You are young, have a family with small children and have contracted HIV.  You cannot work because of the illness or find employment because of the stigma associated with HIV so you are unable to provide for your family. You live in a rural community in on one of the poorest continents. But now, you’ve been given a second chance because you are receiving treatment for AIDS, and you’re feeling stronger, more capable – ready to go back to work. Because of the impact of the illness, your life is in shambles. You have to start all over again. What do you do?  What are your days like?  Do you have a compelling future?

For thousands of families in Uganda this is their life.  This is not a hypothetical situation.  So how do they begin to make a successful transformation?  The answer: With their own businesses.

The solution is not a matter of funds it is a matter of self-reliance.  Imagine being given the tools to create, manage and profit from your own business when there are no other opportunities available.  Now what are your days like?  Do you have a compelling future?

Just Like My Child Foundation is making microenterprise a reality for many families in Uganda through Project GRACE. Microenterprise has emerged as one of the most powerful ways to empower those living in poverty. Just Like My Child worked together with the people in the communities they serve and asked the question: “what do you need to empower yourself, to take the next step in life?” The answer was Project GRACE: Guiding Resources and Creating Empowerment in the most needy communities

Project GRACE provides a small loan (poultry or livestock) together with intensive training to healthy, self-motivated individuals with HIV to create a self-sustaining business that will support their families and send their children to school. They learn how to raise and shelter the animals while budgeting and setting prices for their goods at market.  They are taught how to use their garden and livestock together in sustainable and environmentally healthy ways. The gardens help feed the animals, and the animals provide natural fertilizer for the garden.

Each of the participants help to expand the program in their communities by donating two of their own animal’s offspring back to Bishop Asili’s Hospital in rural Uganda so that another family can become self-reliant.  It is a cycle of transformation rather than a cycle of poverty.

Project GRACE participants support each other and work together to succeed.  They are role models for other members in their community. They encourage others to be tested for HIV at Bishop Asili, raising awareness and hope for others to overcome the virus. By working together, they move closer to eradicating a stigma widely held in Uganda towards individuals with HIV/AIDS.

$300 provides an entire family of 6 with a complete sustainable business. Invest TODAY in Just Like My Child and help us empower communities to achieve self-sustenance and break the cycle of poverty.

To learn more about Project GRACE, watch the inspiring video at the top of this post.

Warning: This video may be disturbing, but it’s worth watching to discover the reality that so many girls live with every day.

Just Like My Child Foundation has partnered with an amazing Ugandan woman named Nyiraguhabwa Monica, who is an expert in equipping young girls with life skills and counseling that will empower them for the rest of their lives.

We had an awesome workshop over the weekend with Monica at Namumira Primary School, which is the community where Just Like My Child Foundation is currently building a much needed classroom block, teachers housing and pit latrines.

Girls empowerment activities are absolutely necessary deep in the village where these girls are often placed in devastating situations and don’t otherwise have any counseling or support. The girls of Namumira ranging in ages 10 to 15 were incredibly engaged and open with Monica! You could see that they clearly looked to her as a guide and a role model. A few major issues came out in this particular training that Monica was able to address. Many of the girls come from a trading center near the school where truck drivers and construction workers are staying while the road is being repaired.

This factor in connection with the fact that there are several discos in the trading center where these men are drinking alcohol, raping and in one case killing a young girl has created a terrible set of circumstances. We learned through the workshop that most of the girls are already really effective decision makers and have managed so far not to be exploited or become victims of peer pressure.

Monica encouraged them to stay on that path and gave them strategies for avoiding risky situations and identifying people who wish to take advantage of them. She equipped them with skills that would allow them to display their confidence and demand respect in order to keep themselves safe.

This group was also struggling with menstruation, which prompted Monica to facilitate a comprehensive session on puberty and menstruation. Private counseling sessions are also given by Monica at the end of the sessions to ensure the girls have an opportunity to express any serious issues that they might be embarrassed to bring up in a group setting. Just Like My Child Foundation in partnership with Nyiraguhabwa Monica will be facilitating twelve similar workshops throughout the year in communities where vulnerable girls will become empowered for life!

