Hope

I recently received some sad news that two of the babies from the orphanage, Caroline and David, have passed away. Both of these babies came to the orphanage after I was there in January, so I didn’t get to know them.

David
David was born Feb. 20 of last year and when he was just four months old, his mother became mentally ill and unable to care for him. With seven other children, David’s father was not taking good care of him.

A sickly severely malnourished baby, he was regularly in and out of the hospital for his first four months. A nurse, having heard of the Nzirambi Orphans Talent Development Centre made arrangements with the probation officer and the orphanage for him to live there. Slowly, after six months he began to recover, showing strength in his legs by kicking and playing.

Just recently, doctors began to suspect that David had spina bifida. He came down with pneumonia and, despite the best efforts of the house mothers, doctors and nurses, he didn’t survive.

Caroline
Caroline was born November 18, 2009 and brought to the orphanage in June after her mother died of malaria. Again, the father was unable to adequately care for his child and Caroline was removed from his care and brought to the orphanage after being hospitalized for pneumonia.

This little girl became quite ill over the summer and required a blood transfusion. However, none of the hospitals in the area had blood supplies to donate. In Uganda, a person must have an HIV test every six months in order to donate blood and none of the house mothers had this test done and could not donate blood. They decided to transport baby Caroline to the Kampala hospital, but she died along the way.

The reality
The reality of the situation is that neither of these children likely would have died had they been given the care we can expect for our children in Canada. The housemothers and hospitals did everything they could, but there are so many limitations, especially when a child is born into these incredibly stressful, life endangering situations.

Hope
In so many ways, it’s frustrating to hear that two of our children have passed away. But, it’s not time to lose hope. There are more than 80 children there now, some now in their late teens, haven grown up and survived these difficult circumstances. The death of these little ones inspires me even more to stay focused and continue my goal to raise $10,000 per year for the next three years so that we can give the older children a real chance through education.

Thank you so much for your steady support.

Pilates for Men

Our Pilates4Babes was so much fun in the summer, but there was only one man in attendance!

So, why aren’t more men doing pilates?

Pilates was, after all, started by a man – Joseph Pilates. He was a boxer and trained athletes. And there is nothing wimpy about Joseph! (That's him in the photo!)

It’s challenging, but not impossible; you don’t have to be flexible like yoga; it gives you awesome abs and the classes are full of hot, fit women. What’s not to love about Pilates?

So, we decided to call the men out for their own class. Hosted by Sandra Brunner (aka @Wallabina) at Chang’e Studio,1114 Queen Street East in Leslieville, the class will be held Sept. 11 from 2-3p.m.

Come have fun, work out and support a charity, all at the same time!

We'll also have some great raffle prizes available – including tickets to the Leaf/Senators Fans First game on September 21.

With the proceeds we hope to be able to raise enough money - $700 - to send one child to school for a year.

Class size will be small, so please let us know asap if you want to sign up. You can purchase your ticket in advance by making a donation on this blog using Paypal .

Garage Sale Mania

Over the weekend, Monica and I drove to the Midland/ Wasaga area to visit my Aunt Lynn who was holding another garage sale to raise funds for the orphanage. It’s the third sale she’s hosted with the help of some other family members.

To date, she’s raised over $700 doing it. Her goal is to raise $1,000. There’s no question, she’ll reach her goal. I think she’ll surpass it.

So, how does this work? Well, friends and family have donated all kinds of stuff they don’t need or want anymore; children’s clothing, fishing tackle, books, kitchen stuff, etc. And then she puts on a garage sale. When she’s all garage saled-out, she’ll haul everything to a charity store. So, it’s a win-win. She’s doing another one in September, so if you’re in the area, please do stop by.

The $700 she raised is already enough to pay for a year of school for one of the children.

The best part is that she is coming to the orphanage with me in January, so she can meet first-hand the children she will be helping to put through school.

I’m so blown away and so grateful for all of my aunts and family – Lynn, Barb, Judy, Susan, Nancy, my grandmother, my mom, Tammy, David, Jeff, Gary and everyone else who has been helping to make this happen.

