I am taking a Break and Need your Help!

OH... so I have an update that is hard for me to admit... I need your HELP!

I have been put on bed rest for the month of October by my doctor due to health concerns that linger from my last trip to Uganda last month.

I am going to be fine but I need some rest to recuperate and heal. Working OneMama, ShaBoom, and SER Staffing Consulting jobs to support OneMama does not give me the time to do that so I am putting everything except my SER staffing consulting on HOLD for this month.

Here is where I need your Help...

If you feel inspired by the work of OneMama and would like to take on some of the work load to keep things running while I am out on bed rest then please email info@onemama.org. Kristen will help set you up with OneMama volunteering to help us with our goal to keep the clinic open for when I return at Christmas.

Please know that I am so grateful for all of your support and prayers for me and the OneMama project.

I am touched by so many of you who have reached out with so much love and kind words...

Thanks and hopefully I should be back to my energetic self by my birthday November 9th to hopefully throw a little soiree..

Sending all Love and Light,
Siobhan Neilland | Founder OneMama

OneMama Uganda - August 09 Report

Hello my Dearest Friends and Family,

Wow! This OneMama is in AWE! It seems every trip gets more intense as I continue to do this work. It was a very long and wild journey.

Miracles Happen! We had another successful trip and accomplished the impossible in a very short time with MANY obstacles. Apparently, miracles are what I depend on and what keeps the OneMama project alive. The many obstacles I endured to arrive at success this trip, once again made me question if I could keep doing this. Yes, I admit, I wanted to quit this time, but all is good and I am back on track again. This is my life’s work. The lesson I learned was to not get attached to any of the good or the bad, it just keeps changing no matter what your plans.

Here is what we completed this trip to get us to Jan 2010:

• 6 months of birthing kits and birthing supplies for the birthing clinic
• 6 months of Malaria tests and treatments for adults and children for the medical clinic
• 6 months of additional medical supplies for the medical clinic
• 6 months commitment and pay for an on-site medical nurse
• Built a 10x10 treatment room in the medical clinic so we could move out of Jamira’s sitting room, which was being used as the treatment room. We still are raising money to build real buildings, but this is one step closer.
• We completed an unfinished simple room for the nurse to stay while he is on site all week.
• Implemented more structure to the vocational crafts program, which is designed to help the community and clinics become self-sustaining.
• Created a new line of clothing designs for the OneMama collection to sell that will generate the income for another 6 months (75% of medical supplies come from the purchase of this collection). New African print dresses, shirts, bags, and dolls. They are beautiful and all one of a kind with OneMama tags. New groovy hats that are hand woven from the village community, and more baskets and jewelry. All especially made through the OneMama vocational program.
• We had an official land ceremony in front of all community leaders where the land was donated to the OneMama Organization to build the future buildings.
• We received a generous offer from a local community leader to provide us with another piece of land to build bandas to host volunteers' on the Nile River. This is so exciting, now we will be able to open up our volunteer opportunities to more people by next year.
• We took care of legal land matters with our local lawyer, CBO and NGO papers, and general overall legal matters that concern this kind of project.
• We revised blue prints for the vision of the solar clinic complex. It will house a birthing clinic, a medical clinic and a community vocational center for large community gatherings and teaching. It will be nice to move out of mud huts and Jamira’s house as the clinic. We are still trying to raise $200,000 to complete this.
• Had extensive meetings with local OneMama Directors, who donate their time to keep the project running. We implemented some ways for them to do local fundraising and create revenue for the clinic in addition to OneMama collection sales.
• It is important to keep in mind that all OneMama Ugandan directors VOLUNTEER and work for other NGO’s for very little money ($1500-$4000 a year). We are not able to pay them salaries, only try to reimburse them their phone and transportation costs. My hope is by next year to get the donations needed to pay them. This project would not succeed with out them and they truly are givers when they themselves could use help.
• They really show us what it means to volunteer your time and energy when they themselves could use a helping hand. My hope is by next year I can get someone to donate towards salaries for them. This project would not succeed with out them.
• A miracle happened! When I arrived we realized we were short $3,000 US dollars to buy birthing kits, medical supplies and support clinic costs. All of our supporters got together in a crazy facebook and network email explosion, which helped us raise all the money we needed before I left. We were able to take care of all that we needed to keep the clinic running another 6 months.

