Literacy

What Day Is It?!

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While we have a fair amount of holidays here in the US, they have a LOT of them in Uganda. All the Ugandan ones, and then they celebrate (take a day off) for a lot of the International ones, like International Day of the Child and Women’s Day.

But the girls at Touch the Slum don’t want a holiday — they want to learn! During our term break last month, most of the girls in the Literacy class showed up anyway. Teacher Martha kept them busy with fun things like Bananagrams (above), art, creating clay pots, movies in English, and more. And yes, we fed them lunch!

Let’s be honest… Most of us in the West never once considered showing up at school on a holiday! We were much more likely to play hooky, right?

When something is scarce, we value it.

For the teen moms and teen girls in Touch the Slum’s programs, they spent their childhoods watching brothers and neighbors go to school. Whenever their family had a bit of extra money that could fund school fees, it went to any male relative first – and to the girls almost never.

They understand the value and the opportunity that Touch the Slum and Skills for Life gives them.

They understand that we are working for a culture shift, not just a quick-fix solution to the many problems that teen girls face in the slum.

And they are beyond grateful for the opportunity to shine! (And shine they do!)

We couldn’t do it without you! Your support – financial and by words of encouragement – are the HOW of how we do it. We can’t thank you enough!

Webele nyo!

Jennings

PS We’ve now funded 163 projects on DonorSee and are coming up to our 1-year anniversary on the platform. Amazing! Every month we supply 250 girls with free sanitary pads, which they otherwise can’t afford. Our current project needs about $300 to be funded – we’d love your help!

September Sanitary Pad Project!

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It’s “Summertime” But They’re Still Coming To Class!

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Uganda doesn’t have “summer.” I have spent a lot of time over the years trying to explain seasons, daylight savings time, and why our daylight is short in winter and long in summer.

When you’re on the equator, it’s a hard concept to grasp!

Their schools also don’t have a summer break. Typically, a school year starts in January and ends in December, with two breaks. As a vocational school, our schedule is a little different: we have about 5 month terms, with the last few weeks being exams. Other than Christmas, we’ve never actually taken a “term break” until now.

WHY are we taking a term break?

  • Well, first, the staff is TIRED! We’ve instituted a ton of new programs this year, including the literacy class, the computer lab, the daycare, the clinic, and Advanced Tailoring.
  • We went from 20 students per term to 60+. That meant Mama Santa is cooking a whole lot more food each day.
  • We went from 8 residential girls to 12, with the addition of our dormitory.
  • We went from 4 teachers to 9.
  • And finally, and importantly, food-inflation has more than doubled what it costs to feed all these people every day.

Everyone and our budget needed a break!

But we also recognize that we have girls who are particularly vulnerable to voluntary or involuntary sex work, starvation, and abuse. The girls in our Literacy program, both from the first term who are awaiting the start of Term 3 to learn a skill, and from this current term, have no way to make an income yet. For very many of them, the meals they get at the compound are the only meals they get. They are at risk of bad peer groups who influence them on drugs and alcohol use.

We just funded a food project on DonorSee to provide the extra food to keep these girls fed over this one-month break. But they don’t just come for the meals – they come to dance, to practice their English, to watch a movie, and to hang out in a safe place.

Our staff is taking rotating days off during this time so that we can accommodate the girls coming in, and the teachers are even coming up with some games and activities for them. We’re all committed to creating change in this community, and it doesn’t stop because school does!

Thank you for your tremendous support. We couldn’t do it without you! Follow us on social media (links below) to keep up with what’s happening at the compound during this break.

Blessings!

Jennings

PS. WE DID IT! We crossed $50,000 in all-time donations on DonorSee yesterday. That means we went from $30,000 to $50,000 in 27 days! WOW!

Patricia is in the Literacy Class and will start S4L Tailoring on August 15th. Her supplies project is over 60% funded – we’d love your help to get her set up for success! Just click!

Help Patricia with supplies!

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Celebrating Literacy (With a Party!)

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Husinah, right, is our poster child for the Skills for Life Literacy program. She came into the program without a word of English beyond “hello, how are you?” (Which every Ugandan kid learns as one word: howareyoufine.)

In less than 5 months, she is the first one to volunteer to do videos in English, she engaged me in conversation multiple times on my visit, and she literally *always* has a smile on her face because she is so excited about everything she’s learning and doing.

We are throwing a party for the 20 girls who’ve finished both our first-ever Literacy class and a month of auditing their chosen vocational class so they’re ready for Term 3 next month.

We want to PARTY, to celebrate, to make sure they know that they have beaten every expectation — not just expectations from people in Uganda who look down on anyone in the slum as a criminal or prostitute or drug addict. But OUR expectations, too. Where we thought a 6-month course would be ambitious, they just said the (non-alcoholic) equivalent of “hold my beer.”

So we’re getting a big cake, and soda, and they’ll do a huge THANK YOU to Teachers Lillian and Fortunate as well as to YOU and our friends at Expat Money Show who funded this amazing program for us.

WEBELE NYO!

Blessings!

Jennings

PS We have a project up on DonorSee to fund the party —> click the button! Shhhh, it’s a surprise!

Click for the party!

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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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15 Years Old and a New Mom – Kalunji

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Kalunji came to our program when she was 5-months pregnant. She was living with her grandmother (jaja) in a terrible wooden shack in the slum. They didn’t have enough food, but her jaja insisted that Kalunji eat to nurture the baby.

Our team, with help from our donors at DonorSee, provided food, a mattress, bedding, a mosquito net, and a water filter for this small family. Kalunji began spending her days at the compound, even though she wasn’t enrolled in any of our programs. We fed her two meals a day and got her enrolled with Amani, an organization that helps teen moms with prenatal care and childbirth.

In January, Kalunji began learning reading, writing, basic math, and English in our new Literacy Program.

A month ago, Kalunji presented to our nurse at the Haven Clinic with severe malaria. She began an IV treatment and went into labor (about 3 weeks early) that evening.

Unfortunately, Amani was completely full! We also hadn’t purchased the required birthing kit yet. But our nurse, Sherry, called all around Kampala and finally found Kalunji space at the KCCA Hospital, where she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Kareem.

Kalunji moved into the Ross House, our residential program for teen moms in crisis, from the hospital. Two weeks later, her jaja died.

Raheem is a month old now, and doing really well! Sherry gives him all his regular checkups, as well as Mama. Kalunji is now back in Lit class, and she’s even rejoined dancing in Teen Talk on Fridays.

Next term, Kalunji will join one of the vocational classes in Skills for Life.

THIS IS WHAT WE DO, AND WHY WE ARE HERE

Girls like Kalunji, forced to trade sex just to have food or sanitary pads, are forgotten, shunned, ignored. Illiterate, desperately impoverished, and with no living family to help, her chances of even surviving childbirth were low.

But now she is safe, healthy, cared for, and learning.

There are thousands like Kalunji in the Namuwongo slum, and we can’t help them all. But those we can bring into our program are given sustainable skills, counseling, mentoring, and the life skills needed to not just survive but thrive.

These are hard stories… But they are stories of HOPE. OPPORTUNITY. CHANGE. And they are possible because of you.

Webele nyo!

Jennings

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