Eve Ensler of Vagina Monologues delivers women’s and girl’s empowerment talk at TED conference in India. She’s spent years in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in areas of the planet where girls are deemed and treated with no worth.

It’s explosive, riveting, mind bending. She is unleashed, and I definitely aspire to that!

Click on link below to watch.

Girl Power Can Save the World

Official Opening Day for Collective Heart Academy - The School Looks Beautiful!

The official opening day of the Children’s Academy for the Collective Heart was one of the best days I have spent in Uganda so far.  It was so uplifting to see how the community and school committee members came together to prepare a really wonderful event.  I enjoyed spending the day with this caring and committed group of people, and I had almost as much fun hanging decorations with everyone, as I did attending and being part of the ceremony.    Everyone really pulled together to make it a great day and it made me feel really proud and excited to be part of this initiative. We are especially thankful to the following organizations for their support in building this school as well as our second school project at St. Joseph Magogo: The Collective Heart, The Unstoppable Foundation, and The Mark Victor Hansen Foundation — without these generous and loving organizations, the dream of education would never come true for hundreds of children.

Current students, looking spectacular in their uniforms, prepare for the celebration

The official ribbon cutting takes places!

And a Mango Tree is planted to grow as the school grows

Students give amazing performances, here great Buganda dancing, thanks to the coaching of Head Mistress, Judith and Senior Teacher, Eve

The winner of the first performance does a happy dance with Eve, the Senior Teacher

The students show off all they have learned in school during this performance

A skit by local performers on the importance of sending kids to school

Distinguished guests included Local Government Chairman who provided support and encouraged parents to enroll children in school

Here with hard working and wonderful school committee members of Collective Heart for cutting of the cake

Students are so happy and excited for the gifts as a reward for each of their strengths as students

250 people attending the opening ceremony which consisted mostly of parents and children

Happy girls play on the new playground - children love this new addition to the school

After the ceremony, it's time for some serious dancing and fun, we all had a blast!

Last week made me really understand what it means to feel helpless and overwhelmed.  One of our scholarship students is dealing with the lasting trauma of rape, another has a family that is dying of HIV/AIDS.  The mother of another scholarship student, a leader and role model to other HIV/AIDS patients, is brutally attacked in her home and almost killed for no apparent reason.   The community’s response to these situations?  “What can we do?”  Who can blame them when so many people are burdened with these tragedies themselves.

We had earlier met with and invited FIDA Uganda, an organization of Ugandan women attorneys, to provide a workshop to in the village of Kikoiiro, where four of our sponsored children are from.  This fishing village is at one of many landing sites in the country, some of the most under served areas in Uganda.  This presentation from FIDA couldn’t have come at a better time for me and everyone else, including the mother of our scholarship student, Veronica, who sat in front and listened attentively.  It’s amazing what a simple workshop can do when it is provided to a community yearning for knowledge and given by presenters who are role models and change agents themselves.

Robinah Kyamhangire and Sarah Kasanda, the two FIDA attorneys who presented, stayed until all the questions were answered, all the topics covered, without a break, providing information to the community on basic rights and how to enforce them.   Lately it has become evident to me that without this knowledge other initiatives become almost meaningless.  Rights that community members want to enforce in this village are as basic as the right not to be attacked or violated, the right to own and keep property and a child’s right  to education.   The group was so engaged during the presentation that was made up of community members including men, women, youth, leaders and law enforcement.  There were some misconceptions regarding the law and the group was very happy to be given the knowledge and confidence to demand that their rights are protected in the future.

At the end of the presentation, Veronica’s mother stood up and gave me a big hug.  Later, Chati, the community leader called me to tell me how much the people loved the presentation, as a follow-up, each and every person that attended would like to create a legal Will.   I could hear in his voice how appreciative he was.   This presentation motivated, inspired, and gave hope to the the people of Kikoiiro and to me as well!  I am looking forward to our continued partnership and the linkage between FIDA Uganda and the communities we work with.

