Our most recent update email sent on July 5, 2017

 "By the time we end these trainings our lives are not going to be the same again."

  

What’s Going On?

 Our Community Training Initiative (CTI) is in full swing!  As a quick refresher and for those who are just now partnering with us, we have decided to launch our CTI as a way to provide education and bring resources to villages where community members are often isolated and with very little education.  Considering that land is the greatest resource in the village, we have started with an agricultural and livestock training.  Specifically, community members are learning about farming potatoes and keeping pigs at a household level.  To date community members have received 10 hours of training and an average of 65 people attend training each week. The agricultural and livestock training will run every Thursday until the end of the year.  Beginning in August the training will be moved from the churches to the land for hands-on training and demonstration.  The quote above clearly shows how these trainings are being received.  Many people in the village have an elementary level education and spend 6-8 hours every day farming the way they’ve always done; with little education and no updated information. 

What’s Next?

 In the past week we have met with both a financial trainer and a local healthcare organization for additional trainings.   Dustan, our financial trainer, specializes in teaching communities how to start their own Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA).  Think of these as banks on a very local level.  Starting July 23^rd Dustan will meet with each community for 4 hours a day for 6 consecutive days.  He will teach them how to elect board members, create bi-laws and keep written records for their association. We feel strongly that if we are giving community members the information needed to increase their household income, then we should also provide education on how to save money in a secure way.  Oftentimes lack of education and understanding prevents people in the village from using local savings co-ops and banks.  This training will provide them with a secure avenue and the necessary resources.  Dustan will also provide monthly check-ins to help troubleshoot any issues and provide continued guidance.

What Do We Need?  

 We need additional funding for the trainings.  We need $500 to complete the agriculture and livestock training and $300 for the VSLA training at the end of July.  Please consider contributing to the education of our community members by partnering with us. 

www.loveempowers.org/give

Keep updated with the trainings on our Facebook page.  

 Have a wonderful summer and thank you for your continued support!

With love,

Cara

This post is from an email sent on May 3, 2017

Hello and Happy Spring!

We have had a great first quarter in Uganda.  The biggest movement has taken place in our Empowerment Program.  We made it a priority this year to develop and launch our Community Trainings Initiative (CTI).  The overall vision is to partner with local communities for a minimum of two years and provide holistic education by way of agricultural/livestock, family/relationship, healthcare, financial and spiritual trainings. We will work to identify specific areas of interest from our communities and work with local subject matter experts and organizations to deliver such trainings.

In order to move forward, we decided to hire Sam, a Ugandan with several years experience in non-profit work and a degree in Business Administration from Kabale University, on a part-time basis.  Sam started a few weeks ago, and already we’ve met with two pastors in the village.  Both pastors showed a strong interest in our CTI and had several suggestions on areas their members would be interested in.  Sam has already been in contact with an agricultural specialist and we are now working on creating a training schedule.  Our goal is to launch our first training this month!

In addition, we’ve continued to work with Vastine and Jarrod, both of whom we began working with in 2016.  Jarrod is working full-time at his apprenticeship at the garage and recently moved out of the village to Kabale so he could be closer to work.  Sam has been meeting with him once a week to check on his progress at the garage and to see how he is handling living on his own.  Both are big adjustments and we want to support him as much as we can.  Vastine continues to work with us at our home and will be finishing up at the end of this month.  Over the next several weeks Sam will work with her on next steps as she prepares to go home and start her business.

Thank you for your continued support and interest in what we are doing.  As always please reach out with any questions.

With love,

Cara

Jarrod at his internship.

Sam meeting with Vastine to discuss next steps as she prepares to go home.

Ivan’s cousin got married in April.  Ivan was the best man and I was the photographer.  We had an absolute blast!

This post was originally sent as an email on January 22, 2017

Hello from sunny, warm Uganda!

While I was in the US this past December I was able to meet with the board of directors for Love Empowers and am excited to share our plans for 2017.  I have included a brief overview of the our plans for 2017 and will send further update emails with details.

