Reese's Rainbow and Punjammies

I like to blog for several reasons. One is because it is a great platform for sharing information/links/resources about issues I am passionate about. Today I want to share two links...

1) Punjammies. My Mom got me a pair of Punjammies for Easter and I.LOVE.THEM. They are so comfy, and I love the idea behind it. Each PUNJAMMIE™ is created in an after-care facility for women who have been rescued, released or escaped from a life of forced prostitution in India. Empowering each woman with an opportunity to learn a marketable skill and become a part of a viable business is the purpose of PUNJAMMIES™. In providing for her basic need to support herself, she sees that she has value far beyond what the lies have told her. She begins to see her rightful place of value – a princess.

Every PUNJAMMIE™ purchase creates
A fair trade wage
Deposit into a savings account
Financial support for holistic care
Capacity building for more women to enter the after-care center

Every PUNJAMMIE™ tells the story of a woman who was once voiceless. You can be a part of rebuilding lives shattered by modern-day slavery.

I have had my pair for one day and already want another pair (I think I will try the capris next). I plan on wearing them as pants in Uganda (not just as pajamas, for when I am travelling)... perhaps will wear them on the plane. They do fit a bit big/long. I got a medium but a small would have fit just as well, and I don't usually wear a small. I have had trouble with the Punjammies website shipping to Canada, but they can also be purchased off the Delicate Fortress website for those in Canada. They are fantastic!! I highly recommend them.


2) Reece's Rainbow. I have known since I was a little girl that I would adopt my kids. When I started Blogs For a Cause, over three years ago, this became even more clear to me. I have designed 800+ blogs over the years, and most of them are for families adopting (usually internationally). Reading their blogs; the fundraising, the paperchase, the referal, the homecoming, the struggles, the adjustment, the RAD, the joys, have made adoption so close to my heart. I don't think adoption is the answer to the 'orphan crisis' as some call it. I think we need to focus on development so that families can stay together. That said, I do think adoption is a piece of the puzzle and that it can unite many children needing families with families needing children. It's a beautiful thing.

Reece's Rainbow is a website that connects parents wanting to adopt with children around the world (mostly in Eastern Europe) who have special needs. After having worked with SCH last summer, my passion for abandoned children with special needs has grown to become a huge part of my heart, and I think Reece's Rainbow is a beautiful resource. Even if you are not thinking about adopting, this website allows you to fundraise for individual children's adoption fees, and you can learn more about adoption, special needs, and the life of an orphan from this site. Especially since my time with SCH, I enjoy scanning the site from time to time to look at the beautiful faces. I see the kids in SCH in many of them.

Genesis is the cutie who has most recently captured my heart. After falling in love with April, I have a weakness for blind children. Something happens in my heart when I look at them. Genesis is facing the threat of life in an institution if she is not adopted soon, simply because she is blind. (For more context on this, PLEASE watch Bulgaria's Abandoned Children, and don't miss the Revisited video where they visit the kids after this doc was made):


Perhaps my favourite of this site is the page where you can look at the photos of kids off the site who have been adopted. As an example, look at little Josiah, who is from Russia and has Down Syndrome. He is now united with his family in Portland, and you can read their blog HERE. They decided to adopt him after they stumbled across the website and saw his photo. They fell in love and knew he was their son.



Such hope!

Uganda Resources

Wanting to learn as much about Uganda, its history, and its culture as possible, I made a trip to the library to take out all things Uganda. I have learned that in short trips like this one, the best thing I can do is learn; ask as many questions as possible, meet as many people as possible, and experience as much as possible.

I used to have these envisions of really “making change”... but of course, that is naive (and quite insulting to the community members to think that I can waltz in, snap my fingers, and make poverty disappear). Since those first few trips, I have come to realize that I have much more to learn from THEM, than they have from ME. I have seen the struggles, but I have also learned so much from the amazing things about African culture and community.

