2024 is almost here, but you still have time to make a donation before the champagne corks fly!
Your support keeps Touch the Slum going, providing crisis care, vocational skills training, literacy, medical care, and more each and every day.
100% goes to the program – your money makes a huge impact!
2023 has been great — we can’t wait to see what 2024 brings.
Mwebele nnyo!
Jennings
Last chance to give in 2023! Read More »
At 16, Gloria became pregnant.
She was living in a tiny one-room house with five other girls, and had turned to drugs and informal sex work. She came to touch the slum for counseling and was later enrolled in the Ross House, Hairdressing, and Literacy. Now, she is on our staff and lives independently.
Blessings,
Jennings
PS Girls like Gloria come to us every single day. It only costs $35 to pay for one month of instruction in Skills for Life, and $50 pays for a month in our residential program + Skills for Life. By donating today, you help girls just like Gloria get out of the grinding poverty and into a sustainable future. 100% of donations go to the program!
From Desperation to Independence – Gloria’s Story Read More »
2023 has been a banner year for Ten Eighteen, at Touch the Slum and in the west where we provided the well for Rwakobo Village.
Over a hundred girls have learned to read, write, speak English, and do basic math.
They have learned a skill in Tailoring, Hairdressing, Photography/Videography, or Digital Literacy.
We were selected by Plan International to be one of only two nonprofits in their referral program in the entire (LARGE) district, made up of millions of Ugandans.
We introduced drawing and painting and unleashed creativity in both students and staff — NOT something that’s very common in Uganda!
Every day, girls were rescued, supported, treated, respected, and lifted up, in ways big and small.
January marks our 15th year working in the Namuwongo slum and in Uganda!
Also in January, we are taking a team of four amazing women who will bring lifetimes of skills in art, writing, cooking, organic farming, nursing and public health, and psychiatric social work to our staff and students.
In the spring, our “community organization” status will be officially upgraded to a country-wide NGO.
With the funding of our newest large project on DonorSee, we will be able to move the residential girls to a separate nearby house. This will give them more peace and quiet and room to heal, and it will free up space in the Touch the Slum compound to expand our vocational skills program.
As our farm continues to produce, we will start taking teams of girls from TTS who are interested in learning farming skills to get hands on experience. (You can’t grow much in the slum!)
All this and more is thanks to generous donations like the one you made last year. Will you consider making a year end donation to help us again?
As always, 100% of your donations go to the program, and we SO appreciate your support and encouragement!
Mwebele nnyo,
Jennings
PS If you aren’t following us on Instagram, now is a great time to start. Our home-grown media team does amazing work, and we have new content up every day. It’s a great way to keep up with all we’re doing in Namuwongo and to see all the fun we have on the team trip next month.
Our Vision for 2024 Read More »
I feel about as excited as Neema is in this photo, because a regular donor has offered an amazing matching grant opportunity:
They will match all donations dollar for dollar up to $3,000 — AND, if we meet or exceed $3,000, they will donate another $1,000!
That means that your donation is at least doubled, and maybe even more! Since 100% goes to the program… well, it’s hard to make a much better investment than that!
The match runs from today, December 14th, through Christmas day. If you’ve been thinking about giving to our work in Uganda, now’s the time to really make an impact!
We do what we do with vulnerable teen girls in Uganda only because YOU give through us to do the work. We can’t thank you enough!
Mwebele nnyo!
Jennings
Amazing matching grant opportunity starts NOW! Read More »
The trip coming up in January will be my seventeenth trip to Uganda. In January 2009, we funded the rent for a building for Ray of Hope’s outreach to women and children in Namuwongo. On our first trip in September of 2009, we made our first visits to the slum.
I’ve been down in the “community” (the slum proper) at least a hundred times, conservatively.
Many of our girls have one outfit and one pair of shoes, usually knock-off cheap “Crocs”. I know this. I’ve known this. It’s a challenge.
But what I’ve learned since launching Touch the Slum is that many have no knickers (underwear) at all, and that their families often don’t consider it their “responsibility” to provide them.
Let’s be real for a second: teen girls have periods.
Even girls who can’t get sanitary pads need to use rags during their cycles. Practically speaking, underwear is pretty vital at least a week a month.
