ll be dressed in my traditional Ugandan dress. We’ll learn how to dance a traditional dance. I’ll show them Ugandan handcrafts and a video tour of Hopeland’s campus. We’re even bringing in some simple Ugandan food to share.

It should be fun!

I’ll also be speaking to a local Rotary Club on Tuesday, which is always great! If you would like to connect your group with our work in Uganda, just let me know. I can talk all day…!

Blessings,

Jennings

PS Teen mom Harriet, who has lived in our residential program for about a year and a half, is preparing to move back to the village with her son, her mom, and siblings. We are planning to gift her a sewing machine and enough supplies to get her started in her own small business, and the project is 64% funded. If you’d like to help Harriet and her family as they start a new life, just click the button! Mwebele nnyo!

Help Harriet!

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Very Sad News…

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I just got incredibly sad news.

Kalunji, above on the left, has died. I think I shared recently that she had reunited with her brother and made the decision to return to her family village with him. She’s only been gone a few weeks.

But about 20 minutes ago, Ronald got word that she has died of a liver infection. (We’re trying to get the medical papers now.)

I’m really speechless… Kalunji came to us when she was 15 and four months pregnant. Initially she was living with her elderly jaja, but when the jaja passed on, she moved in with us. She was in our first Literacy class in 2022, then went on to Hairdressing. She had her baby, Rahim, with us, with Nurse Sherry helping her get to a private hospital. She had a brilliant smile.

We are all devastated, of course. I’d appreciate your thoughts and prayers for the girls and staff at Touch the Slum, as well as for Rahim and other family members.

Mwebele nnyo,

Jennings

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Explaining Hurricanes to Ugandans

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Well, it’s Friday, and Hurricane Idalia has wobbled off to sea. We had the “perfect storm” of king tides (full moon) and storm surge, but thankfully the water didn’t get too high. Eighteen hours of 50mph wind gusts was exhausting, but we now have sunshine, a morning temperature in the sixties, and no damage. We’re thankful!

So yesterday, I was trying to explain a hurricane to friends in Uganda. As a lifelong resident of hurricane alley, I’d never really had to explain one before.

It’s a big storm going around in a circle with an eye.

Well, the eye is hole.

Okay, not a HOLE hole, but a… hole.

I’m sure I cleared it right up!

There are a lot of things like this that come up when you work in a vastly different culture that’s on the Equator. Etiquette and witch doctors and fried ant balls and seasons and why our sunset is at 5:00pm sometimes and 9:00pm others. How people here actually drive in their own lane and stop for stop lights.

But some things are universal, like the wide grin of a girl whose family are refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who is learning English and having fun and changing the trajectory of her life.

Skills for Life and all of our programs at Touch the Slum are deep dives. Girls are with us for a year or more, learning skills and healing from past trauma. We believe that changing lives in ways that will trickle down to the culture is vastly more important than being able to say that we “served” a very large number. Changing lives, changing culture is slow and hard and sometimes frustrating.

But it’s lasting, and that’s what we’re doing, every single day.

Thank you for being part of this work with us — we couldn’t do it without you!

Mwebele nnyo!

Jennings

PS We have three projects that are over 70% funded on Donorsee: the water tank at the farm, the food budget gap at Hopeland Primary School, and 14 year old Neema’s project for food and supplies. $15 will go a long way for any of these projects, and we have more to choose from, too! Check them out here

ALL OUR PROJECTS

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What Does Rain Do To a Mud and Stick House?

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Wycliff, above, is our newest social worker. He started with us as a volunteer and then intern while he was at Makere University. He is not from the slum, one of the few staff members who isn’t, so the fact that he wanted to come work with us when he graduated is huge. The slum isn’t an easy place – not an easy place to live, visit, or even find your way around, much less work day in and day out.

The house of one of our girls, where Wycliff visited yesterday, is made simply of mud and very thin sticks. The roof is rusty corrugated iron. You can see from the sides of the house that rain — you notice those dark clouds, right?! — and mud don’t really go together that well. It leaks, and eventually, sooner rather than later, the walls will begin to fall down.

This mama makes her living selling sugar cane. They buy it from a truck coming in from the countryside, haul the long stalks home, then use a machete to strip it and cut off lengths to sell. People buy and chew sugar cane when they don’t have much money because it’s cheap and curbs hunger pains. It’s not a very profitable business.

Over 30,000 people live in the Namuwongo slum, which is Uganda’s largest. An estimated 75-80% of them are children or teens.

Our Touch the Slum project is the only NGO in Namuwongo working with teen moms, the only one offering completely free education for teen girls, and the only one offering a free residential program, a free clinic, and free daycare. The only one.

We can’t serve all of the thousands of teen girls there, but we can serve the 75 who come to us every day with the promise, the hope, of CHANGE. Of a life that they can control. Of literacy and English and learning a skill that will last them a lifetime.

We can do that because of you.

Mwebele nnyo,

Jennings

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Community Cleanup (By Coercion)

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This year was our third “invitation” to join a community clean up by the local government. They do it by zone, so this year’s event was in a neighboring one. Our team spent from 8am to 2pm doing what Sarah is doing above – raking out muck from ditches (you REALLY don’t want to know what’s in there!), hauling and dumping wheelbarrows full of filth and trash, and trying not to breathe.