This is summed up beautifully in the video, I Need Africa More Than Africa Needs Me:


That said, for my recent trip to India, I tried to balance my volunteer work with learning as much as I could about India; sightseeing, walking the streets, talking to as many people as I could, getting mehndi, having lunch with local beggars... This trip impacted me more than any other. I think part of the reason is because I went in with a different mentality. I had goals, and things I wanted to accomplish, but I mostly wanted to learn. I wanted to learn about special needs, as the needs of the kids I was working with was something quite foreign to me. I wanted to learn about India, its culture, its beauty. I wanted to “make a difference”, yes, but I thought about it differently than I had before. It wasn’t a “they need me” mentality. It was something more mutual...more equal. I recognized that India had a lot to teach me.

I learned a lot from that trip, and my thoughts on international development since then (and since going to school part-time for international development) have totally changed. I want to reflect that change in my trip to Uganda. I want to ask questions, meet people, and experience the culture in every way possible.

I also want to go to Uganda having an understanding of that culture... of the history and of the lives of the people. So as I said, I went to the library. Most of what I could find focused on the civil war, led by the Lord’ Resistance Army (LRA) and its leader, Joseph Kony, and on the brutal regime of Idi Amin in the 1970's. It is one of Africa’s longest run conflicts, exists in Northern Uganda (as well as the DRC and Sudan) and is known for its use of child soldiers, targetting people in the Acholi ethnic group. From what I understand, the levels of violence have greatly decreased and Joseph Kony is hiding in the DRC. I have had a hard time finding recent articles in the news about the LRA, but this is an important part of Uganda’s history and one that I want to understand. Many of the kids at CUS, where I will be working, have fled the North and come to settle in Kampala, so having this understanding will help me better understand their lives. It was much more of a struggle to find books that were about Uganda in general, but not about the war. Below are some of my findings, and thoughts on them. I highly recommend reading (or watching, in the case of the docs) these resources if you are going to Uganda, or working with an NGO that operates in Uganda.

Stolen Angels by Kathy Cook: In 1996 the LRA abducted 139 girls from St. Mary’s College boarding school in Aboke, a region of Apac, Uganda. This book tells their story, as it brought a lot of publicity to the war in Uganda. The book begins by explaining Joseph Kony and his army of children, and it describes his warped thoughts: “Kony, an educated, devout Catholic, claimed that a discontented God, upset at the corruption and violence of the world, was channelling through him... Kony ws told to take anyone who made a sign of the cross into his army, and to fight until there were none left in the world who wanted to fight. This was when the angels would come.” It later goes on to say that 90% of men over 35 were dead or missing. It pains me to think of families having to flee their beautiful village life for IDP camps.

This book, and the “Aboke girls” as those who were abducted from the school are called, put a face to the war and make it more personal. Some of these girls were able to escape right away. Others, ten years later, were spotted still alongside Kony, forced to be wives to the men.

Girl Soldier by Grace Akallo and Faith J.H. McDonnell: This book is similar to the above, but focuses on just one of the Aboke girls, Grace. After her escape from the LRA, Grace won a scholarship to go to the States to study, and it is here that she teamed up with author McDonnell to share the story of her life. I found it interesting as it foucsed in on one person, but would not really recommend this book. Grace’s account seemed rushed and many detals were skimmed over, and I didn’t like McDonnell’s writing style. Her constant Christian references were distracting and not enough pages were given to Grace to share her story (it is in chapter form, switching from Grace telling her story to Faith giving the history). A decent read by not nearly as good as the above. It does have credibility as it was written, in part, by someone affected firsthand by the violence.

First Kill Your Family by Peter Eichstaedt: This looks at the civil war as a whole. Because it doesn’t really have a focus, it is a bit of a drier read, but it is very good for learning the facts and the history of the country. I learned a lot. In particular, the chapters talking about animism, witch doctors, and spirituality in Uganda were of interest to me. I think having an understanding and respect of all religious beliefs is important. The author interviewed many Ugandans in the book who identified as Christian but who believed very strongly in magic and witches, going as far as to kill women accused of being witches. I knew that Uganda was heavily-Christian, but did not know a lot about this other religious sect. Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA, was a witch doctor and his famous cousin, Alice Lakwena, was also a witch doctor. His spiritualiy is what led Kony to his evil acts.