15 year old Kiberu William, who is a top performing scholarship recipient of Just Like My Child Foundation was just given his first opportunity to travel outside of his home country of Uganda. William traveled through Kenya recently with several of his classmates and observed many interesting comparisons and contrasts to Uganda.

He was given the opportunity to meet and learn about the Masai people of Kenya and even got to see them perform their traditional dancing. The trip included a safari where William was able to see the wild animals of Africa in their natural habitat for the first time ever. He was beaming as he told us about how he saw a cheetah amongst other interesting wild life. He visited museums, swam in the hotel pool and got a tour of the airport; all experiences that are all too uncommon for the youth in Africa.

The highlight of the trip for William was experiencing the hustle and bustle of Nairobi for the first time. He described some of the vast differences he observed between Kampala and the capital city of Kenya such as the level of cleanliness and security. He expressed his desire to continue traveling the world and seeing other countries in East Africa with his very own eyes. William’s mother Nankinga Grace has expressed how extremely grateful she is for the opportunity to broaden his horizons.

Just Like My Child Foundation is so proud of William’s dedication to studying hard and utilizing his opportunities to the fullest. He truly is an absolute joy to be around and a definite super star!

A full School Management Committee has been recently elected to aid the head mistress in both policy implementation and planning as the school continues to grow. Budgeting, planning and projecting are the most common themes in the teams analysis process for the development of the school. Serious recruitment initiatives and intensive interviews have been done as part of the process for hiring competent and qualified teachers to join The Children’s Academy for the Collective Heart teaching team.

The Children's Academy for the Collective Heart

Some members of the School Management and Project Support Committees are shown here working on school development planning.

Akware Judith, the Headmistress of The Children's Academy of the Collective Heart is hard at work in her office

The Children’s Academy for the Collective Heart has constructed a temporary kitchen and hired a cook to prepare the students daily lunches. They have also taken the initiative to start a poultry project, plant fruit trees and begin growing a garden that they will utilize as both an agricultural educational tool as well as a supplemental source of food for the students.

This temporary kitchen was constructed by the school until a more permanent one can be built

Katikamu has started a school garden that will be used as an educational tool as well a source of food for school lunches

As for the students!! All of the things that we take for granted in the western world such as clean classrooms with seats for every child, balanced school lunches, learning materials and books, a station to wash hands and a playground to enjoy at recess are things that the students at Collective Heart are experiencing for the first time ever from their learning environment. The students are literally beaming with joy from all of the benefits they are gaining by studying and growing at a school that has their very best interest at heart.

First Graders and Kindergarteners combined

Look at those happy first graders!!

The children of Collective Heart are shown playing at recess with playground equipment provided by Just Like My Child Foundation and Collective Heart. A school playground is rare in Uganda! Not only has it provided joy to the children who study from the school, but has also served as an enrollment recruitment tool to children and families in the surrounding area that are not yet attending the academy

The values that The Children's Academy for the Collective Heart are dedicated to embracing and implementing include the necessity of friendship, generosity, responsibility and sharing! Ah!! Just look how cute they are!

The Children’s Academy for the Collective Heart has already shown so many incredible successes! They are living proof  of how far motivation, committment and global love can make such a huge impact on the whole wide world.

Rev. Dekontee Panton, miracle worker to reform lives of many ex-child soldiers

Just met the most amazing man on the my journey from Liberia to Uganda. He got off the plane in Accra, Ghana.

He has coordinated the resettlement of hundreds of child soldiers in the Liberian civil war and shepherded them through the refugee camps.

This guy was the brightest white light I’ve met this whole trip. He’s got one boy whom he adopted at 15 who is now 21. He says he’s so bright and ambitious and he’s desperate to send him to U of Ghana for accounting. Total cost: 1K per year!!!!

Gonna help him figure out how to get it done. Feel free to contact him directly at Dekontee Panton dekopanton@yahoo.com.