Thank you!

The quest for the perfect space

The team working behind the Ugandan Orphan Education Fund has been toying with the idea of holding a special event in November – something that would become a signature event of sorts to look forward to every year and raise funds.

For this year, we are planning a very special concert with a group of youth with very big voices. Along with the choir, we will be hosting a silent auction (the quest for raffle prizes is also on, so let me know if you have an idea or something you would like to contribute).

Right now, to make all of this possible, we need a venue. Something that’s not going to break the bank and has enough space for a small concert and a cocktail reception. Ideally, we’d love to have a sound system in place and if we are lucky enough, we’d even have chairs. The natural fit seems to be a church. But, we’re turning up some dead ends in being able to find space available on or around Nov. 13.

Do you have any suggestions on where we might find a venue suitable for this event? Drop me a line or leave a comment here. All suggestions welcomed!

A super success

Over the past couple of weeks we held two events and I wanted to share with you the outcome. Our goal for 2010 is to raise $10,000, which is the cost needed to make sure that we can pay for all of the children who need it, to go to school in 2011. I’m happy to report that we are already half way there. We’ve got a few things planned for the fall, and with your continued support, I know we’re going to succeed in getting these kids to school.

Pilates For Babes

A few weeks ago, we pulled about a dozen people – mostly from Twitter – together for #Pilates4Babes. Sandra Brunner (@wallabina) generously donated her studio and led a pilates class for us. In addition to those who attended the class, many others made donations even though they couldn’t make it.

The result: $600 raised for the orphanage!

Thanks so much to everyone who attended: @amazerall @atubanos @clickflickca @CreativeFusion @JeanGeary @JustineLewkowic @laurendorphin @MonicaNK @SylvieinToronto, as well as, Betty, Claudette and Zeridah.Also, thank you to @justineabigail, @paula_attfield, Kevin Leslie and Dean Hughes who supported us from afar.

Stay tuned for Pilates For Men!

Charity Yard Sale Raises $700

My friend Laura Copeland was hosting a yard sale to raise funds for Women’s Cancer, and that gave us the idea to do one as well. So, Cecile Peterkin (@cosmiccareer), Monica and I hosted a charity yard sale at my parents house in Pickering.

A lot of people donated a ton of really great stuff: Marcel Weider, Kari (@karrio) and Carey, Aynsley Morris (@aynsilly), Phil (@mediawong), my parents, Lynn Hebner, and Terry, Susan and Kevin Crow.

The result: $700! That’s exactly what it cost to send a child to school for a year in Uganda. What an accomplishment!

What these two events have shown me is that we can really accomplish a lot, just by doing and giving a little. Thanks everyone for your continued support.

(Congrats to Laura who also raised $600 from her garage sale and has met her goal to raise $1000).

Update from Kasese

We received an update from the orphanage and this time, there is tons of good news to share! Check it out:

The home is growing, the number of children is now up to 81. Ten new babies have have come in since the beginning of this year. A fifth house is being built to accommodate these new little ones, the structure is at roofing level now.

The farm at the orphanage

The farm at the orphanage has had its first harvest of seasonal vegetables (carrots , radishes) . A sweet potato crop will be ready for harvest soon. The intention is to produce food and sell any surplus alongside teaching the children how to grow the crops. Fifty chicks are due to arrive in two weeks time and someone is being trained in chicken farming to take this over at the home. The goal is to supplement the children's diet with eggs (protein deficiency is quite common).

SOS children's village

We are hoping that the rate of increase in the numbers of children will decrease as a new orphanage run by SOS children, a large UK charity, has opened up in Fort Portal (about 2 hours away). SOS have agreed to take all the tiny babies that come to NOTDEC in the next few months (who need to be fed on very expensive tinned milk), and all other children from the Fort Portal area. Just this week SOS accepted a 4 week old baby who was initially brought to NOTDEC.

Thank you again for supporting this wonderful work. F or those of you attending Pilates for Babes this Saturday, see you there.

PS - our charity yard sale raised a whopping $700. We had incredible support from so many people --- THANK YOU!