Lastly, I ask that you would prayerfully consider supporting Love Empowers on a monthly basis.  We currently need to increase our financial support by a minimum of $500/month in order to carryout our 2017 plans.  You can set up reoccurring giving through our website at www.loveempowers.org/give

Love Empowers 2017 Plans

Community Empowerment and Development

• We are most excited to launch a leaders training and empowerment program in a neighboring village.  We will partner with a local church to help identify leaders within the community and hire a social worker to work with the families in identifying community trainings.  The estimated cost is $500/month.

• Jarrod – Jarrod will start his apprenticeship at a garage in a few weeks.  We are thrilled to be supporting him in this endeavor.  The course will be for the entire year and will cost $80/month.

• Vastine – we will continue to employ Vastine for first several months of 2017, provide her with small business training before she moves back to the village and support her as she moves back. We estimate the cost to employ Vastine and provide her with necessary training will cost about $100/month for the several months of this year.

• Adere Oliver – Oliver is about to start her second year and is doing great.  We are excited to support Oliver in her academic studies.  She is a bright, young girl with a promising future.  The cost of support Oliver is $40/month.  We are committed to supporting Oliver for the next three academic years.  We will evaluate our support once she completes her fourth year in secondary school.

• Provide clothes, shoes, medical, household items to families in need.  We want to walk alongside families and children that find themselves in hard times by providing necessary items as food, clothes and paying for medical treatment.  We set aside about $30/month for these times. 

Hardship Care

Thank you!

With love,

Cara

Employment Sustainability - Meet Jarrod

This post is from an email sent October 18, 2016

The region where we live in Uganda has one of the highest alcoholism rates in the world. You read that right – IN.THE.WORLD!  I couldn’t believe it at first but unfortunately I’ve come to see it with my own eyes and am no longer surprised by such a claim.  There seem to be more trucks full of alcohol than bars to sell it at -- and the bars seem to be on every corner.  It is even possible to buy a small pouch of grain alcohol for $.03!

The alcohol dependency coupled with the high poverty rates, give way to many social problems. Every day the local bars and pool halls are full of young men who are out of work and spend their days sitting idle. Arguably, the idleness leads to more alcohol consumption which leads to more unemployment…and so the cycle continues.

This all leads to me to this past January when a 16 year old youth from our community came to our house looking for work.  He had dropped out of school (grade 6) and was looking for something to do.  Ivan and I didn’t want to turn him away, we wanted to give him work and help him beat the odds of avoiding the temptations of alcoholism and idleness that many of his peers have succumbed to. So in January, Jarrod joined our team.

Over the course of the following 8 months Jarrod worked alongside several community members, whether it be digging in our farms, helping harvest potatoes or hauling 50-kilo sacks of sorghum to trucks that come through our village.  No matter the task, he didn’t miss a day. But it isn’t THAT Jarrod worked that’s most notable. It’s what he’s learning in between the laborious jobs that make me most proud – skills like work ethic, responsibility, money management, teamwork. Skills that will help him build a successful future.

With the money Jarrod earned, he was able to purchase his own cell phone, bicycle and pig!  To some, those may not seem like significant things to purchase, but they are important tools to a young man in the village and if well used can lead to further work and income.

As of now Jarrod continues to work with us and is now part of our family.  His dream is to learn how to be a mechanic and we want to help him achieve it. Over the next few months, he will be saving half of his monthly salary to help cover expenses needed for mechanic training. We pray he will have what he needs and be ready to begin his training early 2017.

Imagine how good he will feel when he is paying his tuition with money he was able to earn? Setting a dream and achieving it? There are no words, my friends.  

The truth is that Love Empowers exists to walk alongside young people like Jarrod.  As we look towards 2017 my hope would be that Love Empowers would have the necessary funding and support to walk alongside more people like Jarrod.   During the course of 2016 it will have cost Love Empowers roughly $500 to employ Jarrod.  When I look at how far he has come and the positive direction his life has taken, I can assure you, it is money well spent!  In addition we predict his course in mechanic training will cost roughly $1000 in 2017. 

Thank you for your continued love and support of us and Love Empowers.  To make further financial contributions please visit our website at www.loveempowers.org

Cara