I went to Kikoiiro to meet up with the guardians of the Just Like My Child scholarship recipients. I hitched a ride with Mary Goss, who was also going to Kikoiiro to meet with the community on several projects she has helped to fund. They gave us an amazing welcome complete with dancing and singing. I counseled Namata Josephine’s grandmother, Nalubombwe Josephine’s mother and Nankubuge Veronica’s mother on several issues. Chatte, who is a Kikoiiro community leader translated the information for me.

(Left to Right: Chatte, Tessa Davis, Namata Josephine, Nalubombwe Josephine, Nalubombwe’s mother, Namagembe Topista)

We discussed the importance of ensuring that the children’s time is divided in a balanced way. They should spend some of their time helping around the house because culturally that is expected of them, but they work very hard at school and so therefore need some time to relax and play. All of the children brought home a holiday packet with exercises from each subject that they are expected to complete by the time the holiday is over. Their teachers advised that they do one to two pages per day, but no more in order to avoid them getting burned out over holiday.

(Left to Right: Nalubombwe’s mother, Namagembe Topista, Nalubombwe Josephine, Tessa Davis)

We spoke about the necessity of the parents supporting and praising their children’s hard work. I encouraged them to come to the school on visiting days to see their children and provide encouragement. We talked about how the girls have been given a unique chance and that the opportunity of quality education must be valued in order for the children to be successful. I reminded them that these children are the future of Uganda and that someday they would be caring for their guardians. All three of the guardians commented that they would love to come and see the girls at school, but they can’t afford the transport costs from Kikoiiro to Kampala and besides they are not informed when the children have visiting days. I assured them that I would call Chatte, who is a leader in the Kikoiiro community when a visiting day is approaching and that if they could somehow manage to reach Bishop Asili they could travel with me the rest of the way to Kampala.

(Left to Right: Namata’s grandmother, Namubiru Veronica, Namata Josephine, Tessa Davis)

We then conversed about the importance of the children staying safe. We discussed the many risky situations within the environment of Kikoiiro that the girls should avoid in order to ensure that the opportunity they have been given is not spoiled. The main activities in Kikoiiro are fishing, brewing alcohol, drinking alcohol and having sex. A young girl is extremely vulnerable because rape and defilement (molestation) is a common practice in Kikoiiro. We concluded that the girls should not move around the village alone under any circumstances. If it’s necessary for them to move about they should be accompanied by an adult or with a group of safety friends.

(Left to Right: Veronica’s mother, Nalubega Ceciliya, Nankubuge Veronica, Tessa Davis)

Lastly we talked about the issue of the differing worlds of Kampala and Kikoiiro. We discussed how it might be a struggle for the children to maneuver between two drastically different environments. I asked them to close their eyes and put themselves in the children’s shoes and to try to imagine how they might feel if they were asked to divide their time between two very different places. This exercise was a bit challenging because many of the people in Kikoiiro have never traveled to the capital city, so it’s difficult for them to even imagine what kind of an experience these children are having. We also talked about the fact that they are going months without seeing their children and how it’s likely that when the children return for holidays they might be different from the last time they were home. We talked about how at school the children learn to be empowered and confident, which is something that is a foreign concept especially among women in the village setting and could be easily misconstrued as disobedience. We discussed the importance of confidence being an encouraged behavior rather than discouraged.

All of the guardians were extremely receptive and absolutely flabbergasted that I came all the way to Kikoiiro to discuss these issues with them. They were even more shocked when they heard Luganda coming out of my mouth! I was also given the opportunity to speak with the community. It was really Mary Goss’s day with them, but they wanted to hear from me. Many of them wanted to learn more about how they could get their child sponsored through the foundation. I explained that for now the program is being piloted with the five scholarship recipients, but that in time it may be possible to add more children to the program. I encouraged them to send their children to school in the mean time and to help their children to stay safe, so that if the opportunity presents itself they are ahead of the game.

(Left to Right: Kikoiiro Child, Tessa Davis, Chatte, Kikoiiro mother interested in scholarship program)

http://www.justlikemychild.com/

]]> http://justlikemychild.com/blog/human-rights/childrens-rights/empowering-our-scholarship-children-through-parental-counseling/feed/ 0