After the presentation, community members rush to get copies of handouts provided by FIDA on the laws and their rights

A tiny pupil at St. Joseph Magogo. A future leader of Uganda?

“How am I going to pay school fees this term?” If there is one question I hear over and over again it is this one.  Like everywhere, quality education is a priority, and here parents feel the urgency of ensuring it all the more, because if children miss out, they will be trapped in the same cycle of poverty and social problems that too many others face.  For the majority of people, especially in rural areas, who are struggling just to feed their families and extended family members, the right of a child to obtain a quality education can seem completely out of reach.  Under a new policy in Uganda, primary education is supposed to be free to all, an excellent objective, but the resources are missing to implement it and schools are hopelessly overcrowded.  Only 1 teacher is provided for every 60 students, regardless of the grade they are in, and teachers lack the support and resources they need to do their job well.   Many of these schools are even missing the school building itself.  With these obstacles to education, one-third are left illiterate.  Just Like My Child has started its newest school building project to address some of these issues.

Ben and Beatrice, our wonderful community partners from our first school building project in Katikamu, are also professors at the local teachers’ college and monitor government schools in the region.  Some of the neediest schools in the area were identified with their help.  One of those schools was St. Joseph in the remote village of Magogo.   Magogo is an example of a community that would not give up trying and hoping for a good school.   Even the road to this farming village is difficult to find, but is hard to imagine that there are many other communities with as much heart and motivation as this one.    When I visited the school in August to see how they felt about partnering with Just Like My Child, at least 100 parents, educators and community members packed into the classroom.  They showed me that they had collected bricks and made more than 25 trips to collect sand and stone–almost enough to complete the entire project– in just one month!  They told me, “we are ready to begin construction today!”  There are more than 300 children in grades 1 to 7 attending St. Joseph School, even though there are only 2 usable classrooms.   The rest of the students study outside under the mango trees, or in two other half built classrooms, that the community built by itself, but was unable to roof or finish.  If it rains the majority of students have to go home, making for an impossible situation in the rainy seasons which lasts several months.  The school was given only 3 teachers for the 7 classes, so parents work hard each term to raise the funds to pay an additional 3 teachers.

This community elder worked hard to collect materials to build and comes every single day to monitor the progress, he wants to know, "will this school be beautiful?" He is committed to having a suitable learning environment for the children of his community.

This is the classroom block started by the community, with the new office, a veranda is built on the front so that it will match up with the two new classrooms

Our community partner, Beatrice, visits the school often to provides the teachers with the support and guidance to ensure quality education

While construction is going on students are still having class, at the end of the day the Head Teacher has an assembly to ask them to help carry bricks for their new school before they go home

And they are happy to help

Current classes, studying outside

Building the staff house which is already up to the roofing level also! This day instead of having the regular parent teacher meetings the community helps with construction.

Children in one of the two existing classrooms clap and cheer, they are so excited for the addition to their school

We were happy to welcome our visitors last month who made an incredible contribution to the hospital and communities during their visit with Founder Vivian Glyck (L to R: Lidia Domagalska herbal supplement distribution; Dr. David Smotrich, gynecological/fertility specialist; Vivian Glyck, founder of JLMC; Dr. Puja Shah, dentist; Sister Ernestine Akulu, Bishop Asili Hospital Administrator;  Jenny Hamel, video journalist)

Dental Outreach

It’s hard to imagine growing up without ever receiving dental treatment — but this is so common in Uganda. Simple tooth decay can progress into life threatening disease when it goes untreated. Visiting dentist, Dr. Puja Shah and Dr. Jane, the new dentist at Bishop Asili, were able to spare countless children from pain and suffering, and they even saved a couple of lives in the process!

Dr. Jane is sure that having dental services available will empower the community to overcome these problems and this is why dental education and prevention from an early age is so important.  I witnessed many adults and children coming into the clinic in pain and leaving happy.  The children LOVED the training on how to brush and I really believe the attention they received will always remind them to take care of their teeth.

