When Ronald said the girls had picked the place for their Christmas party, I just knew…
A few years ago, KFC opened their first store in Kampala. Zeke and I went there during our 2020 visit — it was good, and they were actually fast, which doesn’t usually happen in Ugandan restaurants.
So when Ronald said that the girls wanted to go out this year instead of having a Christmas feast at the Ross House, I felt the silent mantra start in my head: wait for it… wait for it…
Because I just knew what it was going to be! And sure enough – it’s chicken and chips at KFC time!
Y’all, this is a BIG DEAL for these girls. Most of them have never been to an actual restaurant outside the slums. This year, they got their first-ever pizza. And we’re doing this as a MOM-ONLY outing, arranging for the staff to watch the toddlers.
They are SO excited – we can’t wait to share their December 23rd outing with you! (It’s ok, you can laugh. I did!) We’re working on a DonorSee project to fund it, which I’ll share with you soon.
FOR NOW, JUST BASK IN THEIR SHEER DELIGHT OF CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS AT KFC!
Today is my grandmother’s birthday. She would have been 108. Many of you know she lived to 106 (and a half!). We just had her memorial service earlier this month (November 2021).
Ross Schlernitzauer (pronounced just like it’s spelled!) was an amazing lady – a liver of life, a keeper of memories, a force to be reckoned with, and quietly generous. She passed her legacy of generosity to my mom, and it has had a huge impact on my life as well as my daughter’s.
Ten Eighteen’s US office is run 100% by volunteers. We have no administrative expenses, we don’t do any paid marketing, no one gets a salary, and we work from home. That means that your money goes TO THE WORK, always.
With donations through Donorbox or DonorSee, we use the funds within days to change lives among Uganda’s poorest youth. For all of us, it’s a labor of love that started with the grand lady we called Memommy.
We first met Jenifer in early 2020, when she was very pregnant and homeless. We were able to refer her to a Namuwongo organization called Amani, which helps teen moms give birth safely. However, they don’t offer care once a baby is born, and Jenifer went back to staying with various friends. Each time, they were chased out of their housing by the landlord for not paying rent.
Jenifer came back to the office when Liz was 18 months old. Once again, she was homeless, malnourished, and sick with malaria.
We admitted her to the Ross House, where she has received medical care, sexual trauma counseling, psycho-social counseling, mentoring, and is enrolled in Skills for Life learning Tailoring.
Liz is one of 5 babies/toddlers living in the Ross and Suubi Houses. There are another half dozen belonging to teen girls in Skills for Life. Most days, all these young moms bring their children to class, tied to their backs or sitting in their laps while they work.
While they make it work, it’s obviously distracting — anyone with a curious child knows how hard this must be!
In early 2022, we will be creating a small daycare for these sweet kids. Moms like Jenifer can leave their child while they’re in class or out working, and know that they are safe, happy, fed, and loved.
Want to help? We’ve got a DonorSee project up to fund the daycare – check it out! As of today, we just need $295 to fully fund this project and have it up and running when classes start back in January! Webely nyo!
I can’t believe it’s been a year. Or maybe that it’s “only” been a year — we’ve done SO much more than we expected, and have so many great things already in the works for 2022.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
This is Sharon’s story. She is one of the 6 girls who has come into the Ross House program for teen moms in crisis in 2021. Because of YOU, she has hope and opportunity!
It’s almost our FIRST ANNIVERSARY! We opened the Ross House a year ago, and my how we’ve grown!
What started out as an idea I got while walking on the beach contemplating the devastating effects on teen girls of the COVID19 lockdown is now a bursting-at-the-seams, thriving hub of activity! Every week we have
5 teen moms in 2 residential settings
1 homeless teen girl in a dormitory
20 teen girls and moms in Skills for Life
30-40 visitors for Saturday’s Turning Point
A dozen girls for Friday’s Teen Talk
20 girls in Strong Mind Mentoring groups
We average 1800 meals a month in our Namuwongo project, and we’re growing all the time! Coming in our second year: a computer lab, literacy class, advanced tailoring class, a daycare for our teen moms, and an expanded residential and dormitory program.
