DonorSee

You’ll Never Guess What We Forgot In the Farm Budget!

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Weekend before last, Ronald and Betty spent the day at the farm supervising and helping with the fence project. At some point in the late morning, they had a sudden realization of what we forgot in the planning and budgeting… a LATRINE!!!!

Now, as many times as we went over everything, and as careful as we were in thinking of all the small details, somehow this never occurred to us. Honestly, after I got over laughing hysterically, I went back over all our Signal chats, meeting notes, and emails. Nope, not once did either of us ever think about, well, the very basics.

(If I could do emojis on here, there would be literally thousands of laughing ones here!)

Whew, anyway…

Thankfully, you all have been so generous so quickly that we had money in the savings account that we didn’t need right now. So, as you can see from the photo above, we contracted to get a pit latrine made. (And y’all, there is a guy way way down in that hole digging by hand… no thank you!)

We’ve adjusted our goal on DonorSee to reflect this additional expense (and yes, we’ve double checked to make sure we didn’t leave anything else big out, let me tell you!). We are now 63% funded and have a goal of $25,900. It’s only been a month, and we are WAY further along than we expected. All thanks to YOU!

The land is cleared, and we have a lot more cassava than we thought. We’ll be planting beans very soon, thanks to our volunteer farmer Moses, and maybe a few other things to get us started. (We’re thinking tomatoes and eggplant – Moses is checking out the soil conditions for us now.) The bananas are planted, there is matoke growing, and we’ve got papaya and a big mango tree. We couldn’t be more excited and thankful. (And we’re including those latrine builders in things to be thankful for, let me tell you!)

We so appreciate all your encouragement and excitement.

Blessings!

Jennings

PS If you want to help us out with the latrine and the rest of the farm, just click the button!

Pay for the potty!

You’ll Never Guess What We Forgot In the Farm Budget! Read More »

Who’s a Farmer Now?!

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One of my earliest memories from childhood is being awakened in the middle of the night to go to the groves and light the oil pots due to an imminent freeze. I didn’t get out of the car or (of course) play with fire, but I remember it clearly. I also remember playing in the packing house as the conveyor belts ran full of beautiful oranges.

My grandfather always had a small vegetable garden at his house and would eat sweet onions like an apple as we walked back to the house. (Which I found horrifying!)

As an older (cough cough) adult, I dream of having a farm one day. I just didn’t know it would be in Uganda!

But we are farmers now!

We officially own the land (with paperwork started), witnessed by the neighboring landowners and the local community leaders. It has been surveyed and marked and we will start building our fence soon.

Honestly, I keep having to pinch myself that we own this land. Land that already has papaya and cassava growing and soon ready to harvest. That already has a partially finished brick building ready to be finished into a home for our caretaker and storage.

I’m still hoping for a farm a bit closer to home one day, but I am absolutely staggered at your response to our need for food, and for another vocational skill to teach our teen moms. It has so far exceeded our wildest expectations that I’m not sure there are words to express our gratitude.

In Luganda, “Tweyanzizza nnyo, tweyanzeege!” (We are so grateful, thank you very much!”)

Blessings,

Jennings

PS While we may be farmers now, we aren’t actually farming yet! Our project to help us bridge the gap between our budget and rising costs is 30% funded on DonorSee – we’d love you to help us so we can fully restock in 2 weeks when classes resume. Click the button – it’s super easy, and 100% goes to the program!

Click here for FOOD!

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Time To Buy Some Farm Land

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The way DonorSee works, we get the money for our projects as it comes in. For large projects that we need to gather all the funding for, I just put the proceeds into a savings account while we wait.

Because the farm project is now about 60% funded, we have the money in the bank for a piece of land! Ronald has been reaching out to all his contacts and visiting plots, and we *may* have found one yesterday! (More on this in a later email as it develops.)

I can’t thank you enough — you’ve been so generous with both your money and your encouragement. It’s definitely a leap of faith, but as we watch prices continue to rise we know it’s the right thing to do.

Obviously, we won’t be buying and improving the land and then gathering in crops the next week. I grew up in a citrus farming family and have done a lot of my own gardening; there’s no rushing nature. We can’t wait to get started!

I can’t believe we’re here — and it’s all thanks to YOU. I’m truly gobsmacked, and so so grateful!

Webele nyo!

Jennings

PS On DonorSee, we crossed the $30,000 raised mark on June 29. We are now (in 3 1/2 weeks!) close to crossing $50,000! (I can’t even wrap my head around that!) If you’d like to help us get over that amazing milestone, click the button!

