Off The Mat Into The World

The Shanti Uganda Society has been selected as one of the beneficiaries of the OTM 2009 Seva Challenge - Bare Witness: Humanitarian Tour. Here is an AMAZING video of who they are and how they are making change in our world!



Here is the link to the 2009 Seva Challenge page, how the funds will be used by The Shanti Uganda Society to build our Birth House and Learning Centre, support the children we work with at New Hope School and improve the lives of the women in our income generating group. We are looking forward to having the 20 OTM participants join us in the building of our birth house - each one of them has committed to raising $20,000 by November 2009! They are an amazing group of sacred activists!

http://www.offthematintotheworld.org/sevachallenge

Abayudaya Fundraiser Cafe

Please visit the Shanti Uganda table at the following event!

Abayudaya Fundraiser Cafe
Help support the "Delicious Peace" Interfaith Coffee Co-op of Ugandan Jews, Muslims and Christians, The Shanti Uganda Society and other worthy projects

Sunday, March 15, 7:30 p.m. at Or Shalom
710 E.10th Ave. at Fraser. Minimum $10 donation at the door

Videos, Slides, Abayudaya Recordings,'Delicious Peace' coffee plus tea and treats, CDs and Shanti Uganda jewelry

The Abayudaya are a Jewish community in eastern Uganda. Lorne Mallin is going there in April as a Kulanu volunteer for six months and is raising money to support projects.

More info at orshalom.ca/march15.htm
and www.kulanu.org/abayudaya/index.php
and www.shantiuganda.org
604-222-3379 • lorne.mallin@gmail.com

Grace

This is Grace - she is a recent graduate of our training program and now has a certificate showing her membership in The Shanti Uganda Women's Income Generating Group! She also makes incredible crafts made from banana leaves - we love these beautiful wallets and recently bought a 'supply' from her to bring back to Canada. Here we are sitting on the porch of the volunteer house with the new wallets she just completed. Grace's son William is supported by the Just Like My Child sponsorship program which means unlike many ugandan boys, he gets to go to school. The foundation has decided to focus on encouraging the sponsorship parents to play a more active role in their children's education - which we LOVE!

Grace has decided that she wants to use the money she makes from her jewellery business with Shanti Uganda to pay the transportation costs to be able to visit her son at school during the year. We couldn't agree more that this is a great way to use her income!

Transform Your Life With Meditation

Blessings Friends!

Last year I was invited to be a part of an exciting project to support communities in Uganda, addictions in BC and individuals looking to improve their lives! Together with Wendy Weymann I recorded The Light Within: Guided Meditations For The Beginner And Beyond…

Our guided meditation CD has 5 different meditations/visualizations guided by 2 different voices! There are 2 silent meditations with a guided introduction where you can ease out of your relaxation to the sound of a gentle chime! The other three introduce you to the power of grounding & centering, deep abdominal breathing and a white light visualization.

A daily meditation practice WILL change your life! Not only will the CD make a difference in your own life, but a portion of each CD purchased will be donated to The Shanti Uganda Society and various addiction related charities in BC!

Reduce your stress level and ENJOY your life! Meditation knows no boundaries. Regardless of religion, age, or lifestyle, the practice of sitting 'with yourself' has the potential to heal and transform individuals from the inside out. When you strip away the outer layers and turn the focus within, you will find not only the path to self-awareness, but the beauty and truth at the core of your heart.

To listen to sound clips, or to purchase the CD visit www.wendyweymann.com

To purchase as an MP3 file, go to http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6614541

$2 from every CD purchased will be donated to The Shanti Uganda Society and $7 from all purchases made at Shanti Uganda events will be donated to the organization.

To purchase a CD or for wholesale inquiries, contact Natalie shantiuganda@yahoo.ca or Wendy wendyweymann@telus.net

In light,

Natalie

Board of Directors!

Blessings Friends,

The Shanti Uganda Society is looking for amazing individuals to join our Board of Directors in Vancouver BC. Shanti Uganda improves the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of communities impacted by poverty, war and HIV/AIDS in Uganda .

If you are passionate about sustainable community development, holistic health, conscious birth and natural building, send us an email! Board Members have experience fundraising, believe strongly in seva (selfless service) and are able to attend board meetings in BC, Canada. We are looking for individuals to be a part of our growth over the next year as we begin building The Shanti Uganda Birth House and Learning Centre in Uganda. Join us on a journey to reduce maternal and infant death rates and support women in a rural community in Uganda!

For more information about the role of a board member or to meet with our existing board, email shantiuganda@yahoo.ca Elections are this coming Spring.

In peace,

natalie

Nansubuga Rose

This is Rose - she has 7 children, is HIV+ and is the most beautiful, hardworking, inspiring woman I know! Since joining the Shanti Uganda Women's Income Generating Group, her life has changed and the impact of those changes will be passed down to her 7 children - most of them girls. The impact will continue in this way from generation to generation.

