Our goal for 2022 year end giving was $42,000 — and we raised $46,766!
2023, here we come!
Blessings,
Jennings and all of us at Touch the Slum
THANK YOU!! You’re amazing! Read More »
Giving Season is just starting, but you’ve helped us start with a bang! If you didn’t get a chance to give yesterday (we still have some of the $5000 matching grant we can capture!), just click here!
Y’all rock!
Jennings
PS We’d love for you to share Ten Eighteen and Touch the Slum with your family, friends, and coworkers to grow our family over this next month!
PSS Today is my grandmother Ross’s birthday – she would have been 109 if she hadn’t passed away in 2020. (For the math-challenged, she lived to 106 1/2!) She’s my inspiration and the reason we started the Ross House two years ago, which led to all of our programs at Touch the Slum. I was very blessed to have had her for so long!
THANK YOU for your generosity on Giving Tuesday! Read More »
Blessings!
All of us at Touch the Slum
We are so thankful for YOU! Read More »
I’m from Florida, as were six generations before me. I have been accused of having “thin blood”, because I start wearing long sleeves in early September, and have been known to wear a wetsuit if the water temperature is below about 78 degrees.
I also do NOT like to sweat. That led me to have a young life filled with swimming pools, diving boards, sailboats, water skis, and canoes. No tennis or (heaven forbid) cross country running for me!
All that to say, I was never part of a TEAM. Yes, swimming and diving means you’re on a team, but they are individual sports at heart. You can win a First when the team comes in last. Really, you just need a ride to the pool!
I’m also an introvert, and could (honestly) probably be a professional hermit.
But THIS, Ten Eighteen Uganda, is truly a TEAM. It’s way beyond me, and that’s wonderful!
Our team in Uganda is 22 paid staff and another handful of full time volunteers who work tirelessly with and for our teen mom and teen girls. They are all from the Namuwongo slum themselves, and live there or nearby still, so they are well aware of the circumstances in which the girls live.
Our team outside of Uganda — me and our small board — does all the communications, fundraising, technical stuff, and project development. For free.
But NONE of that would have produced the incredible program we have now if it wasn’t for YOU. Every single donation, no matter the size, is put to work immediately. 100% of it. Day in and day out, you come through.
It’s not because I’m such a great communicator, or that the media team produces such great content, or that Ronald is an extraordinary administrator. It’s because, for some or all or none of those reasons but also because our mission lit a fire in you, you saw the need, you saw that you could do something, and then — most importantly — you took action.
Trust me, most people get hung up after that second one! They don’t think $5 or $10 or $100 can “do anything” so they end up not doing anything. But hundreds or thousands of people doing something equals an incredible movement that can shift a culture.
I wish we had the budget to send you all… something. A hat or a shirt or fly a banner over your house to thank you. This will have to do.
We really can’t ever thank you enough…
Webele nyo!
Jennings (and the team!)
YOU Are the HOW at Ten Eighteen Uganda! Read More »
This is Francis. We’ve known Francis since early 2010, when he was living at the children’s home run by some friends. We stayed there during all of our trips through 2015 — two a year — and got to know Francis really well.
He’s a WONDERFUL young man who has had a very difficult life. He was orphaned at the age of 8 when his village and the surrounding fields were consumed by fire. He wasn’t in the village at the time but saw the fire and rushed home to try to save his family. He couldn’t, and suffered significant burns in the rescue attempt.
He stayed at the home for about 8 years where he got an education and played football. Unfortunately, one of the other boys tried to stab him to death one night before fleeing, nearly killing Francis and causing significant injury. He spent a lot of time in hospital but made a full recovery.
Not long afterwards, the home closed down and the older kids were just left to fend for themselves. Most had some family somewhere in Uganda, but Francis did not. He had nowhere to go and no one to help.
Being smart and resourceful, he worked day labor and rented a small place. We were able to reconnect thanks to a messaging app in 2020, and Ten Eighteen has been helping him since then. And that’s where YOU come in!
We posted a project on Monday on DonorSee to pay for the certificate Francis had earned in computers. It was funded in a day! Yesterday he got the funds to the school, and should have the certificate in hand by the end of the week. We are working with him to finish his secondary education, find all the lost records from the children’s home, and figure out next steps.
We also had a project for windows at Wells of Hope Primary School in Rwakobo village funded this week. It’s the first of 5 that will be needed to get all the windows completed in the new building, so we’re really excited to be making progress there. The windows will be in by Saturday!
Most of our donations on DonorSee are between $10 and $25 – sometimes we have 20 donors involved in funding a project. And we LOVE that! We love that you all are coming together, giving what you can, and making a huge and immediate difference in people’s lives.
We are so grateful for your support, whether it’s a donation, a reply to an email, a Like on a social media post, or a text or call of encouragement. We don’t take any of it for granted, and really can’t thank you enough.
Webele nyo!
Jennings
You Guys Are Really the Best! Read More »
It’s hard to believe that I got back from Uganda 2 1/2 months ago… Time has flown by!
Our monthly donors give month in and month out so we can continue our work.
You have funded 156 projects on DonorSee, with a total of $53,200 raised.
You have allowed us to purchase land for the farm, fence it, clear it, put in a latrine, and given so we could plant bananas and get ready to plant beans.
We have weathered crazy inflation because YOU have given to make up the difference.
You have funded our free clinic and daycare all year long.
You have allowed us to create a safe place for at-risk girls to be cherished and loved and educated and supported.
We honestly can’t thank you enough, but here’s a short thank you video we made for you.
Blessings!
Jennings
Thank You So Much – Mwebele Nyo! Read More »
We’re so grateful!
Webele nyo!
Jennings
PS If you want to donate, here’s the button!
THANK YOU For An Amazing Launch! Read More »
Let’s be honest, 2021 probably wasn’t anyone’s favorite year ever… but you stepped up for Ten Eighteen in a big way, and we can’t thank you enough!
Donations for 2021 were up a little over 70% from 2020 and that’s AMAZING.
We met not just our year-end giving goal, or our stretch year-end giving goal… you donated 20% more than even that!
THANK YOU FOR 2021! Read More »