Click Here for $50k!

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Ways To Help During the Current Food Crisis

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Stories like this one are popping up in Ugandan media, even as the government is trying to ignore the severity of inflation and supply chain issues. As the President said recently, “Just don’t eat wheat – have matoke instead.” (Sound like any French monarch you recall?)

Now, Karamoja and the northern portions of Uganda that are bordering South Sudan are very dry and arid. The Karamoja tribes are herders, and can travel large distances to find grazing for their cattle. But what is happening there is coming to the rest of the country if it can’t get a handle on a few things:

  • Stopping the export of commodity crops to other countries until the supply chain problems ease
  • Forming some sort of safety net program for the extremely poor who have never recovered from the pandemic lockdowns
  • Stopping the new post-pandemic policy of charging at “free” hospitals

I’m not holding my breath, and we’re not waiting for the government!

Here’s how YOU can help the teen moms and teen girls in our programs – as always, 100% goes to our programs:

  • Become a monthly donor on DonorBox. We will receive the money in 1-3 business days.
  • If you are a big Paypal user, we are part of the Paypal Giving Fund. We will receive the money electronically in up to 45 days.
  • You can give through GreatNonprofits, too. We get a check within once a quarter. (Leave a review while you’re there so we can be a 2022 Top Rated Nonprofit!)
  • We are a verified charity with the National Christian Foundation (NCF). We’ve received one donation through them, and it was a check delivered fairly quickly. They take no fees.

THE BOTTOM LINE – we’ll take money however you want to give it to us! 😀

Thank you for your support!

Webele nyo,

Jennings

PS Make sure to follow us on social media for the latest updates!

Ways To Help During the Current Food Crisis Read More »

The Farm Project Has Launched!

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Our FARM PROJECT has launched on DonorSee!

There are some values that we hold at Touch the Slum –

  • Sustainable change
  • Personal responsibility
  • Hope + Growth

This goes for our own work in the community, for what we try to instill in our girls through counseling and education, and for how we plan and dream for the future of the Namuwongo project.

The 50%+ food inflation that Uganda has experienced has really stretched our budget while limiting our food options. We have had to limit our carbohydrates to mostly posho with a little bit of rice, and we’ve also had to reduce our fresh produce to the general population so that we can make sure that our breastfeeding teen moms get all the nutrition they need.

This has led us to the farm project. The farm will be able to provide all of the vegetables that we need, and eventually fruits such as mango and avocado. Girls who are interested in learning about farming and agriculture will be able to visit the project a couple of times a month, which will give them a wonderful skill for their future.

This is a really large project for us, but we know we will be able to fund it on DonorSee thanks to you and our wonderful partners there. Below, I’ve itemized the expenses so you can see where every penny will go. 100% of donations will go to the project (minus processing fees), and we’ll be keeping you updated all along the way.

Click the button to see the project on DonorSee — we need to get 10% of the funding before DonorSee will show it in their feed, so we’d love your help today!

TAKE ME TO THE FARM!

BUDGET

2-3 acres of arable land $11,500

Green house $1,460

Cement fencing poles + wires $2,640

Farm tools $500

Water pump system $1,100

Motorcycle $1,775 (for the caretaker, deliveries, etc)

Caretaker home $2,500

Maize milling system $1,775

Fertilizer & pesticides 1 year $350

Caretaker salary 1 year $500 (plus room, board, transport, etc)

TOTAL $24,100

Webele nyo!

Jennings

The Farm Project Has Launched! Read More »

How a Farm Will Let Us Lean Into the Wind

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Every week day, Mama Santa makes lunch for about 75 teens and adults, with another dozen or so children. The lunch above was on the day we went to the market for fresh groceries, so we go the added treat of eggplant, carrots, and avocado. Most days, we just had beans (made with a little onion and tomato) and posho or rice.

Posho is the least expensive carbohydrate available in Uganda — it’s finely ground maize mixed with water and cooked firm, or else mixed with water or milk and a little sugar for a porridge. On its own, it doesn’t taste like much, but it’s filling and good with beans. However, eating nothing but this day in and day out is not a recipe for optimal health!

For an increasing number of our day students, this is the only meal they get each day. There is no food at home.

Even before the daily price increases of the last 6 weeks, we had decided that we needed a self-sufficient solution for the growing food issues. We’ve spent a few months researching and pricing everything from laying hens to concrete posts to acreage, and will be launching our new farm project on DonorSee on Monday.

