This was the catchy message given to 31 girls living in the town of Katikamu this past Saturday as part of the Just Like My Child Foundation’s Girl Power Project.

Girl power helps build self-confidence in girls and teaches them about sex education and life skills like personal empowerment, communication, social survival skills and how to avoid peer pressure.

I think the 7B’s is a funny sounding message, but an important one, since girls are not always encouraged to focus on education, but on preparing for marriage and having children.

One cultural practice young girls are pressured to do is labia pulling, what Ugandans call “pulling,” so named because girls pull the labia minora regularly to lengthen the labia. There are strongly believed myths that a woman will not be able to find a husband or get pregnant without long labia. Long labia are also believed to give the man and woman more pleasure during sex. Who knows, maybe it’s true?

Girls as young as 12 are pressured at home and during school breaks to go off into the bushes and pull on their labia. One concern about pulling is that it increases the girls’ interest in sex at a very young age, possibly increasing their risk of contracting HIV/AIDs, because they may not have received sex and reproductive health education to protect themselves. JLMC’s Girl Power Project facilitator, Monica, teaches the girls that it is important to focus on education first and remember the 7 B’s. She doesn’t say pulling is good or bad, just that a girl should wait to make that decision when she is much older.

Every culture has their beliefs that put pressure on girls to want to modify their appearances to reach the dominant culture’s ideal beauty, like breast implants, Botox, laser hair removal, hair dye, anti-wrinkle cream, diets to reach a certain weight, etc. So, this is not an issue uniquely Ugandan. If girls are educated, they can make informed decisions for themselves like whether or not they want to engage in certain cultural practices.

Be a part of empowering girls in Uganda to make informed decisions about their bodies by supporting the Just Like My Child’s Girl Power Project.

Written by Sara Todd, JLMC Country Director

Gyriadda Girls Participate in a Girls Empowerment Workshop 2/12

One of those communities, St. Kizito, Gyriadda faced several struggles over the past two years, which initially had delayed the building of their school. A major challenge was the discovery of a defilement case right before their project was to begin. JLMC found out through its Girl Power Program that the nursery school teacher was sexually abusing his girl students, and had been for several years. When the community members learned of the abuse, they felt they had no recourse since corruption is so rampant within the local justice system and the teacher was so well known within the community.

Another struggle facing the community has been impoverishment. Because of the high poverty in the area, the community members struggled to gather local resources: sand, stones, and clay bricks required as a co-investment by JLMC to construct the school building. In cases like Gyriadda, JLMC must exercise patience and provide encouragement as communities together find solutions to issues that delay their progress. Community contributions are critical to deep development; it builds community ownership over a project, ensuring the community will maintain the project well into the future.

With the help of JLMC, the Gyriadda community has overcome many of their struggles one by one and has made great progress in 2011. Through JLMC’s Project Justice, a human rights workshop was held for community members to promote the rights of women and children and to prevent more cases of sexual abuse. As a result of the workshop, the community was successful in chasing the teacher involved in the defilement out of town with the help of local police.

As of November 2011, the construction of the school is back on track. The roof has just been added to the building, which will have three classrooms and an office for the principal. JLMC also contributed to the construction of a latrine for teachers and students.

Skilled Labourers Work to Add Roofing to St. Kizito, Gyriadda’s School Building 2/12

Teachers, school board members and PTA members received two professional development workshops to improve the learning environment of the school and to help increase student performance.

63 girls participated in three Girl Power workshops to increase their capacities for self-empowerment, leadership potential and social survival skills. When asked during the first Girl Power workshop of 2012, girls reported no cases of defilement since the sensitization campaign. A major success!

Yet, despite these magnificent accomplishments, the Gyriadda community, as well as the four other school communities sponsored by JLMC, still have many challenges to overcome. Many of the schools lack chairs and desks, critical for a conducive learning environment. Instructional materials are also limited in many of the schools.

Access to health care and health education is limited, and income generation activities in the schools to support extracurricular activities like drama and sports is nonexistent.

In 2012, JLMC has exciting plans for its Universal Education Program, which hopes to address the aforementioned challenges.