Owning zero or just one pair of knickers is a problem. They can’t come to class one week a month. They can’t go out of their house one week a month. They can’t launder their one skirt or dress without being left unclothed while it dries, which obviously leaves them completely housebound.
I don’t know about you, but I find that completely unacceptable. (To be honest, very few things make me actively angry… but this is one of them!)
Each term, we do a project to supply girls in need with underwear, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. Each term, you come together to help us fund this, so that no one misses class due to a lack of knickers. Together with our monthly sanitary pad distribution, you keep girls in class and active their community. And you help them keep their dignity.
It’s amazing how such a small thing can completely transform a life! To help, just click the button.
Tweyanzizza nnyo, tweyanzeege — we are so grateful, thank you very much!
Blessings,
Jennings
PS If you’ve missed our My Story series so far, you can always visit our YouTube channel to see those and other great videos on our work in Namuwongo.
When not owning knickers is the norm Read More »
The slum is not a nice place.
You probably thought, “Well duh…” to that, because obviously it wouldn’t be called a slum if it was somewhere lovely.
But seriously. Beyond the obvious (filth, muck, abuse, drugs and moonshine, starvation, illness… SMELLS), everyone there operates in survival mode 100% of the time.
In survival mode, you’re not creative. Your body is flooded with cortisol and adrenaline. Your immune system is terrible. Your brain is a weird combination of hyper-alertness and fuzzy thinking.
This is how our girls live all the time when they’re not at the Touch the Slum compound. In the community, they can turn to little baggies of waraji (moonshine made in 50 gallon drums that makes turpentine seem like fine wine) or marijuana to try to ease the stress. If they escape that, they turn to young men who promise some stability but just leave unclaimed babies after they disappear.
One of our missions at Touch the Slum is to create an atmosphere where the girls can not only learn but also RELAX. Feel safe. Laugh. Dance. And create.
In March, my mom, Susan, introduced the girls in the Literacy class to drawing and painting. They loved it! Ever since, we’ve made it a regular part of the curriculum and it’s one of their favorite things.
When the team goes in January, we will have my mom again, who will continue to teach drawing and painting to the girls and staff. Connie is a glass and pottery artist so she’s going to teach those skills. And I’ll be bringing creative writing to the girls with some fun activities to help them have fun with their newly learned English words.
Much of life involves creating: outfits, artwork, stories, hairstyles. Once they can envision the small stuff, they can see the project that will be their masterpiece:
Thanks to you, these girls are learning to think creatively and expand their dreams. That’s an amazing gift and we can’t thank you enough.
Mwebele nnyo,
Jennings
PS Are you following us on Instagram yet? We’ve had some great reels there, and the media team is doing a great job with our content. Click the icon below or here to check it out!
Creativity and Confidence Read More »
When Joyce came from the village to the Namuwongo slum last year to live with her auntie, she had never been to school. While her aunt is a tailor herself, she was unable to take the time to teach her niece the skills she’d need to earn a living.
But she did make time to bring her to Touch the Slum and enroll her into the Literacy Program, and that has made all the difference!
TODAY IS GIVING TUESDAY — please forward this to friends and family and ask them to help support Touch the Slum today! 100% of donations go to the program.
Blessings,
Jennings
PS Every day we have 75 students in Skills for Life, a FREE literacy and vocational program for vulnerable teen girls in Uganda’s largest slum. It only costs $35 per girl per month to learn, have a meal, receive medical care, and have a safe place to spend their time. Can you donate today so girls like Joyce can secure their future? Mwebele nnyo!
13-year-old Joyce is on her way to her own small business! Read More »
According to the UN, 8000 people a day are currently fleeing the violence in the DR of the Congo — a total of 6.3 million people have been displaced so far. Many end up in Uganda, who has a policy of accepting all refugees.
Unfortunately, accepting them doesn’t mean helping them, so many end up in areas like the Namuwongo slum.
Neema’s family — mom with six children — live in a ramshackle hut in a refugee heavy area there. But Neema has an advantage over most of the refugees who are her neighbors: she’s enrolled at Touch the Slum.
When she joined the Literacy Program in June, Neema only spoke French and Swahili. Now she can speak English and is teaching her siblings.
