Many in Jillian’s community in the Luwero district north of the capital of Kampala have long given up of the hope of any justice. They assume that the laws only exist to protect the wealthier in Kampala, where 95 percent of Ugandan attorneys live.

But Jillian’s wiser and more empowered. She knew about her rights because her community had participated in our game-changing, groundbreaking Project Justice program.

John Baptist provides training to guardians on creating a Will in Kikoiiro

Project Justice provides rural Ugandans with greater knowledge of and access to judicial information and processes to strengthen the legal safety net, especially for vulnerable women and children, like Jillian (not her real name). Now she is protected, no longer living at home and has escaped an early marriage- if not much worse.

In rural Uganda, most people remain ignorant of most criminal and civil laws and how to uphold them. Couples don’t even know if they are legally married. They view their children, as “property” yet does not know if they even legally own their land and homes. They lose hope and are vulnerable to crime, anarchy, and terrorism.

We demand and work for change. With the African organization FIDA, weaving in legal and medical personnel and community members, we’ve helped people protect themselves from crime, fraud, and abuse by investing in:

• Paralegal training of legal and medical personnel (more than 1,000 trained so far in 50 rural communities)
• Processes that allow people to immediately access counseling, medical and legal intervention, and report all crimes to the legal authorities
• Practices that allow the expedition of the collection of proper medical evidence, reporting, documentation, and legal prosecution according to Ugandan laws
• Personal training so people feel empowered, confident and secure in seeking legal help

It’s hard for us to imagine the legal and human atrocities that constitute daily reality in Africa. Yet they also represent an opportunity for widespread cultural change. Where rape is often not considered a crime or women are tossed out of their homes for not cooking well, we have to stop looking away. Where children are often viewed as property, or forced as young as 12 into prostitution—we have to act now.

The world won’t change and people won’t claim and exercise their rights if the legal system and widespread access to it doesn’t. Help us fuel this justice movement at Just Like My Child Foundation.

Here is a surprising answer to the question of what costs Africa $12 billion a year in economic loss. Malaria.  Every 45 seconds a child in Africa dies from malaria.

In the U.S. we might think that malaria is similar to many other diseases – it is preventable and treatable.  So why does it contribute to so many deaths and costs Africa billions of dollars?  Because Just Like My Child has been working in Uganda for four years now we are painfully and sometimes personally aware of the affects of malaria and we assume everyone knows what we know.

I was recently asked the question of why Africa has one of the highest rates of  malaria-related deaths.  Why there and not here?  What makes the U.S. and other nations less susceptible?  That is when I realized sometimes I take for granted the education I have received through my work in Uganda.  Those “simple” questions spurred the content for this blog post.

Malaria is typically found in warmer regions of the world such as tropical countries with consistently higher temperatures.    Therefore many areas in sub-Saharan Africa are ideal climates for malaria-carrying mosquitos.  So you might think that tropical parts of the U.S. would have the same problems.  The fact is that states like Florida did suffer from high rates of malaria. However, the U.S. Government made a concerted effort to eliminate malaria through spraying of DDT in the 1950s. Environmentalists argued against DDT, but no one can argue against saving the lives of millions of children. Many experts would agree that malaria could be drastically reduced in sub-Saharan Africa through focused political will and financial commitment on the part of indigenous and international governments.  Visit http://www.3billionandcounting.com/ for a controversial yet thought-provoking discussion on this topic.

Another reason why Africa suffers more than most areas from malaria is a result of its vicious cycle of poverty.  If you start with an impoverished developing country and add a deadly disease that is easily transmittable from insect to human with medical aid miles away, you are destined to see a struggle not likely found in other countries.

Malaria is a drain on the already impoverished communities of Africa.  The more often a family suffers from malaria the more a parent has to choose taking care of the child over working.  The less money they make, the fewer the opportunity to get access to preventive medicine and education in very rural areas.

The largest population of children in Uganda and many adults cannot wait for new treatments to be distributed.  In many cases, the drugs will not find their way to the most rural areas without additional resources for doing so.