Our partnership with DonorSee is allowing us to provide the needed supplies for the girls in Skills for Life, give micro-grants to teen moms to start a small business, handle medical emergencies, and grow our program. We have also been able to provide much needed food for our foster families in Mbarara. We expect the last two months of 2021 to be huge for us on the platform, and we’re so thankful to those of you who have checked us out over there!
At the end of the month, on the 30th, it’s Giving Tuesday. Like all nonprofits, our year end campaigns are really important to keep us healthy for the upcoming year. Please follow us on social media and sign up for our weekly newsletters — we’ll have all the Giving Tuesday and Year End Giving information for you!
We’ve been working in Uganda almost 13 years now, and while our programs and focus have evolved, one thing remains the same: we want to create meaningful opportunity and skills so our participants can be self-sufficient.
SKILLS FOR LIFE –
Mildred is 12, the youngest girl in our Skills for Life Vocational School. She is learning tailoring, so that she will have a skill on which to build a life outside of desperate poverty. She has never been to school before.
We have 20 teen girls like Mildred enrolled in Skills for Life, and a waiting list for the next term. Twenty girls completed Term 1 last year, just before the lockdown happened (which cancelled Term 2). When girls like Mildred learn a skill like tailoring, they can get an actual job, or they can have their own business. SKILL + HOPE = OPPORTUNITY.
RESIDENTIAL PROGRAMS –
During the 2020 lockdown, we realized quickly how many girls were using sex work to survive. That resulted in skyrocketing teenage pregnancies all over the country.
To respond to the need, we opened the Ross House for teenage moms like Gloria, who are in crisis. This halfway house provides medical care, food, clothing, shelter, vocational training, sexual trauma counseling, psycho-social counseling, and childcare education.
As the first moms were finishing the Ross House program, we realized that now we needed a transition house, to prepare them to live in the community and be self-sufficient. We opened the Suubi House to provide oversight through a live-in social worker, financial and business training, and continuing medical care, food, clothing, and shelter as they learn and grow.
When Term 2 of Skills for Life opened after the 2021 lockdown, Cecilia became homeless. We opened a dormitory to house any students in the current term who are faced with the same situation, and provide medical care, food, and shelter for them during their training.
FOOD FOR CHILDREN –
We began providing food for children at Hopeland and Wells of Hope Primary Schools and the Arise Africa Babies Home in May, 2019. The 2020 and 2021 lockdowns have created a lot of disruption, but we continue to provide monthly food to about 75 children even while schools are (still) shut down.
Mama Mary has had 5 foster children for 19 months now! (It was supposed to be 4…) Forty orphaned children from Hopeland School are currently living with 9 foster families. Schools are supposed to begin a phased re-opening in January 2022.
We have two ways you can join us in our work — we’d love to have you in the Ten Eighteen family!
FUND SPECIFIC PROJECTS ON DONORSEE – we have 8-10 specific projects on Donorsee at all times. Donorsee allows us to post videos of the projects, updates, and follow-ups, so you can see exactly what your money has done for the project’s recipient. It’s a great way to really feel involved in Ten Eighteen’s work and in our Ugandan community!
First, let me apologize for not blogging in so long! I honestly had no idea it had been 6 weeks… I have sent out a good number of short email updates during that time (less than one per week), so please feel free to subscribe there to not miss anything!
Jenifer and daughter Liz at the Ross House
WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THE LOCKDOWN?
While schools are still closed for at least another 2 weeks, the country has been gradually opening in a “partial” lockdown scenario. There are still a 7:00pm curfew, capacity limits, and other SOPs in place, but life in the slum (where few authorities wanted to go even during the most strict part of the lockdown) is getting back to normal.
Skills for Life Term 2 is in week three, with the classes having been divided between Advanced and Regular on Monday to better facilitate everyone’s learning. We have 20 girls working very hard to take advantage of this opportunity!
