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JLMC Celebrates Its First Year of Dramatically Changing Lives
Dear Friend:
On September 8, together with key donors, we celebrated the Foundation's first birthday. It was an amazing event that raised nearly $60,000 to help build a surgical suite (operating room) and build a school for the children of Kikoiiro, Uganda.
Together, over the past year, we have had an extraordinary impact on a community of 48 villages consisting of nearly 600,000 people in rural Uganda, East Africa.
It was nearly two years ago that I woke up in the middle of the night, woke my husband up and said, "I have to go to Africa," and he said, "why Africa." And at the time the horrors of 12 million children orphaned by AIDS, a preventable disease, a child dying every 30 seconds of malaria, a disease we wiped out here nearly 50 years ago, were so present in my mind, my thought was, "Why not Africa. Of course Africa." What I never did tell him is that I could hear the children crying, and the cry was like hearing my own child cry. And like any mother, for me, it was a cry that was impossible to ignore.
I believe that we've had such a successful year for many reasons, but mostly because our hearts are yearning for a new world. People are starving for authentic inspiration. There's a real urgency to do something. This urgency has the power to create miracles. Look at the dramatic impact together we've been able to have in our first year:
- Basic nutrition for babies who are orphaned in child birth
- Generator - to keep lights on, water running, medicines refrigerated
- CD4 analyzer - to help HIV patients become eligible for AIDS treatment
- Doctor - first doctor hired by Bishop Asili Hospital since it opened 10 years ago
- Bicycles and Scooters to help community educators and health care workers get to the villages
- Computer donation so the hospital can stay in touch and get key information from around the world
- Scholarship program to send girls from the poorest villages to the best boarding schools in the country
- Bed nets at hospital
- Bed net distribution to nearly 10,000 pregnant mothers and children under five
- ARV treatment to save mother's lives and stem the growth of the oprhan population
Thank you from the very depths of our souls for the jumping into this with us over the past year. If you could imagine that the lives you are affecting could be the lives of children just like those in your lives, that is the impact you are having.
I hope you'll choose to continue to support our work.
With Warmest Regards,
Vivian Glyck
Founder and Executive Director
Just Like My Child Foundation
- Message from Founder
- Clinton Foundation and JLMC
- Program Update
- JLMC Focus
- Jlmc Heroes
- Get Involved
The Bar Mitzvah Project:
Beau Bressler and his mother, New York Times Best Selling Author Debbie Ford team up to educate children
In the Jewish tradition, a Bar Mitzvah is when a boy becomes a man. In preparing for his Bar Mitzvah, Debbie Ford's son Beau was told by his rabbi that for the first 13 years, the world takes care of the boy. At 13, when the boy becomes a man, it's his job to help take care of the world.
Beau has committed to raising the funds needed to build a school, house the teachers, and hire the staff for a primary school in one of the most destitute villages served by the Just Like My Child Foundation.
Beau knows that together with his parents, their friends, and their community, he has been blessed to be able to contribute something huge, to do something bigger than himself.
Congratulations, Beau. As of today, over $60,000 has been raised towards your goal.
We are all so very proud of you and grateful for the work you do. Thank you for being our inspiration and hero!
Click here to find out more about Beau and this amazing project
Host a Holiday Friendraiser
Do you want to become more involved and help the mothers and children in Africa, but don't know where to start? We've had so many people approach us with a willingness and urgency to help, that we have committed to hosting Just Like My Child Friendraisers around the country.
What's a Friendraiser? It's an informal gathering of people you know, in a social setting (coffee, cocktails, light meal) where you invite people you think would be most interested in learning more about Just Like My Child. Simply tell your community our story and let them know that there are opportunities for them to help those most in need very directly? It could be a social gathering, party or get together---as casual or large as you like.The goal is to spread the word. People are never more generous than during the holiday season, so consider tying a friendraiser in with your holiday party
We have put together a complete, "turn key" package to help walk you through hosting a Just Like My Child Friendraiser at your workplace, home, or other venue. If you are able to gather a group of 50 or more, JLMC Founder, Vivian Glyck, would travel to present to your group personally. Otherwise, host a smaller group, and we'll equip you with video, flyers, everything you need to fulfill your commitment to make a DIRECT difference for the people we are serving.
We would be so honored if you would be willing to help us get the word out to the many generous and caring people who live in your area. We look forward to hearing from you!
Interested? Contact jillsecard@gmail.com
Clinton Foundation and Just Like My Child team up to provide HIV pediatric testing
The Clinton Foundation has provided a generous grant to the Just Like My Child Foundation and the Bishop Asili Hospital in Uganda to provide HIV pediatric testing in 48 villages over the next several months. The trained staff of the Bishop Asili Hospital will test over 8000 children, the first-ever such mobilization in these districts.
Sister Ernestine Akulu, founder of the Bishop Asili Hospital says, "This is a very exciting transpiration for us. Many parents have been demanding this testing in the villages, but we have had no way to finance this. This is a huge step for us to be able to adequately care for the many sick children in our community."
Program Update:
Anonymous Donor Makes Huge Impact on Malaria Prevention
Just Like My Child Foundation received a $50,000 private donation to distribute bed nets and educate families about malaria prevention in rural Uganda. The donation will enable JLMC and the Bishop Asili Hospital to train personnel, mobilize to the villages, educate families, and distribute nearly 10,000 bed nets over the next several months.
This donor is passionately committed to understanding the role that malaria plays in the downward spiral of poverty. With a child dying every thirty seconds of malaria in Africa, it's not hard to see how lost work time, medication expense, torturously long treks to clinics and health care centers rob the people of viable, productive work time. The donor's commitment to providing thousands of insecticide-treated bed nets to the Bishop Asili Hospital and the broader community will make a huge difference.
Focus:
Why Build a Surgical Suite(operating room) for Bishop Asili Hospital?
From Dr. Dennis Mike Buluma, first physician ever at Bishop Asili Hospital, hired by Just Like My Child Foundation, February, 2007
Dear Just Like My Child Supporters:
We badly need a surgical suite (operating room with a sterile environment) here because at the moment there are many simple surgeries that I can do, yet I don't have adequate facilities. We have to send patients away and they cannot afford transportation to the nearest hospital which is many miles away from here. So, when patients who normally receive services here are told that we don't have the right equipment to treat them, many of them lose hope, they return home and actually die. When we get the surgical suite here, we will be able to perform emergency major obstetric interventions like caesarian sections, hernia repair, incision and drainage of abscesses, surgical sutures for accident victims, bone setting, and much more.
The time I have been here I have seen kids, I have seen mothers die, because while I have the knowledge, I don't have the right equipment, I don't have the diagnostics to make a proper diagnosis in terms of laboratory equipment and supplies, so I have watched some of them unfortunately die in my hands because I am helpless.
So I would appeal that when we get this equipment, and if possible to get it as soon as possible, it will go a long in helping us help our people better, and will reduce the mortality that is avoidable, really.
Best wishes,
Dr. Dennis Mike Buluma
Facts & Figures Maternal Mortality:
- Hemmorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death in Uganda.
- One in ten women will die from pregnancy-related causes in Uganda, compared with one in five thousand womenin the U.K.
- Women are more likely to suffer premature death or illness from pregnancy-related causes than from any other health problem.
Is it worth $150,000 to change the lives of of thousands of mothers and children over the next 10 years?