JLMC will

• Provide furniture and instructional resources to improve learning environments
• Provide the opportunity for schools to generate income  to give students lunch and opportunities for extracurricular activities
• Increase student and teacher’s ability to deal with relevant health issues in their communities
• Increase the capacity of school management committees to manage operations, solve community problems and supervise education through capacity building workshops.
• Increase the capacity of teachers to deliver well planned lessons
• Ensure that schools meet national standards as laid out by Department of Education

However, JLMC cannot reach its goals without your support. Here are ways you can help:

For only $1,000 you can  furnish an entire classroom, so that children are not seated on the floor during lessons.

For only $100 you can help fund a much needed professional development workshop for teachers and school boards.

For only $200 you can help fund dental hygiene outreach.

Donate today to further improve the lives of the thousands of children that JLMC serves through its Project Universal Education.

And a 2010 Amnesty International report shows, between January and June 2009, there was only a 1.83 per cent conviction rate for rape and a 5.89 per cent conviction rate for defilement cases. Defilement is the all-too-tidy euphemism used in Uganda for sexual molestation.

How do you even begin to inject hope and change into a society with those kind of horrific human rights odds? Among many other strategies, we empower the women and unleash the full legal power of attorneys like Ugandan’s Rose Nsenge, a strong ally in our Project Justice program.

For eight years, Rose has proven that “I’ll do anything to help anybody as long as it’s within my power! When I feel justice has to be done, I’m not going to eat. I’m not going to sleep.  I will make sure I follow each task until the very last conclusion.  I don’t mind having sleepless nights if, in the end, I get justice.”

Working closely with legal authorities, Rose helped mobilize our St. Kizito community, identified the headmaster who’d assaulted the girls, and got him arrested. After serving some time, he was released for lack of evidence (all-too common in Uganda). But he was run out of the community – for good. As importantly, Rose sees people in the community rising up with their own sense of empowerment. “Now when we return to St. Kizito we ask, ‘Where are the children?’ And they are in school. And the majority of women? They are making decisions and holding positions in the community.  They are more vigilant about protecting the children.”

A 29-year-old mother of two, Rose grew up in the slums of Kampala. She became outraged when she saw how she and other children had no voices in her culture, even when they were abused or treated as property. Now, she’s an attorney making waves across Africa. Her husband, also an attorney, supports her professional leadership.

Under our Project Justice umbrella, Rose trains paralegals, police officers, social workers, medical personnel, and families in more than 50 communities in rural Uganda about their rights, the need for justice, and how to seek it. She’s made a name for herself throughout Uganda as a legal lightning rod. Rose was the first attorney on the scene when a horrific human rights abuse from Uganda rocked the globe. It’s beyond the pale, but in 2009 it was discovered that a rural Ugandan man had forced his wife to breastfeed puppies for years.

“My role was to initiate, mobilize, and call for action from fellow women activists to travel and visit the woman, who lived about 100 km away from Kampala. I led a team of about 14 women activists to seek justice for her.”

The man, who felt justified in abusing his wife in this manner because he’d paid a “bride price” for her, was arrested, but not prosecuted.

“I have been following up on this case, trying to see to it that this poor woman gets justice.” Rose says. “Actionaid Uganda got the woman funding, and they managed to build for her a house, however, the man is still at large, and up to now, he has never been charged. The case is currently before The Uganda Human Rights Commission. I will work to see that this woman will get justice one day. I think I was the determination and courage to move this case. It might be a matter of time, days, months, but the woman will get justice one day.”

Disease won’t change, poverty won’t change, and illiteracy won’t change—until access to justice increases.

For centuries, Ugandan women and girls have been forced to meekly kneel before men. We are so proud of Nyiraguhabwa Monica, who is teaching our girls to stand proud and treat themselves with the greatest respect.

Monica is helping girls embrace life skills and empowered choices that will help them navigate the rest of their lives. Monica designs and leads our Girl Power workshops, which teach hundreds of young women that they have the right to live their lives without being harassed, exploited, or hurt. And that they can choose to attend school or work without persecution.

Monica’s work couldn’t be more urgent. Save the Children estimates that two children each hour are defiled in Uganda.

One of Just Like My Child’s students was raped and impregnated. The rapist’s family tried to “erase” the abuse by giving the child’s family a cow — and her family accepted it as the only kind of justice available to them.

Vivian Glyck knew in that moment that she had to launch a program that would strengthen, protect, and empower future girls, and convinced Monica to train hundreds of girls ages 9 to 13 via the Girl Power Project. Those girls now are becoming more confident and bold, knowing THEY may be Uganda’s next leaders.

