Our country director, Dena (whom you hear from a lot on here), recently notified us that George, the brother of one of our scholarship girls Nyangoma, died last week. Dena spent his last days and weeks with him, his mother Florence, and the rest of the family. Here is her touching account of the tragedy:

This has truly been an emotional roller coaster. One day we see progress with Florence and the boys, the next day they are suffering and it’s difficult to know the best way to help on the emotional front. It’s nearly impossible to turn away when you see the need of someone like Florence and her family, they are truly among the poorest.

It’s hard to imagine what it must be like as a single mother, living with AIDS and with two small children with AIDS. Her family gave her away when she was young (never providing her with any education at all) to an old man for a bunch of cattle, and now they won’t support her in any way, not even when her son George died this week. She has no family to turn to for support, no land (no place of her own, not even to bury her son), no garden, no one who believes in her… and yet she is expected to just pick herself up.

People around here (myself included at times) have gotten annoyed with her for being in denial about her situation for so long. No one talks about the fact that this is a normal psychological side effect of the disease and instead people judge her. What do they judge her for? Because she would get frustrated at times for having to take George to the hospital so frequently.

What people don’t understand is that she’s frustrated because every day she was with George at the hospital was a day when she was not working – a day she won’t be able to buy food.

Just before George got sick this last time she was so proud for working so hard: she had been promised enough work to buy a bag of corn flour (that would allow her to make porridge for the family for one month) and save enough money so that she could visit Nyangoma (her daughter and one of our scholarship girls) by herself on visiting day, for the first time. Now this has been a major goal for her in recent weeks. And she had to give it all up so that she could take care of George. Florence was forced to choose between the work that would feed her children and the hospital visit that would ease George’s suffering. For a single mother like her in Africa… to care for one child can mean the others starve. To keep everyone fed can severely affect the child wasting away from AIDS. No mother should ever be forced into such a choice. Watching Florence endure this broke my heart.

She really struggled, being so sick herself with AIDS, and taking care of two boys who also needed a lot of medical attention, she really did everything she could to help George. George’s father finally did come yesterday to take George to the family’s home place to be buried, which is customary. Florence really wanted this too, because the alternative would have been to bury him in a public site (which is basically a mass shallow grave). Her family is not in the picture or apparently helpful at all, so she is truly all alone. The father seems to care about the boys, but we don’t know where he has been all of this time. At least he was here now.

The nurses tell me that George was coherent just before he passed away. He told his mom he was losing energy to breath and asked her to take him in her arms, to sleep with her on the mat. He thought this would give him strength.

He passed away in her arms.

I sat a long time with Florence while she cried for him yesterday morning and last night. Brian (George’s brother) kept looking for George everywhere in the hospital; he still thinks George is just sleeping. The father could only afford to bring one motorcycle for George to take him to his home village of Basoga for burial, very, very far away on the opposite side of the country. He couldn’t afford to get another motorcycle to bring Florence and Brian with him. Florence said it was okay, but we put some money together to get a second motorcycle so that her and Brian could also attend, which is so important for them both.

When I think about George, I think about the times we spent here, the day we drew pictures together while we waited for his treatment outside the hospital and how happy he was about the houses and letter and numbers he had drawn. About the X-mas we all spent together watching Harry Potter, and eating cake, with the other kids, and how after his mom took him to Mild May to get treatment for TB, he came back looking so health and happy, his eyes were dancing, as if to say, “Look at me, I’m okay now.” He was so happy to be able to play with the other kids. I remember seeing him running and playing with kids for the first time. I’ll remember George this way and I’m glad he doesn’t have to suffer anymore.

Thanks so much for all of your thoughts, and thank you for your comments on remaining vigilant in helping women and children — so important, the poorest of the poor are truly in dire, dire need of help. I think for any of us here, we can get so overwhelmed by the need that it is easy to give up on the neediest, but children like George and Brian and Nyangoma and mother’s like Florence are definitely counting on us. Thank you for supporting me here and allowing me to assist in JLMC’s mission.

Love,
Dena Lewerke

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!

Just Like My Child & The Collective Heart worked side by side with community members in Katikamu, Uganda to construct the rural community’s first primary school.

Now, hundreds of children have the life-changing opportunity to obtain an education.

Its takes so little to make a DIRECT difference in Africa.

Help us bring joy, laughter, health and future to the children in Uganda- And YOU can help them achieve their true potential.

Three years ago, maternal deaths at the hospital were astronomical due to lack of proper medical care, surgery equipment, medical doctors, and an ambulance to transport women who were experiencing obstetrical emergencies. While no one knows for sure what the true rate of maternal mortality is in the villages deep in the bush, the hospital reports a marked improvement in outcomes for women who DO reach the hospital in time.

When I first arrived at Bishop Asili,Hospital in 2006, women were turned away from the hospital by the dozen because there was no way to serve them. Today, a gleaming new surgery centre, trained medical doctors, and adequate instruments for C-sections and laparatomies have turned tragic stories into stories of joy and hope. Women and children who would have otherwise died are now emerging from surgeries with healthy babies, hope, a community that supports them, and a future filled with hope. It’s a miracle to watch.

Simple interventions are what have changed the staggering statistics of maternal mortality.

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.

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

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

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

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

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