Abayudaya women create beautiful paperbead jewelry at Nabugoye Hill

Click to order Abayudaya paperbead jewelry
$25 including shipping. Please include the necklace number
and your mailing address.

Naume Sabano with necklaces at Nabugoye Hill, Uganda. 

Click on any necklace to see a larger version

26

33

40

46

48

50

51

52

53

56

57

58

Income-generating project helps relieve poverty

Last night I sent more than 1 million Ugandan shillings to Naume Sabano, chair of the Abayudaya Women's Association, for paperbead jewelry made by her members. The jewelry was sold in Portland, OR, where I visited the P'nai Or Jewish Renewal community last weekend to lead an Abayudaya Shabbaton. The money is only $430 but it means a lot to subsistence farmers who rarely have any cash income.

This morning I woke up to this text message from Naume: "Dear Lorne, what exciting news. I wish you could see my smile but all I could say is thank you so much. May God reward your efforts."

Click to order Abayudaya paperbead jewelry
$25 including shipping. Please include the necklace number
and your mailing address.

P'nai Or of Portland partners with Abayudaya for Tikkun Olam projects

Click to donate to the Abayudaya through PayPal or credit card

Jewish girls at the high school with their AFRIpads.

Helping support Jewish, Muslim, Christian children in Uganda

The Abayudaya ("People of Judah" in the Luganda language) first embraced Judaism around 1919. Today this remarkable Jewish community numbers about 1,000 people, basically subsistence farmers, in villages in Eastern Uganda.

P’nai Or has voted to support the Abayudaya Jewish children of Uganda and their Muslim and Christian classmates in the following three ways:

1. Supply schoolgirls with washable, reusable AFRIpad sanitary pad kits;
2. Provide bicycles to girls at the elementary school to make education more accessible;
3. Sponsor orphan students at their elementary school.

I'm a member of the Jewish Renewal shul Or Shalom in Vancouver, BC, lived in Uganda in 2009-2010 and worked in the two Abayudaya-administered schools. P'nai Or will be directly linked with the community through me. I'm a classmate of Linda Zahavi in the Kol Zimra chant leaders training with Shefa Gold, and a friend of Yehudah Winter and Joanie Levine.

Ugandan schoolgirls routinely miss four to five days a month of school because they can't afford commercial sanitary products and are uncomfortable going to school when they use bits of old clothes or newspaper. AFRIpads manufactures low-cost, cloth sanitary pad kits in Uganda to reduce menstrual-related absenteeism and provide schoolgirls with protection for up to a year.

I launched a pilot project at Semei Kakungulu High School earlier this year to give AFRIpads to the 21 Jewish students in the dorm. I'm able to get the kits for $4 and have raised funds to supply another 58 high school students. That leaves 148 girls – 108 at the high school and 40 at the elementary school – who would benefit from the kits provided by P’nai Or fundraising. The current need equals $592.

Bikes make education more accessible for girls.

Many girls live too far from the school to walk every day. So they stay in the dorm, separating them from their families, and putting financial pressure on the school to house and feed them. If they have bicycles, they could ride from home and stay with their families. 20 bikes at a cost of about $60 each would be a great help. Total: $1,200.

Joel, Nathan and Shalon are orphan siblings.

I have partnered with Aaron Kintu Moses, director of Hadassah Primary School (unrelated to the Hadassah organization), and Vancouver donors to sponsor the education of eight orphans at the school. Another five orphans are waiting for sponsorship. The cost is $240 a year each, for a total of $1,200. Except for minor fees to wire the funds, all the money goes to the kids to help pay for uniforms, books, school supplies, dorm fees and other expenses that are usually beyond their reach.

As part of this project, P’nai Or children and teens can develop pen pals with the Ugandan children as they are taught their lessons in English. They do not have computers.

The total sought for the Abayudaya is $2,992: $592 for AFRIpads, $1,200 for bicycles, and $1,200 for sponsorship.

Help empower Abayudaya girls with AFRIpads

Click to donate to my work in Uganda through PayPal or credit card

Top: Jewish students at Semei Kakungulu High School

in Uganda with AFRIpad kits. Bottom: The cotton/nylon
kit includes cover, three pads with wings and two without.

A monthly challenge, a sustainable solution
Millions of girls living in developing countries like Uganda miss up to 20% of the school year simply because they cannot afford to buy commercial sanitary products when they menstruate. The Abayudaya Jewish girls and their Moslem and Christian classmates face this same challenge. They use newspaper or rags and miss four-five days of school each month for lack of sanitary products. This absenteeism has enormous consequences on girls' education and academic potential.
The AFRIpads menstrual kitsAFRIpads manufactures low-cost, reusable, washable cloth sanitary pads in Uganda in order to curtail the high rates of menstrual-related absenteeism among primary and secondary school girls. They are made by local Ugandan women giving them the opportunity to generate an income and send their kids to school. The menstrual kit provides school girls with affordable, environmentally-friendly, washable menstrual protection for up to 1 year at about 20% of the total cost of a year's supply of commercial sanitary napkins. AFRIpads is a sustainable solution for girls and women greatly enhancing their health. It also gives them the opportunity to continue work and school during their period, thereby improving their future progress and development.

How to buy AFRIpad Kits for Ugandan girls
Help a Ugandan school girl fulfill her academic potential and help AFRIpads stimulate rural industry and employment. It costs only $4 for one kit, $8 for two, $12 for three, and so on. Here's how: Click to donate to my work in Uganda through PayPal or credit card