She also makes beautiful multi colour long beaded necklaces. Here in Uganda, they are known as 'bubblegum' - The women in our group have named it katogo (which means mixture in luganda). Katogo is also known as breakfast matoke (a mixture of bananas, gound nuts and veggies eaten for breakfast). They all think that this is very funny and roar in laughter at the thought of calling a beautiful beaded necklace 'katogo'. If you are wearing your long multicoulour necklance, there's a good chance it was made by Rose. During her jewellery and business training she learned the value of focusing on what she does well. We love her 'katogo' necklaces and she can ALWAYS be found down at the hut working away at cutting paper, rolling beads and then stringing different shapes, sizes and colours to make the 'katogo' necklace.

Rose and I have a special relationship, because she knows that the multi colour necklace just happens to be my favourite necklace. Each buying day, she carefully unrolls her fabric pouch to reveal a new pile of beautiful, colourful paper beaded 'katogo' necklaces. I have seen them a thousand times, but each time she does this its as though I have never in my life seen a multi colour necklace. My eyes widen and a smile creeps over my face - she thinks that this is hilarious because she knows the same thing happens EVERY time! It always causes her to laugh and the two of us giggle over the 'predictability' of the whole situation!

The day before I was scheduled to leave Uganda this time, I walked out of the volunteer house to go talk to the sisters and found Rose, rolling away on our porch! The women don't often come to the volunteer house unless they have something to ask or share with us, but there she was- content - sitting there, rolling her beads. As soon as she saw me, we exchanged the typical series of greetings in Luganda, but she continued chatting away - intent on communicating to me something that seemed very important. This was well beyond my comprehension and I went to get Maria to translate.

Rose began to share with me all of the ways the project has changed her life, her new-found sense of empowerment, her ability to feel proud of who she is and her faith in the future and the future of her children. By now, she had a huge smile on her face and tears began to well up in her eyes as she reached into her fabric pouch to reveal a beautiful, colourful 'katogo' necklace. She carefully placed the necklace into my hand and we sat there with tears rolling down our cheeks holding hands on the porch. A gift. Webale (thankyou) she repeated over and over, turning her face to hide her tears. And then she left. I wore the necklace on the plane ride home - a reminder of Rose and all of the women who inspire us to trust, to have faith, to carry on.

Birth House and Learning Centre - meetings, partners & planning!

About an hour outside of Kasana in the District of Luweero, on a bumpy road into the bush, is the community of Kakira-Soweto (pronounced kacheera). Just getting there is a journey and once you arrive, you'll find the town trading centre - a few mud huts and a handful of run-down brick rooms where a local woman sells candles, soda and sugar. It is a passionate community made up of many families who tend to cattle, and rely mostly on a diet of milk. There are children everywhere - there is no school, so they run around and play and by the time they are about 12, have no education and no means to leave, usually marry and start a family. Many of the men have turned to the local home made alcohol, young boys stand around with nothing to do but drink and the women are surrounded by babies, children, and girls who will themselves soon start their own families.

Children are dying of malaria, there is no source of employment, no opportunity for children to go to school, no health clinic or doctor and no clean water. The women in the community have a very poor diet and therefor, have many complications during birth - the closest health clinic is over an hour away. By the time they reach a doctor, they have often died. Maternal and infant death is common and change is deeply needed! After meetings with the community, we found that their primary concern was health. For this reason, we are working with the community, the handful of traditional birth attendants working in the area, the sisters of Bishop Asili Clinic in Kasana and the elected leaders to create a project that can address these issues!

The Shanti Uganda Birth House and Learning Centre will do just that. The Birth House will focus on preventative care and work with local birth attendants to improve the health of women, their babies and the entire community of Kakira-Soweto! Not only are we able to work with and support a very dedicated community who are more than ready to participate and create programs that improve the health of the women and children in the area, but we have also partnered with a fantastic BC based organization!

The Earth Rising Foundation promotes healthy communities through sustainable building practices and natural building. They use natural building techniques and local, reusable and sustainable materials. With a focus on developing self-sufficient initiatives, they use local labour and are committed to embracing local customs, the environment and people in the building of projects! www.earthrisingfoundation.org

Adam Perry, the founder of the organization, just happened to be in Tanzania working on another project and took the LONG bus ride to Uganda to visit the birth centre site and meet with the community to discuss natural building - what it is, how it is different and the various ways the community wants to get involved! The meeting was a huge success! We have the support and participation of both the men and the women, the traditional birth attendants AND the community leaders. The TBAs shared with us the ways they want to get involved and their needs and assured us they would stand behind the project to make sure we work as one! Even the women in the community want to get involved with the building and learn new ways to build sustainable homes!

wAteR WaTer wATer

The community we are working with has no water source or power. This means that we have to decide where, on the 228 acres, to lay out the birth house. We had the great opportunity to walk around the land with the sisters, with the Earth Rising Foundation and with the men who sold the land to search for the best possible place based on where water gathers, where its dry, where there is a potential to clear a road etc. At the end we decided on a general location which will soon be tested for water to find the best place to drill. This is one of our main priorities, not only to provide a clean source of water for the community using the birth house, our staff and volunteers, but also to have a water source available during the building process which will soon be needed!

