Just Like My Child » Microenterprise Programs

Superstar Project GRACE Participant!

Vivian Glyck — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:34:40 +0000

Anatolia is a 56 year-old HIV positive widow and was in precarious condition, suffering from HIV and struggling every day to feed her family of eight. Through treatment, counseling and therapy from Bishop Asili Hospital, she has learned how to live a positive and healthy lifestyle despite being infected by the virus. She has always found raising animals very therapeutic because she feels as though they have fed and kept her well all her life. Last year she received a loan of two pigs through Just Like My Child Foundation’s Project GRACE. Now she has a piggery, breeds the animals and is about to start selling her first pigs. These are huge results!

When we first met Anatolia she said that all she wanted was the freedom to live out the rest of her days in peace, raise her children and her animals in order to secure a bright future for her whole family. She has done just that and now will have enough money to pay for her children’s education. Like so many mothers, Anatolia wants the best for her children and for them to want for nothing. Anatolia is taking action to break the cycle of poverty and showing her children (and grandchildren) what empowerment looks and feels like.

In my previous blog, Project GRACE: Micro-enterprising to Achieve Self Reliance in Uganda, I shared a video and details about how our program is providing families like Anatolia’s with the tools to create, manage and profit from their own business. For thousands of these families the physical effects of HIV/AIDS and/or the stigma associated with it prevents the adults from being able to support their families.

Through Just Like My Child Foundation’s work with Bishop Asili Hospital, mothers and fathers are provided with the necessary treatment, and Project GRACE empowers them to become self-reliant: through micro-enterprise. Through a loan of poultry of livestock along with training, these impoverished families can create a self-sustaining business that gives them hope and pride.

Project GRACE is giving HIV families a second chance and a step up not a hand out. It brings me great joy to share Anatolia’s heartwarming success story that your funds to Project GRACE have made possible.

Thank you to those of you who continue to support our efforts with your donations.

$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.

Project GRACE, Lifting HIV Positive Families Out of Poverty through Micro-finance

Tessa Davis — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:30:56 +0000

Bishop Asili Hospital is finding that a growing number of their HIV positive clientele are quite healthy and have a second chance at life as a result of getting the best possible treatment available as well as having the opportunity to check their CD4 count when necessary. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of stigma in Uganda towards HIV positive people, which has left nearly all of the patients jobless and with no means by which to support themselves or their families. Together with Just Like My Child Foundation, Bishop Asili Hospital has launched Project GRACE (Guiding Resources and Creating Empowerment), a microfinance program designed to lift healthy HIV/AIDS clientele out of poverty through self motivated and sustainable income generation activities involving pigs and poultry.

The pilot of this program includes ten households, all headed by HIV/AIDS patients of Bishop Asili Hospital from two small villages in the surrounding area. These families were chosen based upon a developed criteria, counseling sessions and home visits that ensure they are in desperate need, are extremely dedicated to the success of the project and have a family support system to take on the bulk of the project should the patient fall sick.

Nayiga Sarah, Project GRACE participant is shown in the back row left with her elderly grandfather & the many children she supports

Twenty seven year old, Nayiga Sarah is an AIDS patient at Bishop Asili Hospital. She is currently on Anti-Retral Viral treatment and has real hope for the future of her family. She is currently attempting to support seven people, which includes her elderly grand-father, her own three children and three children of other relatives that are living in her humble home. Sarah did not have the opportunity to get an education beyond seventh grade and through her struggles she has learned the importance of sending her children to school. With the help of Just Like My Child Foundations Project GRACE support, Sarah will start a poultry project that will lift her out of her desperate situation and enable her to pay for her children to go to school as well as feed her family. It is Sarah’s wish to grow and expand her poultry project and use the eggs from her hens along with the garden she has already started to provide herself and the many children of her household with nutritious meals.

Tezigatwa Amina, Project GRACE participant shown left with her children and elderly mother

Twenty three year old, Tezigatwa Amina is an HIV positive patient at Bishop Asili Hospital. She is currently taking the treatment Septrin and although she lost her husband to AIDS she remains hopeful and looks forward to a bright future. Amina only has a fifth grade education, yet she is extremely active and ambitious in her pursuit of happiness for herself and her large family. She is currently attempting to support her elderly mother, her own four young children and her sister’s son. Just Like My Child Foundations Project GRACE support will allow Amina the opportunity to start a poultry project, which she plans to utilize in feeding her family and expanding her farm to include both coffee and bananas. Amina is an entrepreneur at heart and has a desire to become part of a village banking or savings program with the profits from her project. She has chosen to act as an empowered role model of success for her young children and the community living around her, regardless of the virus that plagues her.

Project GRACE participants are recieving intensive agricultural training to ensure the success of their projects

Intensive training has been provided for the program participants on topics such as rearing pigs, rearing chickens, building shelters for their animls, proper feed and immunizations, opening a savings account, budgeting finances, living in a healthy and positive way as well as planning for the future. Each group of Project GRACE Participants will support one another and work towards success together in their villages. They will act as a role model for all of the members of their community with the goal of encouraging others to come to the clinic to be tested for HIV as well as eradicating the stigma associated with the virus. Participants of the project will be required to gather materials and help build the shelter required for their animals as well as bring something tangible back to Bishop Asili (e.g. one female pig & one male pig) so that other identified, healthy HIV positive patients will later benefit and to ensure sustainability of the overall program.