Professional Video Journalist

Herbal Supplements

“Women’s” Specialist

When Dr. David Smotrich of www.LaJollaIVF.com decided he wanted to come to Uganda to work with Just Like My Child, he didn’t imagine that women would want to consult with him on his specialty — fertility. Yet not being able to have a baby in Uganda is like not being able to have a baby anywhere else — it’s heart wrenching and wrought with sadness and despair. In addition, since childbirth is equated with wealth and success for the man, there’s a difficult social stigma that’s attached to infertility for a woman.

While patients sought Dr. Smotrich’s advice for many gynecological issues, many women struggling with infertility lined up when they heard that Dr. David Smotrich would be visiting.  One major cause of infertility is damage to fallopian tubes due to infection.  This problem can often be fixed by a simple surgery, but the proper diagnostic equipment must be available.  Dr. Smotrich provided the staff with many helpful tips while consulting with patients, as well as donating much needed surgical supplies.  Dr. Jude, Dr. Charles and Sister Ernestine were particularly impressed with his positive outlook and innovative suggestions on how to use existing hospital resources to increase revenue and the offer to assist with the first ever hospital restaurant for patients and staff, the Smotrich Family Kitchen!

The girls are very happy and doing extremely well with school and in their studies (L to R) Claire, Veronica, Vivian, Nyangoma, Monica, Nalubombwe, Namata, Dena

I have already been working and living here in Uganda for a month and we are moving forward with many exciting projects with our community partners including Bishop Asili Hospital, School Committees at the Children’s Academy for the Collective Heart at Katikamu and St. Joseph School in Magogo (the newest school building project), the staff and patients of Bishop Asili Hospital, our wonderful sponsored children and their parents, and our adult education partners.

One major highlight during Vivian’s recent visit was our conversations with our scholarship students and their parents. During training, I was introduced to Monica Nyiraguhabwa, a young woman that Vivian met at the International Colloquium on Women’s Empowerment, Leadership, Development, International Peace and Security in Liberia. Monica currently works for an organization that mentors and trains young women on life skills and empowerment and has agreed to help us create a mentorship and empowerment training program for our sponsored students. This training is so important, as our students come from extremely vulnerable circumstances and can benefit from life skills coaching on topics such as knowing their rights and responsibilities, social survival skills, safety and security, health and hygiene and becoming leaders and role models to others in their community. Monica, along with her colleague Claire Tusingwire, who lives in the Luwero region, will conduct a weekend training course for the sponsored students during their winter school break. Monica and Claire came with us to the school to meet the girls.

Jenny Hamel interviews the girls at school

Monica and Claire provided mini-training during the visit and did an excellent job of interacting with the girls, we could see that they really responded and related to Claire and Monica as empowered young Ugandan women and positive role models

We visited William before he left for school, here with his mother Nankinga Grace, in their home. Nankinga Grace is a role model for other women and a community volunteer at Bishop Asili. William will also attend the Life Skills and Empowerment training over his winter break.

We also visited the guardians of three of the sponsored girls in their village of Kikoirro. The parents are so grateful for this opportunity for their children and shared their thoughts and opinions with us on the future of their girls. We will conduct a workshop on creating wills/planning for the future and legal rights/empowerment with the parents this fall.

Village children and community leader, Chatti, pose in front of the home of one of our scholarship students, Veronica. The people of the village of Kikoirro are extremely poor and vulnerable, making the opportunity for our scholarship girls that much more valuable.

A special thank you to the sponsors of our scholarship children who have made all of this possible as well as to Dr. Puja Shah, Jenny Hamel, Dr. David Smotrich and Lidia Domagalska for the recent visit and all of the wonderful contributions they made to the people here, more to follow on this and other projects in blogs in the coming weeks.

The Children’s Academy For the Collective Heart is open for transformation! Our first school in rural Uganda, built in partnership with Debbie Ford’s foundation, The Collective Heart and with support from Cynthia Kersey’s Unstoppable Foundation and the Mark Victor Hansen Foundation, opened in May and the finishing touches are still continuing.

I just received this photo this morning and it made me cry! I have been to dozens of “well established” schools in Uganda. Not one of them had a “No Tolerance Policy on Caning.” “Caning” is just a nice word for beating children in the classroom.