Along The Way!

As we were driving to meet with the community for another meeting about the birth house and learning centre, there was a woman carrying yams on her bike to the market on the road. When she saw the car and attempted to move towards the side of the road, she lost her balance and the yams went rolling all over the road.

Without a second to think about it, all of the men in the vehicle jumped out to assist the woman - She had the largest smile on her face while surrounded by shanti uganda's project coordinator, the founder of The Earth Rising Foundation, the community mobilizer and the film man from the Earth Rising Foundation. The yams were carefully tied back onto her bag and she made her way towards the saturday market.

The real measure of success

We have been trying to find a way to measure the success of the women’s income generating group over time and therefore have come up with intake forms, conducted needs assessments and set in place a very organized system to monitor the success of the program.

On Monday, many of the women stopped to share with us their individual stories of how life has changed since joining The Shanti Uganda Women’s Income Generating Group.

In a town where paper beads had no presence, there is now a ‘beading buzz’. The community leaders have stopped in to visit the project [these are usually men who are shocked by the women and their very successful new business!], women in the village are buying the jewellery from the women in our group and in addition to the jewellery we sell in North America, they are busy planning ways to sell their jewellery to the local market here in Uganda.

There are stories of saving money for school fees, of investing in making house improvements and of searching for additional ways to earn an income. Lydia has bought her paper-cutting machine and for a small fee charges the other women who do not want to wait in line to use the machine we bought them at the clinic, will cut their paper for them. Ivone has shared with us that after putting her money aside from jewellery sales, she has been able to purchase the materials to cement her dirt floor, which will reduce the amount of bugs, provide a much cleaner place to eat and sleep for her family and most of all give her a sense of pride! Grace, who’s son is currently in school has decided that she is going to use some of her beading money to pay the transportation costs so that she can visit him – she knows that playing an active role in his education will improve his ability to succeed!

And so above all of the procedures we’ve put in place to monitor success, we’ve found that the best way is to listen to stories, watch the twinkle in their eyes and hold their hands as they proudly stand tall – for they are not just women with HIV, but strong, courageous, creative women who have lost loved ones, raised grandchildren, been child mothers, lived in IDP camps and now know what it means to move on, to believe and to step forward in life.

Although each bead that she rolls carries with it her story
Every woman has walked a different path
And now together they all make beads
With love
From Uganda.

For more information about the women or to learn how you can hold your own jewellery event, send us an email! shantiuganda@yahoo.ca

New Hope Updates

New Hope School has now finished the chicken coop, the chicks are quickly growing, the children are already talking about eating eggs and the day when they will begin to lay is fast approaching! They did a fabulous job building the coop with the funds that were donated when the project began in July and we have organized the project so that there are enough chicks to supply the children with eggs to eat as well as to sell for income for the school and to purchase everything needed to sustain the chickens and their new home over time. By April the project will sustain itself and provide the much-needed nutrients to the nutrient lacking diet the children currently have!

Anatomy of the pelvis

Last week at the staff development workshop we went over ways to encourage an active birth and avoid being flat on the back on the vinyl labour table with legs in stirrups while birthing. Its interesting because in Uganda, women are encouraged to walk around and be on their own for most of the birth process, but the moment they feel like pushing, their instincts are silenced and they are pulled up onto that big, black, metal labour table. Things usually go downhill from there.

I knew that I needed to come up with something tangible to combine with what we had discussed last week and remembered one night when we made a pelvis out of paper in our midwifery study group at home. So yesterday I bought a few large pieces of hard paper and this morning we took the paper pelvis I had brought, traced it onto the new paper and during the workshop all of the staff traced, cut, taped and folded their own paper pelvis. That was all that was needed! We all used our pelvis’ to understand the various positions we had practiced last week and point out the elements of the pelvis and how they are involved in the birth process. As I was leavings the workshop, I ran into a few of the midwives who were not able to attend and together with them made more paper pelvis’ and again we got down on the floor and compared the many ways a woman can birth. It really helped with so many of the reasons that are used in Uganda to blame the mother for any problems that come up in the birth process – statements like ‘her pelvis is too small’, or ‘she is too fat’ are often comments used to justify a cesarean section. The paper pelvis helps to show what is actually happening!

Just today Sister Ernestine mentioned a conversation she had with one of the student midwives who had had quite a challenging birth the night before, but made a comment about how she still had much of what she learned in the last few staff development workshops fresh in her mind which made a big difference in her ability to support the birthing mama!