Welcome to our June 2007 Newsletter! This will be our last newsletter until the fall. We will however, keep you updated by e-mail on any major news or developments in our program over the summer.

“Family Book Club” – Literacy Effort in the Planning Stages
In an effort to improve and enrich the lives of the families we send food to, Family-to-Family is exploring the formation of a literacy program for each of our 13 receiving communities. We hope to pilot the program in Pembroke (Illinois) and Myra (Kentucky), and if successful in those two places, we’ll expand to our other 11 communities.

The project (a Family Book Club) and its curriculum are being designed by several literacy experts from the company Litlife. F-to-F’s Board of Directors has been thinking about adding a literacy component to Family-to-Family for some time, so it worked out perfectly that Pam, while patronizing a local Hastings on Hudson business, found herself seated next to a literacy expert she knew named Pam Allyn. One thing led to another, and Allyn offered her services to create a proposal for a literacy program that could work in F-to-F’s receiving communities. According to Pam Allyn, the basic outline of the idea is as follows:

“It’s an 18 month series of meetings designed to foster and support emergent literacy in both children and adults in a family. Book Club members (both adults and children) will meet once a month, using specifically designed lessons and activities which nurture concrete literacy skills and create foundations for lifelong reading and writing lives. An emphasis will be placed on the role of the read aloud: helping parents in the Club develop skills to read aloud to their children in ways that feel comfortable, affirming and language rich.

Each session of the Club will be organized around themes. LitLife, a nationally recognized organization dedicated to cultivating literacy, will provide lessons built around these themes, and also provide appropriate books to be used for activity implementation as well as for ‘read alouds’ in the Club. Parents will leave each session with a set of related books to read aloud to their children during the time between sessions.

Club Facilitators will each receive a “LitBox” to support the outcomes of the Project. Each LitBox will contain materials which support the big goals of this endeavor as well as the month to month activities for each Club. Possible materials include: monthly lessons and supplements, including all graphic organizers and literature which will match each session; writing materials for parents and children including: markers, pencils, notepads, stickies, drawing supplies, art pads, blank books for creating stories together. The LitBox will also include plastic storage bins or baskets for parents to take home to use as easy to access book storage bins.

Possible themes may include: friendship, overcoming struggle, courage, loss, special times, intergenerational connections, love, working together. Themes will have a values base to them; in addition, the literature selected will be carefully chosen to reflect both the theme and the reading skill to be developed. Each month will feature one “anchor” book, which will illuminate the theme of the month. Parents will each receive a copy of this book to bring home.

Reading skills include four major components: decoding skills, comprehension skills, building stamina, and building fluency. Each of these months will focus on one aspect of these reading strands and illuminate development of strategies and skills around these components.

Other topics of study together will include: best times to read to and with a child, storytelling activities to build listening skills, ways to organize a home literacy environment, how to help your child learn to write, and making books together based on family stories.

The Clubs should honor the local community's values and traditions. If there are special events that relate to the life of the community, the Facilitator can build a connection between these events and the Club's activities into the work of the monthly session. Liaisons in the community will do “discovery” work before Clubs begin to determine how to reach people to participate, what the needs are, and what the Clubs can do to stimulate engagement with literacy, as well as a positive connection to the larger community. Special care and attention will be given to the extreme difficulty involved in transportation, and so a budget is included for a van service and/or carpooling to and from the Club meetings. The eighteen month period will end with a Club Celebration. The project will be evaluated on an ongoing basis.”

Our Long Island chapter chair AnnMarie Ludwig, who started our “Books for Life” program, is also involved, working on obtaining supporting books to supplement the books used in the program. In addition, we plan to bring in local experts who can talk to the families about specific subjects, e.g., a legal aid lawyer who can speak about legal rights, a cook who can talk about nutritional cooking or a parenting expert to discuss parenting issues. And while we’re getting the program curriculum planned out in minute detail, we’re also applying for grants to fund it. We are VERY excited about the possibilities of this program, so anyone with any ideas/information about funding sources please let us know!

