Author: rowan

This sounds like the beginning of an absurd joke; instead, it’s the genesis of a dream—and you’re invited to join!

Activate your imagination for a moment:
You are an orphan. You are infected with or affected by AIDS. You are living in rural Uganda. You know that education is the key to a better life and that it will enable you to pursue your dreams. One day, you learn that someone across the world has decided to love YOU by funding your meals, paying for your medical care, and enabling your education!
Despite this opportunity, one obstacle remains: you have to walk TEN MILES to get to and from school each day.
If you’re walking at a brisk 4 mph, that’s more than 2 hours of walking. More reasonably, a 3 mph pace requires more than 3 hours spent walking.
For our students, this trek is physically draining, which minimizes the effort and focus they have left over for their studies. Furthermore, the amount of time they spend walking makes them vulnerable to kidnapping, abuse, and disease.

This is where the bus comes in.

Common sense, right? Walking this far daily is unreasonable and dangerous. So we’re going to pick our students up and drop them off. This will not only transform an hours-long journey into one that occupies only a matter of minutes—it will also keep our orphans safer and allow them to invest more energy in their academic work.

This is where Mt. Kilimanjaro comes in.

The thing about a bus is that it costs money, and the thing about money is that we needed to find a way to raise it.
We thought the tallest mountain in Africa might catch your attention, so ROWAN launched Good Summits—a campaign that enables members of the outdoor community to combine their passion for adventure with a good cause.
Over the course of 15 days, we will be traveling to Uganda, witnessing and participating in what ROWAN is doing in the villages, and conquering the highest free-standing mountain in the world in order to raise awareness and money for our students’ transportation to school.

This is where you come in.

If you’re interested in harnessing your physical energy, available resources, and hopefulness for the sake and safety of ROWAN’s orphans, we want you to join our dream! There are several ways you can get involved: of course, you can join the expedition that will involve hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro; you can donate gear for other hikers; or you can set aside some money to help purchase the bus!
The proceeds of this effort will enable ROWAN to fund safe, reliable transportation for hundreds of children pursuing an education.
If you’re interested in visiting ROWAN villages and joining the ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro, learn more HERE or go ahead and fill out an application! If you aren’t able to participate but still want to be involved, please don’t hesitate to contact Lauren at lauren@loverowan.com.
Thank you for all of your help!

This is a season that can get so busy amid the packed schedules, growing to-do lists and preparations for the holidays. But it is good to stop, change our perspective, and remember how we have been blessed. So much has happened in the past several months on the ground in Mawanga and surrounding communities. Our people have seen joys and triumphs, but also experienced sorrow and faced hardships.

If you recall with me, just a handful of months ago our people were struggling with a famine like we had never seen before. Families were starving, supplies were exhausted and we prayed for a miracle — that God would intervene. Funds were raised and grain was purchased to assist the many hungry mouths that needed to be fed. But we also took a step to be proactive. We wanted to plan ahead and attempt to prevent tragedies like this in the future.

So we sent one of our own, Robert, to Farming God’s Way in Kampala. The idea was to put him through training and in turn, he would come back and share all he had learned with various villages.

He set out to learn all he could about strategic farming and maintaining a sustainable way of living through farming. He started later than many of the other participants, and had to catch up on a portion of the classes.
 

But praise God, he completed the training! Robert recently graduated from Farming God’s Way and has returned to Mawanga to share his knowledge. Here he is with Pastor Paul, beaming from ear to ear…and we couldn’t be prouder. Thank YOU for supporting this venture; for trusting God to complete this work and investing in lives and communities around Eastern Uganda. We are excited to see the fruit of this labor in the coming months and years.

The 25th of every month is #orange day — promoting awareness and prevention of violence against women and girls.

Action Plan for Orange Day, 25 August 2016: Safe and secure working environments for women and girls
 

“Break the silence. When you witness violence against women and girls, do not sit back. Act.”

~ Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General
 

The United Nations Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence Against Women has proclaimed the 25th day of each month as “Orange Day,” a day to raise awareness and take action to end violence against women and girls. As a bright optimistic colour, orange represents a future free from violence against women and girls, for the UNiTE campaign. Orange Day calls upon activists, governments and UN partners to mobilize people and highlight issues relevant to preventing and ending violence against women and girls, not only once a year on 25 November (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women), but every month.