War Dance: This is a beautiful documentary about music and dance in Uganda. It has a war sub-plot. The group of the kids in the documentary have all been affected by the war in horrific ways, and yet that isn’t the main focus. The main focus is the art of music/dance; a huge part of African, and Ugandan culture. A group of students from a primary school in an area that has been destroyed by the LRA have won their regional dance competition, and are going to the capital to try to win the national title. This documentary is amazing because it tells the story of the war, and you can see the psychological affects it has on the children. It is chilling watching them stare into the camera with a straight, unemotional face, and hear a little girl tell the story of her mother burying the pieces of her father that the LRA had hacked with a machete. But the special thing about this documentary is that it goes deeper than that, and focuses on the happiness these kids still have through a beautiful part of their culture. This documentary is on youtube broken into parts. Part 1 is below, and after you finish it, you should see the following parts linked along the side.


Invisible Children: Three young, naive Americans set out on an “African adventure” to Sudan. Their trip quickly takes them to Uganda where they interview and film this 2003 documentary on the LRA, in particular on the night commuters; children who commute nightly to sleep in safe places to avoid being abducted by the LRA to become child soldiers. They are at high risk of abduction in their villages, so hide out in the city, closer to safety, sleeping in bus terminals, underground hideouts, etc. and then returning to their villages in the safety of daylight. This has an interesting look into a different side of the war (night commuters) and I enjoyed watching the evolution of the filmmakers from naive University students to social activists, although it doesn’t have as much substance as War Dance. They continue to make documentaries and mobilize University students in the USA (and Canada), and now they also have some pretty incredible educational and income generating projects across Africa. This is also available to view on youtube. Same as above- part 1 is embedded below, and after you watch that you will see the other parts linked.


Locked Up Abroad: Uganda: National Geographic has a TV series called Locked Up Abroad, and they featured an episode on Uganda. They shared the story of the 1999 kidnapping of 14 tourists in Bwindi National Park where they were gorilla tracking. They were abducted and killed by the Interahamwe, a Hutu group from Rwanda who led the 1996 Rwandan genocide. The story is quite sad and scary, and I hesitate sharing it because this is not what Uganda is. But again, like all the other resources on war in Uganda, it is important to learn about history and know what happened, although also important to not make this the entire focus. This is part of the history of Uganda and thus I wanted to watch it.

The Last King of Scotland: "In 1970, the just-graduated doctor Nicholas Garrigan moves to Uganda to get rid of his conservative father. While working in a mission in the country, he meets the new President Idi Amin after the coup-d'é-tat that overthrow the former government. He is invited to become his personal physician in Kampala and along the years he sees how despotic his friend is." A great film. A must see 2007 Oscar winner. Although Nicholas Garrigan is a fictional character, the basis of the story is true, and it gives a good idea of what Idi Amin was like as a dictator. There is a book with the same name written by Giles Foden.


There is a book called The State of Blood that I have yet to read. It is written by Henry Kyemba, Amin's health minister. It is the first insider exposé of Amin's rule.

New Vision is a great resource for learning about Uganda as it is Uganda's leading daily newspaper.

In terms of music, I am told Bobi Wine is a really popular artist.


If you have any good recommendations, please let me know! I am particularly looking for some that discuss Uganda outside of the context of war.

Three Cups of Tea

I have volunteered with several NGOs in the past few years and assume I will work with several more in the future. None of these have been perfect. I haven't been perfect. I have certainly had my share of mistakes within the 'development world' and things that I would do differently now. As I learn from more people, and as I take more international development courses, I get a better understanding of the best way to do things, but everyone is human and nothing is easy with development.

That said, Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and founder of Central Asia Institute has been in the news recently for some very large mistakes. Greg's Central Asia Institute builds schools, mostly for girls, in Pakistan and Afghanistan and was made famous from his books, Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools (both of which I loved).