Read All About F-to-F on the Web!
Family-to-Family was just written up on the Springwise Website, and hopefully the publicity will bring us even more volunteers! Springwise is a company located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and, according to their Website, is dedicated to “scan(ning) the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation.” That’s us!

Snuggle Blankies Update
If you saw our newsletter last month, you know we’re collecting small crocheted blankets to send to orphans living in areas outside of Kampala, Uganda. (We found out about the orphans through our new chapter chair there, Jerome Kasekende.) Pam has so far received 20 beautiful blankets sent to her from generous crocheters in Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Once she has 50, she’ll ship them to Kampala, and they’ll be distributed by the Family-to-Family volunteers there. It turns out that shipping to Uganda is quite expensive, but through the Ugandan Embassy, we have found an affordable courier service (The Nile Cargo Company).

Backpacks for Uganda
In addition to the blankets, Family-to-Family is also coordinating the collection of 100 fully loaded backpacks, which we will ship to slightly older orphaned children in the same area of Uganda. The kids in the summer program that Pam runs here in Hastings on Hudson (New York) will fill some of the backpacks as a community service project, and we hope to get scout groups to join in the effort as well.

Julia Holladay, F-to-F’s chapter chair in San Diego (Ca.) is also involved in the backpacks program, and writes, “I am working with a senior Resident Director at UCSD who wants to instill a sense of giving to the students at her school. Her dorm team hosted a barbeque where they asked everyone who attended to bring school supplies, backpacks, and other necessities for young people living in the orphanage in Uganda… I am picking up the items tomorrow from the college and will pack them up go to the orphanage…”

Anyone else interested in putting one (or more!) backpacks together can send it to :

Family-to-Family Backpack Project
PO Box 255
Hastings on Hudson, New York 10706

The backpacks should be filled with a variety of toiletries, school supplies and small toys, including any of the following:

Please don’t include any damaged items, and especially no war toys! Remember that including a personal note to a child can give hope and raise spirits. You can even include a picture of your family, and if you’d like, include a self-addressed (and stamped) postcard, so the child who gets it can write back to you.

Chapter & Community Updates

Chapter News – F-to-F has two new prospective chapter chairs. As soon as they have their initial 5-10 donating families in place, they will begin sending boxes to families in our Belmont, New York and Washington County, Maine communities.

Myra, Kentucky – A woman who kindly sent both fabric for the sewing/quilting class and birthday boxes to Lois Tackett at the Manna From Heaven food pantry, recently wrote us to say: “The Manna from Heaven community is trying to grow their own food. I pick up seeds every time I go to the grocery store and send it to them.” Great idea. The address is: Manna From Heaven Seed Project, PO Box 43, Myra, Ky. 41549.

News from Two Rivers in Cairo, Illinois –“This month we will again partner with a ministry called Youthworks bringing in volunteers to help in the community of Cairo. These volunteers are adults and teens from churches all over the country who will serve for a week in Cairo. We will be blessed with volunteers for eight weeks during the summer.

They will be working on houses in the community and helping us sponsor a kids club. Kids from 5-10 will attend Two Rivers ministry every day Monday through Thursday where they will be served lunch and then participate in fun activities as they learn more about the Bible. Families participating in the Family-to-Family program will have the opportunity to fill out applications to have work done on their homes. Many of the children coming to Kids Club come from families blessed by the Family-to-Family program.

We are operating a free summer lunch at three different sites in Cairo this summer. Our staff and summer volunteers will serve lunch and then play games with kids who are too young to attend our Kids Club program. We are also offering a computer club for older children 11 years and up.

The volunteers will also be working to refurbish a house purchased by Two Rivers Ministry to be used as a safe house for children. The home has been named Hannah's House and we pray that this home will be completed this summer.

