As often happens when we have a BRILLIANT IDEA™, we underestimated the need. I know… you’d think we’d learn! But when the need is so great, it can truly be hard to put a number on it.
When we opened our daycare last month, we expected a few kids for each session (morning and afternoon) of Skills for Life. Oh, let’s say 6-8. We, of course, made the daycare available for our staff and the moms who have graduated out of the residential program.
Some days, we have as many as 30 kids in daycare. Yep. THIRTY. And they all get 2 meals a day, which is awesome and we wouldn’t change a thing.
Except our budget. We definitely need to change our budget!
We have a project up on DonorSee to restock the food for our little ones in daycare. We need about $200 to fully fund it — CAN YOU HELP?
You can become a monthly donor using the button below. That really helps us know our base budget and things like regular food purchases.
If you’ve been with us awhile, you know that every month we do a One Fun Thing for our resident teen moms. This started way back in 2009, when my kids and I started going to Uganda and spending time in the slum, because it’s HARD. If it’s hard to visit, imagine how hard it is to live there!
So every trip, we do a One Fun Thing, and every month, our moms get treated to One Fun Thing – like the KFC Christmas party in December.
Since it was International Women’s Day last week, we had a feast to celebrate our girls. (Clearly the kids, like Imran, enjoyed it, too!)
We believe that everyone should have the chance at FUN. At laughter. At celebration. At dancing.
Is the One Fun Thing technically “essential”? We’d actually say yes! When you’re doing hard things, it’s always good to remember what you’re fighting for.
More One Fun Things. More dancing. More joy. More LIFE.
Maybe even more than ONE fun thing every month.
Blessings,
Jennings
PS We’ve got a project on DonorSee to restock the food for the daycare. We are providing 2 meals a day to the children of our teen moms, staff, and teachers. Click on the button to help us with all that food!
In our Namuwongo project, here are some things we don’t (usually) do that we did last week:
Take in pregnant teens
Provide food for people not in our program
It’s just a matter of budget – there is SO MUCH NEED among the 30,000 people that live in Namuwongo, and we are one small nonprofit. We have to say no MUCH more often than we can say yes.
But sometimes, you just can’t say no.
A few weeks ago, the LC (local community leader) called about a pregnant 15 year old girl. While it’s in our “one day” plan, we currently aren’t equipped to take in pregnant teens. But we brought Kalunji to the office for counseling, and she has come back and spent all day every day there. She gets 2 meals a day, she’s finally gotten prenatal care and vitamins, and she’s safe.
Last weekend, the team went with her to visit her home, where she lives with her jaja. What they found was an elderly woman near to starvation, in a home where they slept on the bare dirt floor.
When Ronald sent me the video, there was no question. OF COURSE. Buy food. Get charcoal, a mattress, bedding.
OF COURSE. Because sometimes, you just can’t say no.
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!
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!
For the last week, we’ve been posting photos on social media that don’t include faces. Since we love our beautiful girls, we’ve gotten some questions as to why we stopped showing them.
One word: SAFETY
With the imposition of the total lockdown a couple of weeks ago, the government has made the slum a dystopian nightmare of roving gangs robbing and even killing for food.
People are choosing between rent and food if they do have any money, and starving beats being homeless – so they are starving.
Even one meal of porridge a day seems like a luxury. People are showing up at our gate regularly who haven’t eaten in days, and the last thing they ate was a thin posho (ground maize) gruel.
ONE OF THE HARDEST FACTS WE FACE IS THAT WE CAN’T HELP EVERYONE.
We started our Adopt a Girl (AAG) program to provide food to those in our program who are the most at risk of being sold as a “bride;” or of voluntary or forced prostitution. Even within our program, we can’t provide food for everyone… But we CAN remove the single biggest factor for teen “marriage” and pregnancy at the moment, and that’s FOOD INSECURITY.
FOR $50, WE CAN FEED A FAMILY OF 5 FOR A MONTH. WILL YOU HELP?