Nayiga Sarah and her family have already begun gathering materials for their poultry shelter

Tezigatwa Amina and her family have gathered strong materials that will be used for the walls and roofing of their poultry shelter

Participants of Project GRACE will give the Bishop Asili counselor weekly updates on the progress of their projects during their regularly scheduled counseling visits. Bishop Asili staff will also make regular visits to the home of the participants to observe the successes and outcomes of their income generating activities.

Trainer James from NAADS visits Nayiga Sarahs home and gives her training and advice on how to use her own home as a model for her poultry shelter

James, trainer from NAADS gives Tezigatwa Amina advice on where to place her poultry shelter and draws a diagram to help explain the building process to her

The Project GRACE participants are well on their way to recieving the animals that will provide sustainable income to their families. Check back soon to see updates on Nayiga Sarah and Tezigatwa Amina as well as the other eight Project GRACE families that Just Like My Child Foundation is supporting through sustainable micro-enterprise activities.

SHANTI UGANDA’S Paper Bead Project

Dena Lewerke — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:33:41 +0000

January 22nd, 2009

SHANTI UGANDA is a Vancouver based organization dedicated to helping children, women and communities in Uganda find peace and health. It is their belief that in order to overcome trauma and conflict within a community, we must first allow individuals to heal and uplift their minds, bodies and spirits. Their programs provide the tools needed to find inner peace and well-being, foster conscious birth and manifest health, happiness and community. All Shanti Uganda projects combine healing, birth education and community development initiatives. Natalie Angell, founder of Shanti Uganda has been here at Bishop Asili for the last few days training a small group of HIV positive women on how to make paper bead necklaces. The women are to gather for five full days to learn the methods involved in cutting and measuring paper, rolling beads, varnishing beads, hanging them to dry and then finally making them into beautiful pieces of jewelry.

Natalie Angell and her counterpart Julius work together to train the women on the bead making process

Thirty women eagerly gather together in this round hut every day to learn and practice what they've been taught

The paper must first be measured and cut properly in order for it to be rolled into a perfect paper bead shape.

The paper is then rolled tightly around a needle. It takes a great deal of patients and practice in order to ensure that the outcome is a quality paper bead. The process is meticulous and challenging.

Natalie and Julius give the women constructive criticism for improved quality and praise to those beads that are well made.

The beads are placed on strings and covered with a clear varnish. Once they have dried they will be strung into lovely pieces of jewelry, which will be purchased from the women by Shanti Uganda

I stopped by the hut to greet the women and to see how things were coming along for Natalie and Julius. The women were all enthusiastically making beads and are all clearly enjoying their newly learned skill!! Each of them is walking a treacherous path in life that most of us cannot relate to. It’s such a joy to see a hint of hope in these women’ s eyes.

http://shantiuganda.blogspot.com

Bishop Asili Micro Finance Project

Dena Lewerke — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:00:00 +0000

November 14th, 2008
Bishop Asili Hospital has a population of 600 registered HIV/AIDS clientele. There are an estimated 3,500 patients that have yet to be registered as a result of limited staff and lack of resources. These 600 patients come to the clinic weekly for services such as CD4 count analysis, ARV treatment, Naverapin for HIV positive pregnant mothers, guidance and counseling as well as care for other opportunistic infections that they are suffering from. This HIV positive community has formed a post test club that provides a forum for testimonial therapy as well as entertainment as a means by which to educate the surrounding area about how HIV/AIDS is contracted. Bishop Asili is finding that a growing number of their HIV positive clientele are quite healthy and have a second chance at life as a result of getting the best possible treatment available as well as the opportunity to check their CD4 count when necessary. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of stigma in Uganda towards HIV positive people, which has left nearly all of the patients jobless and with no means by which to support themselves or their families.
Tessa meeting with the HIV positive clientele at Bishop Asili to discuss micro finance
Just Like My Child Foundation will partner with Bishop Asili to pilot a micro finance Program to aid their healthy HIV positive clientele with income generation. The HIV/AIDS counselor, who knows the medical history and personal background of all 600 registered patients, has identified five people from six separate villages to take part in the micro finance program. Those clients that have been chosen to participate are registered patients of Bishop Asili’s HIV program and on some form of treatment.
These patients have come together with Bishop Asili staff to discuss what kinds of income generation projects they are interested in being involved in based upon their skill sets and capabilities. Some suggested projects include: piggery, poultry, gardening, tailoring, craft design, street vendor and a catering service. Bishop Asili will purchase the items and materials needed for these projects rather than providing the seed money to start them. Training will be provided for the program participants on topics such as opening a savings account, budgeting finances, living in a healthy and positive way as well as planning for the future. Each group of patients will support one another and work towards success together in their villages. They will act as a role model for all of the members of their community with the goal of encouraging others to come to the clinic to be tested for HIV as well as eradicating the stigma associated with the virus. Participants of the project will be required to bring something tangible back to Bishop Asili (e.g. one female pig) so that other identified, healthy patients will benefit and to ensure sustainability of the over all program. Participants of the micro finance program will give the Bishop Asili Counselor weekly updates on the progress of their projects during their regularly scheduled counseling visits. Bishop Asili staff will make a visit to the home of the patient to observe the successes and outcomes of the income generating activity.