Violence against women and girls is a grave violation of human rights. Its impact ranges from immediate to long-term multiple physical, sexual and mental consequences for women and girls, including death. It negatively affects women’s general well-being and prevents women from fully participating in society. Violence not only has negative consequences for women but also their families, the community and the country at large. It has tremendous costs, from greater health care and legal expenses and losses in productivity, impacting national budgets and overall development.
 
Decades of mobilizing by civil society and women’s movements have put ending gender-based violence high on national and international agendas. An unprecedented number of countries have laws against domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of violence. Challenges remain however in implementing these laws, limiting women and girls’ access to safety and justice. Not enough is done to prevent violence, and when it does occur, it often goes unpunished.
– See more.

 Orange your work place! As long as your employer agrees, wear orange to work or
university and encourage your colleagues to do the same to show your support for zero
tolerance of violence against women and girls in the work place.
 Find out what policies are in place at your work place or university. Do they fulfill the
recommendations in the Women’s Empowerment Principles? If there are gaps, what
steps can be taken?
 If you are in the business community, find out if your company supports the Women’s
Empowerment Principles!
 Learn from the Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence against Women’s guidelines on
drafting legislation on workplace sexual harassment, and share with policy makers
(http://www.unwomen.org/)

Read more about how YOU can help ROWAN with our education and training to break this cycle of violence against women and girls.

Time to highlight another savings group! We are so grateful to God for the evidence of His goodness through these programs. Read about how people’s lives have been drastically impacted in a matter of a few years.

Yesu Amala Village Savings group – Bunalwenyi Zone

 
This savings group began in 2013, with a a membership of 29 members. Starting with 2,000 Uganda shillings as their minimum saving amount and 10,000 as the maximum, they were able to build that number to collect 2 million shillings. The following year, in 2014 they collected a revenue of 2.7 million, while in 2015, they managed to harvest 3 million shillings. The savings continue to grow and abound!

For 2016 they have a target of 3.5 million shillings. The cumulative effect of these savings over the years has resulted in:

•  Children being educated
• Land being purchased
• Proper nutrition and medication being provided

These achievements are amazing and people keep joining the savings group because they want to be a part of the excitement. We’d love to have YOU join us in this venture as well — learn more about our micro-enterprise programs here!

Youth Leading Sustainability is the theme of International Youth Day 2016!

This year, ‪#‎YouthDay‬ focuses on the leading role of young people in achieving sustainable development through sustainable consumption and production. Be part of these efforts in achieving the ‪#‎GlobalGoals‬ and celebrate International Youth Day!
Learn more here.

“Young people are not only our future — they are our present. Our planet has never been so young, with 1.8 billion young women and men. They are the most connected, the most outspoken and the most open-minded generation the world has ever seen. They are powerful agents of positive change, essential to taking forward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is not enough to hope for a better tomorrow — we must act now. Change is underway, and millions of citizens are already transforming the way we produce, consume, behave and communicate…
 
Optimism and confidence do not mean we minimize the challenges ahead. Most young people live today in least developed countries, and shoulder the heaviest burden of conflicts and poverty. There can be no sustainable development if they remain on the side-lines, and I call upon all Member States and UNESCO partners to support their initiatives, to give them voice, to let them grow, to shape together the future of dignity that we are building today.”
~Message from Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO
 

International Youth Day is on 12 August! Events to celebrate ‪#‎YouthDay‬ will take place all over the world and will recognize the importance of youth efforts, collaboration and participation in the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. (https://www.facebook.com/UN4Youth/)

 
ROWAN has always been focused on sustainability and educating and empowering individuals to support themselves and their families. We are in process of working to maintain staff salaries in a sustainable way and working towards goals to help our villagers provide for themselves. Currently, we even have one of our young people participating in training to teach sustainability in farming crops…which he will then share with the community. Educating our youth is a big part of this initiative — and how we equip them to be change agents in their country!
 

Won’t you pray with us and partner together in this mission to raise our youth to be leaders in sustainability? There are ways each and every person can get involved in promoting sustainability through consumption and production. Whether you are on your couch at home, or desire to change your community and the world through networking in your neighborhood, this has some great ideas to implement into your daily life!
 