60 Minutes aired a segement on Sunday putting down Greg and the CAI, which you can view HERE. (embedding is disabled).

Greg has done an interview since then, which you can read HERE.

I won't bother going into the details of what he is being accused of and what he is saying about it, as you can see it yourself from the above links.

What are my thoughts on this? First, sadness. It is clear to me that he has a good heart. It is VERY clear to me that his thoughts on peace through education for girls is very important and very true. The work he does (when he does it) it vital for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and for the world. I think he is a man with no development experience, no management experience, no business experience, who got thrust into something he knew nothing about and didn't have the knowledge or resources to handle.

I am glad that this is being brought to the public, but also nervous. There are already many people out there who don't give to global NGOs for fear or corruption and of their money not getting to the projects. I fear that this one man's actions will make that worse, and that other NGOs, who are operating with transperancy, will see a decline in donations.

I am also happy that this is being brought to the public eye because I know that CAI is not the only NGO that is being irresponsible about funding. I have had a personal experience with a NGO in the DR that, like Mortenson's, did not have a set admin rate. This was a grassroots organization where the founder profited in a large way for herself, where fabricated 'tug at the heartstrings' stories about kids were told in order to make a profit, and where I watched this founder pocket money that she said was used for the benefits of the programming. This happens too often and it needs to stop.

I think we can all learn a lot from Mortenson's mistakes. NGOs need to be completely transperant with their funding. They need to have trustworthy people on the ground monitering every project. And the admin rates need to be kept as low as possible.

Random Things

-Andi, Andrielis, and Yoandi have a school! I am so excited and relieved. It isn't the school I wanted them to go to, but that school wouldn't accept Andi. I want them to take ownership over this, and so all decision making is being done by them. They chose Santa Rosa de Linda, a good private school, and so that is where the kids will go. It is not as great as the one I had wanted, but it will accept all 3, and is on the guagua (transportation) line, so it makes the most sense for them. I am thrilled they have come to a decision and can't wait for the fall when the kids will start at this school. $900 needed for each. I have raised $680 for Andrielis, $505 for Andi, and $0 for Yoandi.

-Andrielis has begun volunteering at the local clinic and the empowerment and knowledge this is giving her is amazing. I am so proud to hear her talk about all that she is learning!

-Am reading a whole bunch of books on Uganda. Just finished Stolen Angels about the LRA abductions at St. Mary's school in Aboke. Will write a post soon with my thoughts on all the books, and a list of resources about Uganda.

-Speaking of Uganda, I leave in less than a month!! I am going to get organized this weekend (Easter) as I have both Friday and Monday off so will have lots of time.

-Aside from lots of stuff we have planned for the school, I keep thinking about going bungee jumping in the Nile River. Will I be brave enough? I hope so..... I may have to get Kate to push me off, but I will do it! (maybe...)

-I was hoping to be able to take a few days and go to Rwanda, but looks like you can't get a visa on arrival anymore, so not enough time to organize it. Hoping to go up north to Apac for a few days though, which should be interesting. I am excited to get a few different looks at Uganda.... this is something I didn't do in Ethiopia and have regretted since then. My trip to India taught me to do and see as much as possible and not stick to just one city or one NGO! We will be visiting Sseko Designs and Plan Canada and hopefully doing some tourism (like my bungee jumping!) too. We wanted to go gorilla trekking, as this is one of the things Uganda is known for, but you need a $500 USD permit, and we can't afford it! Oh well...

-Chris and I are talking about the next trip... We want to do somewhere in Central or South America where I can just focus on learning about the culture, practicing my spanish, and seeing the sights. I am thinking El Salvador currently... Was thinking Guatemala, but I want to do a few days on the beach, and can't seem to find any info about good beaches there. El Salvador has the beaches and the volcanoes! We will likely leave Boxing Day, so still lots of time to figure it out!

-Finished the grant application for prosthetic eyes for 7 of Sarah's kids. She is going to send it in and followup with them, so hopefully we will hear soon whether it was successful!