On the dark side, mass evictions – halted for a short time during the lockdown – have begun again. Of course people in the informal economy can’t pay… they used their business capital for food, and have no way to earn back that capital to restart a business, nor to pay the landlord. Landlords are businesspeople too, I know, but it would be easier to have sympathy if slum landlords weren’t (as a general but not universal rule) well, the epitome of slum landlords. There was also a tax increase on landlords on July 1 from 10% to 30%, and of course they must pass that on. The end result is that we are seeing a huge number of homeless and pregnant girls.
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Our landlord – who is actually really great! – has been working on the buildings at the back of our compound during the lockdown. We spoke to him, and were able to secure not only a lot more space for our programs, but also a promise that he would only rent to women who he has thoroughly vetted. We didn’t want to move, but also didn’t want to expose girls who had undergone sexual trauma to strange me. (Men aren’t allowed in the Ross House at all.)
What that means:
We are moving the Ross House to a large apartment, which will allow us to double our capacity for teen moms. The apartment has a bathroom and kitchen.
We are taking the whole lower section of the new building, which adds 5 rooms plus a kitchen and bathroom. We will convert one room into a dormitory for S4L girls who have become homeless and have no family; one room will be the new Advanced Tailoring class; and one room will be a classroom where the S4L girls can learn basic reading and math. We’ll see how we grow with the other two!
We were able to secure this space for not-quite-double our existing rent, which is amazing given the increased tax the landlord is paying to the government. We are so thankful!
MORE TO COME!
We are so excited how far we’ve come in the last 10 months, and excited to see where we are in 2022. If you’d like to partner with us to give teen girls and moms the skills to be self-sufficient, we’d love to have you join the Ten Eighteen family!
We’re at day 44, between the first partial shutdown, and the total lockdown. We’ve got about 10 days to go – in theory – but no one actually expects the lockdown to be lifted or even eased. FOOD INSECURITY and starvation continue to be the #1 issue throughout the country and our programs.
BUT THERE IS SOME GOOD NEWS, TOO!
Gideon, Director of Hopeland and Wells of Hope Primary Schools, welcomed his first child on Saturday. Wife Winnie and baby Nathaniel are doing great!
We’ve had local donations of food from businesses like Xara Ranch and Lekker Bakery, as well as from expats who have heard about our work and want to help. This is making a big impact!
The Suubi House is open and running smoothly. Gertrude, the caretaker, reports that the girls and their babies are adapting wonderfully. They are all still eating, bathing, and doing laundry at the Ross House — only a 5 min walk away.
We are able to keep the girls from Skills for Life who have been struggling with mental health issues busy with the Ndoto co-op and outreaches into the community. They are also receiving food for their families, which is relieving the burden there and minimizing the type of atmosphere that leads to child bride practices or other behaviors leading to teenage pregnancy.
ALL of the Primary 7 students from Hopeland School passed the National Leaving Exam in March, thanks to your donations that allowed us to hire teachers, provide transportation, and create home-study materials for them during the 15 month school closures.
Gloria, 16, has come SO far in her 4 months at the Ross House! She is now the “senior”, and is ready and willing to help new emergency admissions in the coming weeks.
IT’S BEEN A DIFFICULT TIME, BUT THANKS TO OUR WONDERFUL DONORS AND SUPPORTERS, WE ARE STILL ABLE TO SERVE THE MOST VULNERABLE IN UGANDA.
THANK YOU!
To help vulnerable children and teens, you can donate here! 100% of your donation goes to the work – we can’t do it without you!
That’s the best word for it. The president had addressed the nation several days before about rising cases of COVID19, but said they were not locking down. Then, Sunday night after 8pm, he announced that a 42 day partial shut down would begin on MONDAY.
To say there was shock, dismay, anger, and chaos would be an understatement!
Chaos in Kampala as people try to leave the city before the deadline
After a REALLY good week last week in our programs, with graduation for our first term students from Skills for Life just a couple of weeks away, new water filters for Wells of Hope School, students reporting in stages back to the two primary schools, and two of the hairdressing girls hired by salons, we were very… UPSET.