At Just Like My Child we are constantly improving the means and methods for reaching the children most susceptible to severe malaria illness and death.  Our reach is expanding and through improved education about prevention and distribution for protective nets we are making progress.

These proven protective nets are an inexpensive way to protect a child, improve a family and provide opportunities for a community.  A $100 donation will help 30 individuals to a change the course of a cycle of poverty to one of self-reliance.

Please donate today at:  https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=26195&Itemid=108

What would you do if you were told you were sitting on billions of gallons of oil? You might feel as though you had won the lottery – excited and nervous as you planned your new life of wealth. Now consider that after finding out you struck oil, the government told you the oil harvesting deals had to go through them. They would make profits off your oil and invest the money on your behalf and in your best interest … AND you would not see the terms of the contracts. So much for transparent business dealings.

That’s pretty much what’s happening in Uganda. The country is sitting on a lot of newly-discovered oil, yet it’s unclear how its long-suffering people will benefit from this discovery of resources. Uganda could become an important player in oil exportation and recipient of an enormous amount of foreign funds. However the country is also known for not being effective or efficient in its fight against corruption. One investigative reporter is looking to make a change to this pattern, legally.

Angelo Izama is “suing to force the government to make its production sharing agreements with oil companies public.” Izama explains, “Every Ugandan knows that public money is stolen. The government of the day is like Dracula in charge of the blood bank, it is not exactly rocket science that oil money, just like donor money or tax payers money can be stolen.”

The government contends that based on issues that have previously arisen with Nigerian oil agreements President Yoweri Museveni will not let Uganda suffer the same fate. He has “insisted on a refinery in Uganda to help this landlocked country become energy independent.”

Uganda may not see any of the desperately-needed changes in their infrastructure as a result of this new revenue stream for years to come. The vast majority of its population lives on less than $2 per day. Every day is a dire emergency for so many families. Yet, commercial production of the oil is expected to take place in the last quarter of 2011 with no estimation of when profits will be released, reported and used for the betterment of the communities.

While all of this gets sorted out, rural communities of Uganda need help now. They need medical supplies, education and micro-enterprising opportunities to fight their way out of poverty and become self-reliant. You can help by supporting the efforts of Just Like My Child Foundation – your money goes directly to the medical patients, families and agricultural programs. https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=26195&Itemid=108

Quotes excerpted from CNN article, “Will Ugandan’s benefit from country’s new oil find?”

Our four scholarship girls are ALIVE and excelling

Nick Kristof is an op-ed writer for the New York Times. I have this silent romance with him he’ll never know about. He is a relentless crusader for getting the word out about every nook and cranny of the planet where the poorest of the poor suffer while so many of us try to pretend it’s not happening.

He’s got a job I envy. He gets to travel to meet all of the people I dream about reaching through Just Like My Child. He sits with them in their disheveled, smoke-filled kitchens, and checks in on the progress of their children. (I know you do a lot more than that, Nick, but you get the idea).

He gets his readers to see that indeed, all children are “Just Like My Child”.

This week, he wrote an article that makes me want to send him big Valentines. I suggest you check it out Op-Ed Columnist: Changing Lives, Mitt by Mitt.

Here’s an excerpt that embodies what we’ve learned at JLMC through some pretty hard knocks over the last three years (hope you don’t mind, Nick, and if you choose to sue me, remember, I will still love you):

“Many people doubt the effectiveness of foreign aid, and a new best-selling book called “Dead Aid” by an African finance expert, Dambisa Moyo, even argues that government-to-government assistance is often harmful to recipient countries. It’s true that aid of all kinds is harder to get right than people usually assume, but the kind that has the best record is grass-roots investment — with strong local buy-in — in health, education, agriculture and microfinance. I’ve repeatedly seen these kinds of programs transform families and communities, from Africa to Afghanistan.”

I’ve watched this so many times in Uganda. While Big Government is planning, stealing, or redirecting, small investments in local communities reap huge rewards and transforms lives more sustainably.

Big shout out to Nick Kristof, my hero.

Vivian Glyck, Founder, Executive Director

www.JustLikeMyChild.org