The first year, when we were newbies to this endeavor, the LC asked us to chip in shillings the buy the equipment and supplies, then show up to help. It was obvious that the amount of money given was… under represented in the amount of stuff bought. This is called “facilitation” (otherwise known as a bribe).

We got wise after that, and now buy our own supplies and equipment — which we are “asked” to “donate” to the “community” after the event. In short, we pay 350,000 shillings a year, spend a day in filth, and add the bonus points to our “making people in government happy” tally.

TIA. (This Is Africa.)

In spite of the various levels of government and bureaucracy, Touch the Slum continues to thrive. As I reported a month or so ago, we are the #1 Youth Led Organization in the city of Kampala. Because Ronald and the team are from the slum community, they know how to play the game(s) and make friends that matter and — most importantly — make a difference.

Because that’s what Touching the Slum means… making a difference, within the system that exists for both us and for the vulnerable teens girls in our program. We can not like the system (we don’t) while still being able to work within to create personal and cultural change.

I’m so grateful for Ronald and the team, and their willingness to ALWAYS go the extra mile. Touching the slum means touching the lives of those within it, and I couldn’t ask for a more dedicated group to carry out that mission.

Blessings,

Jennings

PS We currently have 5 projects that are between 20-50% funded, including the new water tank for Mikisa Farm, a food budget gap project for Hopeland Primary school, 14 year old Neema’s project for food and household supplies, art supplies for the Literacy class, and the August sanitary pad project. Even $10 makes a big impact – to choose one today, just click the button!

Choose a project today!

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Parental Problems

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Harriet came to live with us last year when she was 16 years old, with a one week old baby. Her mother was sick, the family had no food, and things were desperate.

Having never been to school, Harriet joined Literacy, then went on to Tailoring. She graduated from Basic Tailoring when we were there in April and is now in Advanced Tailoring – here she’s learning to use an interlocking machine. She’s quiet but smart and focused and happy, and doing really well.

But now her mother is making her leave.

Her mother has decided to return to her village with Harriet and her siblings, so that Harriet can support the family with tailoring. (Reminder, Harriet is now just 17 years old and not finished with her training…)

These are the situations that are so discouraging for me and for the team. As a mom in the West, I can’t imagine making my child leave an opportunity to take care of me. For the team, who sees what happens to these girls in villages, they worry for Harriet’s future health and safety.

And you know what? There’s nothing we can do about it. That sucks.

Damalie and Sarah spent a long time yesterday talking to Harriet, and she said she has no choice but to do what her mother is asking of her. Legally, it’s a little grey, but in their culture, it’s unambiguous. Harriet will, at 17, become responsible for feeding, housing, and clothing five other people.

So what do we do now?

We are putting together a video for DonorSee to get Harriet a non-electric sewing machine and basic supplies. She will also take her mattress with her, and the clothing and other items she’s been given in the year since she arrived. We normally do a “exit package” that include food and household goods, but we feel the machine is the most important thing.

Please check our Instagram and DonorSee pages tomorrow for this project. We’d appreciate your help and, if possible, your sharing it so we can send Harriet off with hope for her future.

Mwebele nnyo,

Jennings

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Uganda Welcomes All Refugees. But…

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Meet Neema, a 14-year-old in our Literacy class. She and her family are refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been war-torn for some time.

Uganda has a long standing policy of accepting refugees from neighboring countries, which has led to permanent refugee camps and UN offices in Western Uganda. Rwakobo Village, where we just put the well, was founded by Rwandan refugees that the government resettled there — and promptly forgot about.

Neema, her mother, and her 8 siblings live in a mud and stick house in the Namuwongo slum. Her mother has a hard time getting work because she speaks French but very little English, and none of the Ugandan languages but a little Swahili. None of the children have ever been to school.

You can see the problem…

So people are welcomed in, but to unspeakably hard lives. Less hard, perhaps, than their native lands in war, but desperate nonetheless.

Thanks to you all, Neema is learning to read, write, and speak English. This will not just help her, but it will held her mother learn English and be able to get more work. Neema is learning basic math, which will allow her mother to understand Ugandan shillings and know she isn’t being ripped off. When Neema moves to a vocational skill, she will have the ability to help her family buy food and pay rent and all the other things a family of 10 needs every day.

That is life changing for the whole family!

Every day, we can face challenges like Neema’s because we know that you all have our backs. You’re donating, encouraging, giving suggestions, sending people our way… You’re making the difference in entire families, which leads to change in an entire culture.

In short, you’re doing an amazing thing! We can’t thank you enough!

To help Neema’s family with some household items, food, and toiletries, you can donate to her project on DonorSee. Just click the button!

Help Neema’s Family!

Mweble nnyo!

Jennings

PS I am opening up my January trip to Uganda to 3-5 people. If you are someone with a skill or talent that wants to go to Touch the Slum and help teach kids, teach our staff, work with Nurse Sherry, or do social work in the slum, just reply to this newsletter and we can chat further!

Uganda Welcomes All Refugees. But… Read More »

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!

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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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