Blessings,
Jennings
PS $35 covers one month of Skills for Life at Touch the Slum. Can you make a donation today to help Neema and others like her? 100% goes to the program!
PSS Have you wondered what life is like in the Namuwongo slum? Our great media team has just finished a video to show you!
Neema is a refugee from the Congo – this is her story Read More »
Have you ever been up in the middle of the night, finding yourself watching infomercials (am I showing my age here?!), ready to dial in for some FREE STUFF?
If you did, you likely discovered that the FREE STUFF cost you money to ship, or required a subscription, or some other back-door way of getting your money.
Uganda’s school “system” is like this.
First, there is no system. Not locally, regionally, or nationally. There are a very few “government schools” but not in the sense we in America and the West understand them. They aren’t open to everyone, and they aren’t free.
Second, “school” is a bit generous! They use a very antiquated semi-British colonial system requiring rote learning and endless repetitions of facts. Most are hugely underfunded, teacher pay is terrible, and the pandemic lockdowns where schools were closed for almost 2 years shifted many good teachers into other jobs.
Third, even at a government school, it’s not “free.” Students are required to bring many of the things we would consider the school’s responsibility, like toilet paper and brooms. They are required to wear uniforms including shoes, which many Ugandans don’t have. They have to bring paper and pencils and pay for testing. Even in a free school! If it’s a fee-based school, even if it’s very inexpensive, they have to pay at the beginning of each term.
This is why only about 60% of Ugandan children go to primary school on any regular basis, and less than half of those go on to Secondary. This is doubly true for girls, who many families refuse to spend money on.
This is why a program like Touch the Slum is so vital to the vulnerable teen girls in the slum. We actually ARE free. 100%, never-any-cost FREE.
We provide Literacy, Skills, food, medical care, daycare, sanitary pads, diapers, clothes and shoes, mosquito nets, water bottles, and, to those especially vulnerable, assistance to the family. AT NO COST.
I don’t know about you, but to me…. that’s what FREE means!
YOU! You and others donate so our girls can create a self-sustaining life. It’s pretty amazing — and we can’t thank you enough for the impact you are making every single day.
Mwebele nnyo!
Jennings
PS We’re halfway there on our reviews at GreatNonprofits – can you take a couple of minutes to leave one today??
PSS We’ve got a bunch of projects up right now on DonorSee, like this one for disposable diapers for our 20 teen moms. But check them all out, watch some videos, and see what we’re up to every day!
To visit our website, click here! And for great tees and sweatshirts supporting 1018, check out our Bonfire page here!
When Things Are “Mostly” Free Read More »
We’ve recently started using Dropbox to share all our media back and forth, so I get to go on and click through so many fun photos and videos looking for a good photo for you.
I was clicking through photos of a recent Game Day, and was really taken by the focus and intensity of every single person playing every single game in every single photo. Even Chutes & Ladders!
I thought about it for minute and realized why:
They don’t have the kind of life where you just get to play a game, watch football on television, even just sit and do something fun, with no “work” purpose.
They have the kind of life where you start doing at dawn, and you’re still doing well after dark. Hand washing clothes. Walking to fill jerry cans of water and carrying them back home — multiple times a day. Cooking on a small charcoal stove. Washing dishes in a bucket. Doing day labor or a small hand-to-mouth business. Tending mostly-naked small children as they run around in muck-filled canals. Walking a half a mile for a workable toilet (that you have to pay to use).
Over the last couple of years, you have donated for us to buy board games and balls and balloons and art supplies and toys.
You have brought a totally new concept to hundreds of lives:
I would argue that it’s (almost) as important as the food, clothes, lessons, and medicine you also provide — because it gives the WHY for those things.
I love this quote: “Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.” -Diane Ackerman
What really makes you guys amazing is that you don’t “require” us to to show you all the terrible things about the slum to want to give. You also give to bring joy and fun and sparkle and laughter.
Blessings,
Jennings
PS Are you following us on Instagram and YouTube? You need to be! We’ve been working on some new short documentaries with more in the works, and our daily Instagram at both Ten Eighteen Uganda and Touch the Slum are full of great content to keep you up to speed!
What Does “Game Day” Mean To You? Read More »