Blessings from Two Rivers Ministry in Cairo!” – Sharon Tillman

John W. Fountain
In a previous newsletter we told you about John W. Fountain, the author of the original New York Times piece about Pembroke, Illinois that inspired the founding of Family-to-Family. Here’s a link to a moving article John wrote about poverty: The price of promises by Bethany Carson - Illinois Issues. It includes thoughtful insights about both Cairo and Pembroke, and talks about Family-to-Family as well.

The Ripple Effect…
In last month’s newsletter we started “The Ripple Effect” column, in which we’ll tell you when we hear about acts of generosity inspiring other generous acts.

After reading about San Diego chapter chair Julia Holladay in our April newsletter, a 4th grade teacher in California wrote to Julia:

“I teach 4th grade. Besides teaching the Calif. state curriculum, one of my goals each year is to show children that they can reach out to others who are less fortunate in small and simple ways. For example, we have collected and recycled our empty water bottles from home, school and other classrooms all year. Our goal is to send $250 to SmileTrain to buy a cleft palate operation for one child…My students learned this year that by doing something as simple as recycling, they will make a BIG difference in the life of one child on this planet. This is HUGE for them! They are excited! I am looking for some charitable project for the next school year. We can't take on anything really big, we are just looking for SMALL ways to say WE CARE. I love the Family-to-Family concept, but I think it may be too expensive for our classroom. But I was wondering if our class could come up with one or two of the items that you send each month? …If you could take some time over the summer and think about what we could do for Family-to-Family, I would appreciate it! …We recently finished crocheting blankets for Ugandan orphans. Children are by nature generous, loving and want to share. If we show them how to do this when they are young, they will grow up and become adults that are generous and caring, much like yourself.”

As Julia puts it, “One thing truly leads to another.”

And we are continually amazed by the number of people who discover Family-to-Family on the internet… In addition to people from Canada, New Zealand (and of course Uganda) Pam also just received a query about how F-to-F operates from a consultant in Pretoria, South Africa.

GCBC – Caring for Orphans in Uganda
GCBC is an organization in Uganda that provides care and support to orphaned children and widows (as well as any family they may have), and it is these orphans who will receive the blankets and backpacks we are collecting. Here’s a little background information on GCBC and on HIV/AIDS in Uganda, provided by Ugandan chapter chair Jerome Kasekende…(his mother works at GCBC):

“Ggaba Community Based Care was started in May 1997 as a community initiative to care for and support people living with AIDS (PLWA), and to empower young people to overcome the risk of HIV/AIDS infection. Nationwide the AIDS pandemic has greatly affected our communities, which has led to total abject poverty, isolation and the infected and affected are seen as a public nuisance. Because of the demise of the parents, more and more orphans are coming to us for help. GCBC was opened 1997 with 147 clients… in 2004, the number exceeded 1000 registered clients.

GCBC’s Goals:

• To provide health care services to 6000 persons infected and affected with HIV/AIDS.
• To improve and strengthen the capacity and knowledge of family caretakers, volunteers, youths, and registered clients to respond to HIV/AIDS epidemic in their communities. (For example, GCBC proposes to conduct six workshops every year, targeted to reach over 500 young people. Ggaba will work with …other AIDS services providers to acquire training materials like leaflets and posters. After training, the young people will be encouraged to form peer clubs to continue sensitization activities within their areas, by emphasizing change of attitudes.)
• To support and maintain 180 orphans in primary and vocational training.
• To provide micro-finance facility to 75 widows, widowers, and child-headed families or caretakers to enable them up lift, and strengthen their household income.

GCBC is situated on the shores of Lake Victoria, and serves a big community. The area is characterized by both planned, and slum settlements. It has two fish-landing sites, and the main income is from the fishing industry. Half of the clients are from the nearby islands; the catchment area is multi-ethnic comprising of indigenous Uganda tribes plus migrants from neighboring countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda.