We live for those days when the girls say things like, “I discovered ways of building my self esteem” or “I unlearned the mentality that men are stronger than women!”

Thank you Monica, for making the Girl Power Project a force with which to be reckoned! Monica will be joining us remotely from Uganda for our Hand Up, Never a Handout Celebration!

Join us October 13 for an unforgettable evening of hope, inspiration, education and FUN!!

We went to many of the holiest cities in the North, including Rishikesh made famous by The Beatles. They wrote many songs during the brief time they were there, including “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road,” – a paean to the many monkeys who do whatever they want “in the road.” We also traveled to Haridwar, and to the ultimate in overwhelming Indian chaos: Varanasi.

Varanasi is famous for its “burning ghats” – funeral pyres along the banks of the River Ganges where holy pilgrims come to die so they can have their ashes released in the Holy (and dirty) Ganges.

It is fantastically surreal and challenges everything we think we know about death, spirit, and the importance of a sanitary environment.

Throughout India, men who have taken a vow of poverty to pursue spiritual transcendence are revered as a national treasure – the soul of India’s collective body.

But my most spiritual moment did not come in the presence of a Holy Sadhu, but rather through the radiance of a simple woman who had likely spent her entire life’s savings to travel to Varanasi. On this day, she joined tens of thousands of women on the banks of the Ganges for “Women’s Day” – a holy day to celebrate motherhood and the power of the feminine.

When I met her, she was freshly bathed in the Ganges, her head just shaved as she offered the only thing of value she owned to the river of life – her beautiful hair.  In her eyes, I saw deep serenity; radiance and oneness that resulted from her pilgrimage and sacrifice.

The buoyancy of her spirit was so large and happy that I imagined she was taller than me as I posed by her to take a photo. I was stunned when I looked at my photos later that night and realized that I dwarfed her by nearly a foot!

She is the spirit that I conjure up each day when I bring attention to my own spiritual core. I won’t leave my yoga practice until I bow to the full radiance of her feminine power.

She is the spirit that I bring to our Project Justice work and our Girl Power Project: fully maternal, fully fierce, fully loving, fully healing. This spirit can, will, and has healed the planet.

On Thursday, October 13, at our fifth annual gala, we will pay homage to this fierce and healing feminine essence as we honor three amazing women who sacrifice and love every day in order to bring joy and empowerment to others. Read below about one of our amazing honorees: Monica Nyiraguhabwa, leader of our Girl Power Project. She is power and grace in action!

Please join us for a Hand Up, Never a Hand Out.

Namaste!

Nearly 30% of her neighbors were infected with HIV, she was surrounded by dozens of orphans, and she was going to a school that had no books and barely a roof on the structure.

Recognizing her intelligence and drive, Just Like My Child Foundation, through the generous help of one donor, Jim K., began sponsoring Nalubombwe at one of the best elementary schools in Uganda.

Flash forward four years: Nalubombwe excelled so far in school and scored so well on her end of term exams that she was just accepted into THE best high school in all of Uganda.

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

It’s almost incomprehensible to the residents of her village, Kikoiiro that a girl born into such a dim reality could be walking into the brightest future possible.

Thank you Nalubombwe for all of your very hard work to make this happen!

And thank you, Jim, for believing that the fire of knowledge can change the world. To be like Jim click here.

Please start a dialogue with us by commenting on the stories. We want to know what you think and what’s important to you!

My husband, an entrepreneur, was so blown away by how we’re helping to create thousands of entrepreneurs on the other side of the world, that he created this video:

And he’s helped us to raise thousands of dollars to give people the hope, dignity, and freedom of economic independence. You can too by clicking here, just a little goes a long way in Uganda.

Here are a few comments made by the girls:

• I gained self Confidence
• I discovered ways of building my self esteem.
• I learnt how to make wise decisions.
• With disappointments you can still move on.
• I unlearned the mentality that men are stronger than women

Don’t get me wrong we still have so much work that needs to be done, but this a really wonderful first step.