While caning is “illegal” in Uganda, there is seldom punity for this action because it’s so ingrained in the culture. Many times parents, who have been caned themselves, request that their child be “disciplined” in school.

Our counterparts on the ground in Katikamu, where our first school has been completed are educators who believe passionately in the Rights of Children, and with this school, they have the liberty to stand up and declare their beliefs! Thank you so much Ben and Beatrice for working to affect social change at the grass roots. I can’t over-emphasize what a HUGE step this is for the children of Uganda!

Beau Bressler Changes the World One Child at a Time

When Beau Bressler donated all of his Bar Mitzvah money to help build the first Children’s Academy for the Collective Heart in rural Uganda, he changed the lives of thousands of children in the U.S. who learned from his selfless act, and the lives of hundreds of children who will now receive the benefit of a GREAT education. Bless you, Beau! You represent the Globally Conscious future we all need.

The full view of the first Children's Academy of the Global Heart, 3 classrooms plus Headmistress' office

Children learn with Eve, one of the most progressive teachers in Uganda

A visioning exercise conducted with the administration of the school provides a breakthrough mission and vision for a rural Ugandan school. The protocol for the visioning exercise was provided by Debbie Ford's foundation: The Collective Heart. It was warmly embraced by the teachers who want to create a breakthrough school in their country

Country Director, Tessa Davis and soon to be Country Director Dena Lewerke say goodbye's and get introduced to the parents and guardians of the Just Like My Child Foundation Scholarship Program

This is my first blog posting as the new Country Director for JLMC. My name is Dena Lewerke and I have most recently been working in Amman, Jordan as an adviser to a local non-profit business association, a 10 month assignment supported by the International Institute for Education and the United States Agency for International Development. For two years prior to that I assisted refugees, mostly from Eastern Africa, and the low income community in San Diego with micro-enterprise, employment and financial literacy training. At the same time I obtained my Master of Business Administration from San Diego State University. During the two years prior to that, I worked as a Business Education and Community Development volunteer in the Peace Corps and lived in southern Armenia. In each of my previous roles, I assisted with developing and implementing training and consulting programs to assist community members to develop and grow businesses, manage money and finances, and locate and acquire appropriate resources.

I had a busy but rewarding week during my training as the new Country Director for the Just Like My Child Foundation. I am honored to have been selected in this new role and to be able to work with these wonderful communities in Uganda for the next year. I felt very welcomed by our partners in the Luwero region, no doubt due to my introduction by current Country Director, Tessa Davis, who is so loved by everyone she has worked with. Some of the highlights of my visit and training in Luwero:

First, we visited Kikoiiro to meet with some of the scholarship parents and community leader, Chatti. Though the extreme poverty in this remote village is apparent, the appreciation that the families feel due to this unique opportunity for their children to obtain a good education was evident. I was really touched by their kindness and the very warm welcome we received while we were there.

Another exciting event during my training was going to visit St. Jude’s school and to be introduced to our four sponsored girls who are attending this school on JLMC scholarships. It was really special to meet them in person and it was encouraging to see how the girls are so happy and healthy at the school, especially true after seeing the situation in their home village, Kikoirro. We also were able to visit William’s school in Kampala where he is also doing well and is very happy. Later I was able to visit with William’s mother in Luwero who is a leader among the HIV positive women in the community and participating in the community bead making project. While Tessa and I were in Kampala we met with Monica at a women’s empowerment organization. She was very enthusiastic about working with us and we talked with her about partnering to show the “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” film in both Kampala and in the rural areas, as well as designing an empowerment curriculum for the HIV+ women and other women in the community outreach villages, and working with us to design a girl’s empowerment and mentoring guide for our scholarship students and to use in our community outreach programs at Bishop Asili.