Here’s what we know so far:
Schools are CLOSED. They just started reopening in March, and several grades hadn’t even come back yet, so we are now at about 15 months without school for many students. Since our schools service extremely poor children, this also means they lose the food and supervision they get at school. In the case of Wells of Hope, they lose the only clean water they have access to.
Churches, mosques, and other houses of worship are CLOSED.
Important gatherings, such as burials and weddings, are limited to 20 people.
Inter-district travel is restricted starting the 10th. (He did allow a few days for people to get home, at least.)
The informal economy has effectively been killed again — the only markets allowed are government sanctioned ones.
WHAT WE ARE DOING:
The primary schools are closed, which left about 10 children who are true orphans once again homeless. The foster families who took them in last year graciously agreed to receive them again, so they have been relocated to those families. We will be providing them food as we did in 2020, and they all were given Wonderbags so that will help with charcoal costs.
The girls from Term 1 of Skills for Life are finishing up their final projects. We can distance them, and make sure to stay under the “3 people” limit so that they can complete the term. Our graduation ceremony will be held once the restrictions are lifted.
Term 2 of Skills for Life is on the drawing board. I should have some updates for that by the end of the week, as the staff meets to discuss our options.
Two of the girls at the Ross House have been there for four months, and are ready to move on once the S4L term ends. We have located a place for the Suubi House, and should have access to that by the end of the week. We have to furnish it, but we will have the girls and social worker eat at the Ross House to keep extra expenses down for now. (It’s very close by.)
We are brainstorming ideas to keep the kids in the various programs ENGAGED and BUSY during the coming 6 weeks. During the lockdown of 2020, teen pregnancies skyrocketed, child bride practices escalated, and drug and alcohol use increased. While we can’t have our Saturday Turning Point, we can continue counseling sessions and small gatherings, and we are working on ways that the teens can get involved in the community to keep them busy and out of trouble.
Prices have already gone up significantly on food and charcoal, because of the inter-district travel restrictions. We are cutting expenses where we can to prepare for emergency situations. Please consider setting up a monthly donation of ANY size ($3/mo is the minimum and even that is so helpful!), or a one time donation.
THIS WEEK WE LAUNCHED THE GATE – FOR A REALLY GOOD REASON!
Uganda is a developing country with the world’s youngest population. Unemployment numbers are a joke* — even young people with university degrees can’t find paying jobs and usually “intern” (work for free, even for the government) for years before possibly getting a paying job.
In our programs, we are dealing with the extreme poor, the uneducated, the orphaned or abandoned, the homeless. Unemployment, other than informal self-employment, is literally 100%.
So outside of our regular budget, we have regular problems come up, like three babies in two weeks getting pneumonia. Transport to the clinic or hospital, medical treatment, daily transport for IV antibiotics… All that adds up. And while it’s very small compared to US standards, our budget is pretty small too!
By joining our passionate supporters together in the Gate, WE get a stable revenue flow, and YOU get to really see the IMPACT of your donations on a monthly basis. We want you to know exactly what your money is doing, who it is benefitting, and how we go about our work.
By joining the Gate, you get:
Monthly updates with behind the scenes information, stories and photos
Quarterly LIVE video meetings with our US and UG staff where you can ask any questions and get to know us
For the first 100 members, you’ll become part of our Founding SUUBI ALLIANCE with extra perks
Nothing changes on your end — you choose your monthly donation and set it up on Donorbox. But you get all the access above so you get to know the people whose lives you are changing and be part of our life-changing community!
JOIN THESE SMILING FACES!
CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO WITH ALL OUR PROGRAMS – WE’D LOVE TO HAVE YOU JOIN US IN CHANGING LIVES TODAY!
*Unemployment numbers for Uganda are all over the place, depending on who is reporting it. Government numbers can be as low as 1.84% (an absolute farce which anyone who has ever been to Uganda knows), to as high as 80% – a much more likely number. The truth is, MANY millions of Uganda’s 43 million population have no employment, no way to gain employment, and no safety net to help them.