Although GCBC has been providing medical care and counseling to HIV/AIDS infected and affected persons, AIDS continues to impose devastating effects to the majority of the people. Many of them cannot afford medical treatment because most drugs are expensive. For example, on average, one requires over $63 for a month’s dose of diflucan, and it is taken for life. As a result, clients may resort to taking partial doses that they can afford that in turn complicates the disease. It is no wonder that in some low-income communities like in Ggaba catchment area, HIV opportunist infections have been known to increase.

The public health delivery system in Uganda is highly weak, mismanaged and corrupt. Most hospitals lack drugs to treat opportunistic infections. Most PLWAs who report to public health facilities are referred to private clinics that charge exorbitant fees beyond the financial ability of PLWAs. Additionally, in most cases they are misdiagnosed and given wrong medication, in spite of being unfairly charged.

AIDS takes the lives of able-bodied persons who in most cases are the heads and breadwinners of the households. People in the age bracket of 15-50 years are the most affected in the society, and they are the ones who occupy positions of responsibility in their communities. Therefore, government and communities lose a valuable source of knowledge, manpower, and providers of social and economic services. This has eroded community structure that would give support to development initiatives. Those left behind are the children below 15 years of age, and the elderly grandparents whose input to development is minimal.”

Community Profile

Lemmon, South Dakota – Interview with Pastor Florence Hoff
Written by MJ Territo

At last, they’re singin’ in the rain in Lemmon. Having suffered through several years of drought there has finally been significant rainfall in western South Dakota, which will have wide repercussions in this ranching community. First of all, everything is green, a color that hasn’t been much in evidence lately. And some of the local ponds and streams are also full, although the lakes are still low. But most importantly, the grass is growing, which means that ranchers will have hay to use and to sell if they have surplus, instead of having to buy hay for their cattle, as they have had to do for several years.

The rain is just one thing that Lemmon will be celebrating this summer. From July 10 -15, the community will mark its 100th anniversary, and its yearly Boss Cowman Rodeo Day will feature parades and dances and rodeos galore. The original Boss Cowman was the town’s founder, Ed Lemmon, who bossed the single biggest roundup in history and was the first South Dakotan to be named to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. The Lemmon school will hold an all-school reunion this year, and the community is expecting many of its far-flung sons and daughters to return for the celebrations. The town is organizing campsites and trailers on vacant lots, as well as in-home accommodations in spare rooms. The West River Shrine Circus will be in town, as will the comedy duo of Williams & Ree, two South Dakotans who have been entertaining together since they met in the late 1960’s at Black Hills State College.

Florence Hoff, pastor of the Bison Presbyterian Church, and Family-to-Family’s contact in Lemmon, reports that the 23 receiving families really enjoy the new system of receiving grocery coupons, which enables them to choose what they most need and also what they like. Many families in Lemmon prefer to cook everything from scratch, and can now purchase the basics, rather than relying on the more prepared foods that were being sent in the boxes. Also, because people are spread out across a wide area, it is now easier for one person from a particular area to pick up the grocery coupons and small personal items and distribute them among the receiving families. Pastor Florence likes the efficiency of the system, and the fact that it uses fewer natural resources to achieve the same end.

Pastor Florence reports that those families who are able to correspond regularly look forward to the letters they send and receive, and are disappointed when they don’t get a response to a letter they’ve sent. She feels that regular correspondence between sending and receiving families is an excellent way to foster understanding between people whose lives are very different, and is gratified that one pair of families in the Lemmon group has connected through having daughters of the same age. Although the families’ day-to-day experiences are very different, they have the joys and challenges of parenting in common. And that is what Family-to-Family is all about.

***PLEASE NOTE!  Last month’s community profile, of Cairo, Illinois,
was also written by MJ Territo.  Sorry MJ for forgetting your byline!***

That’s all for this month – As we mentioned up top, the next F-to-F newsletter will most likely be in September. Hope everyone has a good summer.

Best,
Pam and the Family-to-Family team
– written by Nancy Hennessee

Family-to-Family is a recognized 501(c)(3)
Our US IRS tax ID number is 57-1169066

For more information, contact Pam Koner, Family-to-Family
Tel: 914-478-0756