I was lucky enough to get to see the final stages of construction for The Children’s Academy for the Collective Heart, our newest school being built in Katikamu. The evidence of how much the community wanted this school is in the love and care they have put into building it, placing careful consideration on each detail even down to what colors to use and where to place the borders. I think it must be the most beautiful school in all of Uganda! Tessa and I with other volunteers began hanging all the learning materials in the classrooms and the current students were even able to start using them while we were there. On Friday they asked if they could attend school again the next day, Saturday! I am so impressed by Eve, the teacher, and Judith, the head mistress, who are both exceptional and empowered women and leaders who really enjoy their jobs and are committed to providing a quality education to our students there. This is an important aspect of JLMC programs — to not just build a building but to ensure sustainable and quality education is ongoing in this community, something that requires outstanding teachers and leaders like Judith and Eve.

During my visit, I toured the facilities and staff of the Bishop Asili Hospital and got to know Sister Ernestine and Sister Angela who are both amazing women who I will work closely with as our partners. I am especially looking forward to working with Daisy and the rest of the community outreach team at the hospital. I was able to meet Dr. Jude who is just finishing his studies in Gulu and will soon be joining Dr. Charles as a second and much needed doctor on staff at the hospital.

Since my background is in micro and small business development and financial literacy I am eager to continue to build on the micro enterprise initiatives here. I was able to visit the sewing and jewelry making projects with the HIV positive women in Luwero and discussed their initial meeting with FINCA. Many of the women in Luwero who are already participating in income generating projects are ready to be mobilized into groups for micro-finance. Women in the remote villages will likely need start-up assistance through micro-enterprise kits prior to being ready for micro-finance. I look forward to discussing with the women further to see what type of assistance and training will be most useful.

There is much to be done to assist these communities in Uganda and I look forward to working with JLMC and our partners on the ground to accomplish great things together. And you can expect to read updates from me regularly on this blog as I keep you updated on our progress and share my experiences in Uganda.

The children of the 600,000-person Ugandan community we serve are ready and waiting for this huge investment in their brain, health, and physical development.

But there’s a catch: The least expensive way we can ship these vitamins to Uganda will cost $15,000. All of our other shipping estimates were for TWICE that amount of money, so we’re certain we’re getting a very fair rate.

It’s hard to overstate how desperately children in Uganda need additional nutrients. In a recent article in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof writes:

…malnutrition last year may have caused an additional 44 million children to suffer permanent physical or mental impairment.

Yet one of the great Western misconceptions is that severe malnutrition is simply about not getting enough to eat. Often it’s about not getting the right micronutrients — iron, zinc, vitamin A, iodine — and one of the most cost-effective ways outsiders can combat poverty is to fight this “hidden hunger.”

…malnutrition is implicated in one-third to one-half of all child deaths each year; the immediate cause may be diarrhea, but lurking behind it is a deficiency of zinc. view the full article here: http://tinyurl.com/oxv8gl

If you’re looking for a way to make a direct, tangible difference in the life of a child, you can do it right now, IMMEDIATELY. Just by opening your heart, you’ll change the destiny and direction of YOUR life.

If we all pull together, we can do it. We need your help right now. It’s an urgent situation. We need to ship the vitamins from San Diego to Uganda by July and prior to the expiration date on the vitamins.

Even if this economic recession has affected you, please know that the smallest amount will make a huge difference. Please pledge $25, $50, $100. Whatever you can do will make a huge difference and we’ll post our progress ever few days at www.JustLikeMyChild.org.

Sometimes I think that my small gift won’t make a difference. Now I’ve learned FIRST HAND that it’s just not true. YOUR GIFT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE AND THE LIFE OF A CHILD IMMEDIATELY.  Your gift, no matter how modest, can make that difference. Before you move onto the next email or close this window, PLEASE take the step that will change everything!

Thank you for everything you have done to support the Just Like My Child  Foundation.

With warmest wishes,

Vivian Glyck

Founder and Executive Director
Just Like My Child Foundation

P.S. Make a 100% tax-deductible Donation NOW and bring desperately needed nutrition supplements to our children today.

P.P.S. If you would like to donate shipping services, have great shipping contacts, or would like to make a larger gift, please send us a note and I’ll make sure we get in touch with you right away.