This is our biggest project to date, and our second “large” project on DonorSee. We have our computer lab thanks to our first, and we are even more excited about the farm.

Not only will we be able to provide vegetables and fruits, protein from eggs and moringa, and grind maize on site, we will be able to take any girls interested in learning about farming and agriculture out to work the land. While many of our teens’ families came from rural villages, our girls haven’t learned the skills that their parents and grandparents knew — and they are excited to learn!

Monday, you’ll get an email with the project link. For now, you can click the button below to get a preview of our project video. We need the project to be 10% funded from our own donors before DonorSee releases it to the wider platform, so we’d love for you to spend some time over the weekend watching the video, looking at our social media, and committing to a donation for Monday. Any amount will help us, and 100% goes to the project!

Farm Project Video Here!

Webele nyo!

Jennings

PS We were a Great Nonprofits Top Rated Nonprofit for 2021, which brought in a good number of donations through their site. We have til October 31st to get 10 new 4 or 5 star reviews to continue our status for 2022. We’d love for you to pop over there and leave us a review – it doesn’t take long! Click the button!

Yes, I’ll leave a 5* review!

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Sometimes It’s So Easy To Make Someone’s Day!

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I used to think it was hard to make a difference in the world. I mean, look around… there is so much going on, so many bad things and depressing news stories and pain.

Then I visited Uganda.

There was one family, a grandmother who was raising 5 grandchildren orphaned because all three of her own children had died from AIDS. One of the younger children was HIV+. They had nothing, and they had no hope.

The social worker from Ray of Hope had taken us around the Namuwongo slum and introduced us to the women in the program. This jaja though… They had no money for food or charcoal, but she was only concerned about not being able to send them to school.

My 13-year-old son, Zeke, turned to me and said, “I’ll do it. I’ll pay for them to go.”

And that was it. That was MAKING A DIFFERENCE. And really, it was so simple. Zeke dug into his little savings (and, of course, my husband and I chipped in), and those kids went to school.

That’s where Ten Eighteen Uganda really started, in that one-room home, with toothbrushes lined up so carefully on one wall’s little shelf, and a jaja who just wanted her grandkids to have a chance.

It really is that simple.

The work isn’t easy… but it’s simple. MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

True, sustainable, actionable change and growth is hard work, but it’s not complicated. It takes small actions and creates great and lasting change.

Simple.

Blessings,

Jennings

PS The photo at the top of this email is from a surprise food and mattress delivery to 16-year-old Shemim, who is in our Literacy program. She and her family became homeless and are living in an open-air church. You can watch the video here — it was pretty amazing!

To help with other DonorSee projects, click the button! We’ve had a huge outpouring of support over the last week and 7 projects funded, but are loading new projects each day. Check it out!

Click Here for Projects!

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Thank You For an Amazing June!

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June has been a big month — and it seems like it was both long and short simultaneously. It feels like a long time ago I was there (and I’m trying to block the travel from my mind!), but the month has also flown by with a handful of truly heartbreaking situations.

And yesterday, we crossed $30,000 in donations made to us through DonorSee! THANK YOU for your support and encouragement that have made this possible.

I hinted at a large project coming soon, and that’s still on deck. Due to the emergencies we handled over the last couple of weeks, we moved the launch date to July 11. You’ll be hearing more about that next week — it’s a GREAT project that will really change a lot of things at Touch the Slum.

Exams started for all our Skills for Life classes this week. All the students get to show their skills and their creativity, creating unique hairstyles and clothing designs to impress their teachers. Many of the girls will start internships when exams are over, which is an awesome way for them to get real life experience and hopefully set them up for outside employment.

Skills for Life will be taking a month off, from July 15 to August 15. The residential girls will continue in their computer class and our Neema Development entrepreneurship training will continue during this time, but otherwise we will be repairing and restocking, planning and tweaking the curriculums, and generally taking a rest from the crazy busy first half of 2022.

Of course, our clinic will remain open and the daycare will be operating for the residential girls and staff.

In short, the first half of 2022 has been AMAZING, and we couldn’t be more grateful to you for your support. If you know anyone who would be interested in our work, please feel free to forward this email and direct them to our social media (and DonorSee!). We’re working on some things for the 3rd quarter of the year, and are always looking for ways to grow our supporter base.

Blessings,

Jennings

Thank You For an Amazing June! Read More »