So whatever avenue you choose, let’s celebrate International Youth Day together!

One more thing: share with us about a young person in your life who inspires you by commenting below.

 
Help us educate our youth!

Biva Muntuyo Saving Group

This particular savings group is comprised of members from Special Group in ROWAN. They are part of the Bwalula zone and just began saving early this year. They started with a minimum of 2000 Uganda shillings and a maximum of 10,000 shillings. For 2016, they have made a goal of saving five million shillings amongst the members. Several of the members have given testimonies of how loan acquisition has benefited their lives and families. they are so proud of the savings they have amassed and how the culture of savings has improved among the members.

So often, these dreams start out as an impossibility, but through these savings groups — many of these dreams have become reality.

Goals are being reached, community is being built and we are training our people to start their own businesses. Want to know how YOU can help?

We have so much exciting news to share with you about our savings groups! People are coming together and encouraging one another to cultivate a culture of savings.

Mukama Mwesigwa Savings Group

This savings group was founded in Mawanga village, and has an active membership of 32. It is comprised of jajas (grandmothers) as well as widows and other caregivers. They meet on ROWAN grounds every Monday at 1pm. They began their savings group on December 12, 2015 with a minimum savings of 1000 Uganda shillings and a maximum of 5000 shillings. All groups have organized management committee members, and the amount they have saved is growing and empowering these women to provide for themselves and their families.
 

Jane Kange

Jane is a prominent chapati specialist has been able to boost her business because of Savings. With her savings in 2015 she was able to buy a a cow with a supplementary income from her garden and savings.

Robina Mutesi

Robina was able to buy a cow in her last 2015 savings. The major target for this year is 3,000,000 Uganda shillings.

Thank you for your part in helping these savings groups — they are changing lives!

Contribute to Micro Enterprise Projects Here

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. Less than $2 a day adds up over the years and eventually can lead to great success. Don’t underestimate the impact sponsorship can have on shaping young lives and empowering our students to succeed.

Mariam is our most recent graduate and her story is evidence of that success. She has been part of ROWAN since it officially began in 2008. She is an individual who is not afraid to speak her mind, and that started when she was young. In a culture where women do not have a strong voice, this was significant. ROWAN helped to cultivate her intelligence and confident spirit by giving her opportunities to hone these skills. Mariam always participated in ROWAN events and loved to emcee at parties and tell jokes to make people smile.

This led to a desire to pursue a degree in mass communication and journalism at Mutesa Royal University. She wants to make a difference in her nation, especially regarding speaking up for women. This past weekend she graduated with her bachelors degree and already has a job lined up at a radio station in Iganga (East Uganda). She is so thankful to her sponsor, her ROWAN family and caregiver Rebecca for supporting her and helping her to achieve her dreams.

We could not be more proud of Mariam and we know that God will use her voice to help young women just like her in the future!

 
Do YOU want to be a part of our success stories? There are other students waiting to be sponsored so they too can have the chance to reach their goals and effect become agents of change in their country.

Donate to Culver Christian Church Summer team!

This church team will go for three weeks to help with kids programs, widow and caregiver training and much more! Support the members below!

Their strength comes from above.

They carry the hopes and dreams for their children. They fight against all odds to protect and provide for each child. When there is no one to fight on their behalf, they don’t give up. When they are weak with no one to care for them, they continue to care for others. When they feel like crying, they smile. When there is no money to provide food, they make sure their children eat something before they sleep.
Their strength is immeasurable. Their source of strength is not of this world. ROWAN is successful because of their determination and perseverance.
These Superheroes are the Mothers, and they are God’s angels here on earth.
The Mothers of ROWAN don’t know that there is a day on the calendar to honor them. But we do. And honor them we shall.

Here is what you can do!

Write an email to them, attaching a picture of you and your family or friends. Honor them and thank them for all they do for their family and community. Email it to info@loveROWAN.com
ROWAN will hand deliver these letters to them this Summer. We will honor them with your letters and a celebration just to honor them. Help us make that day a special one.
Contribute to the Mother’s Business Projects under Micro Enterprise