Monica’s report states the following:

“The emphasis in the training is put on the social survival skills since the young women in Uganda are living in an environment that does not respect their rights and thus the girl child is very vulnerable. For example, 86.9 percent of rape victims in Uganda are between the ages of 9 and 17 and Uganda has the highest percentage of teenage pregnancy in sub Saharan Africa. Therefore the empowerment training is spot on as it aims to empower the young women to protect themselves in the different environment, which do not respect their rights.

“Namumira Primary Schools is one of the schools that has benefited from Just Like My Child who put up classroom structures to ensure that both girls and boys get access to education in a clean and safe learning environment. JLMC went further to introduce the girl power project where 40 girls benefited form the mentoring training in 2010.  The two-day training focused on social survival skills, the power of social intelligence, peer pressure, communication skills, puberty and the menstruation cycle.

“Therefore a year after the training, Just Like My Child returned to the school to conduct an evaluation. This exercise was meant to identify the emerging issues, check on the progress of the girls in their individual lives and how they have been able to use the knowledge that they acquired in the two-day training.

“… the young women from the follow-up empowerment workshops have gained self-confidence, learned to deal with troubling situations, built self esteem, learned to choose friends wisely, unlearned the mentality that men are stronger than women, how to make a wise decisions, and that their facial expressions communicate what they felt. Overall, the analysis of the entire process of the evaluation proved significant and the trainees had ‘acquired knowledge about the various issues facilitated to them and thus were able to add value to their own lives.’ “

Learn more about The Girl Power Project by clicking here. To make your contribution to empower girls and women in Uganda, donate here.

However awful the course of the virus can be on a person or family with few resources, small communities and rural villages in Uganda in association with the Asili Hospital and Just Like My Child have chosen life. They choose to work through the pain and create a safety net for their children and in most cases their children’s children. Project Grace is a microenterprise project at its best. By Guiding Resources And Creating Empowerment (GRACE) in the most needy communities, Project GRACE provides a small loan (poultry or livestock) together with intensive training to healthy, self-motivated individuals with AIDS to create a self-sustaining business that will support their families and send their children to school.

I ask, “What’s AIDS got to do with it?” because the chances of meeting a person with AIDS in Uganda is far greater than meeting someone here in the States. I also ask that because here in the U.S., those infected are not far from support groups, health care, or a free public education system, which their children can attend. In developing countries, such as Uganda, access to AIDS treatment is extremely limited, the stigma of the disease causes those affected to withdraw and sink further into poverty, and the financial fall out is devastating for a family.  Just Like My Child believes in giving a hand up, never a hand out by assisting with access to AIDS treatment, providing support through health care workers that visit patients at their homes, and proven results through microenterprise initiatives.

Project GRACE participants are responsible for gathering material and building shelter for their animals, which are raised for food, trade and sale. They learn how to use their garden and livestock in sustainable and environmentally healthy ways: Gardens help feed the animals and animals provide natural fertilizer for the garden. At the end of the program, participants repay their loan by bringing a pair of their animal’s offspring back to Asili Hopsital, enabling Project GRACE to continue a cycle of empowering future participants with tools to achieve self-sustenance. The project provides 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.

Lastly, did you know all this can happen with a mere $400 contribution? That $400 provides a family of six with a sustainable business… this truly is the gift that keeps on giving. For more information on Project Grace please click here or visit Just Like My Child.

But the most fun and fulfilling part of the trip was spending a lot of time with the six children we are sponsoring in boarding schools as part of our Mandela Project. Just three short years ago, these children were destined to live a voiceless, nameless existence in one of the poorest villages in the areas we serve — they, like so many others, were at risk of death through early pregnancy and marriage. Several of their parents were on the verge of death from AIDS. These six children have grown and have become such an inspiration to their villages and have made me so proud.

Today, our kids are BIG (they’ve grown so much).  They are speaking English, reading fluently and at the top of their classes. Their parents are on AIDS treatment and they are healthy with new income-generating businesses that are alleviating their heavy burden. The students are full of ideas and fun and have a bit of attitude like all good teenagers. Healthy teenagers!

Witnessing their growth and development is like a metaphor for all of our work in Uganda — slowly by slowly the seeds have been planted, the roots are strong, and the fruit of our work is ripening. The communities are thriving, the children are healthy, and the elders are growing stronger. With so much community in the air it makes one realize how small efforts make tremendous differences.

If you would like more information about Just Like My Child and it’s specialized programs, contact Vivian Glyck at info@justlikemychild.org.  To donate please click here