THANK YOU! We really are united in helping each other through this world.

Obstacles:
Seriously, don’t you want to know the juicy details? This trip was brutal. I usually have a lot more fun on these journeys but this trip became about getting through it alive and home in one piece, without quitting!

• I got something like a swine flu in Dubai on my way to Uganda and was so sick I was unable to function for my first 5 days. Nothing like having a fever with chills in a thatched roof banda and none of your remedies to get you better. I could not leave for the village until I got better so as not to bring the sickness to the clinic.
• One of the scariest things on the trip was the strange man who tried to break into my thatched banda at 2am while I was sleeping. I thought I was going to be attacked, but luckily something scared him away just in time. I have to say I never slept very well the rest of the trip.
• I had an encounter with an obsessed taxi driver who brought things to help “OneMama” to my banda at midnight and then would not leave. I luckily found a way to scare him off.
• One of my many meltdowns this trip occurred when I realized we were short donations of about $3,000 US. The clinic is now supporting more people because other NGO’s in the area are closing down due to the credit crisis. We have more demand and the lack of funds could not get us enough basic supplies to get us through to January 2010. Graciously, after a call for help, a miracle happened and our supporters began magically donating. Within a week we had all the money we needed.
• Bug bites from HELL – I had an allergic reaction to these bugs that turned into blood blister all over my limbs. I then experienced an allergic reaction to the spray they use to kill the bug that made me very ill and for another 3 to 4 days. I was not walking around very much those days.
• Cultural Differences are begging to take root. The village and community that this clinic supports doesn’t understand why I have not built the clinic yet and are afraid I have lied to them like so many before me. This is heartbreaking. I have come short in raising the $150,000-$200,000 I need to build the real clinic. In Uganda you build as you go, you don’t wait until you have all the money like we do here. So we are taking the bricks that so many have donated and are beginning to build a foundation of one of the structures so they feel that the dream of the OneMama clinic is still in action.
• Most organizations would wait until they get Grants, foundation money, or a large donation before they start. I did not. I used the last little bit of my savings and some crazy entrepreneurial ideas to generate the little money we have now. I have tried to explain this to the community but it is not an easy concept to translate. I try to explain that I have faith money will come if we learn how to take care of our basic needs and become self-supporting. But these are people who have done without their whole lives and that kind of big dream just feels like a “lie”. So heart breaking. Lets all hold the dream together so that it does not become a lie.
• The biggest meltdown that I had this trip was when one of the key people who helps us in Uganda thought I was taking money. They did not understand that I have sacrificed all my own money and work two other jobs to pay for what we lack in donations and the US operations of OneMama. They thought I was taking a salary and donations and that was why we did not have money for the remaining supplies. This brought tears to my eyes and humbled me! So in case any of you reading this wonder, all monies donated to OneMama go to OneMama programs based in Uganda. There is only one paid salary and that is the onsite clinic nurse. All the US operation, legal, and consultant fees have up until this point been paid by me or donated by those individuals. I have never taken money from OneMama, only given to it. This was an important learning experience that no matter what, I will not always be judged by what I actually do, but what people perceive I do and sometimes what people before me have done. So many before I, have come here and tried to take advantage of them and their way of life. It is hard to know that I can not change that overnight but maybe someday it will be different, and with that I offer myself to the universe and leave the results up to the divine. This is my lifes work...this is what I am here to do.
• I found myself recruiting from my Blackberry in a hut in the village to save my consulting contract. My consulting work is what I live on and supports this work with OneMama. My Client became unexpectedly busy during a usually slow time of year and while I was on my planned leave, I had to support them at this critical juncture. I worked at midnight every night from a blackberry in a place that had no electricity, running water or internet. Have you seen what a resume looks like on a blackberry? Not an easy task, but I did it because it had to be done!
• Then there was the last spooky piece of information. Some of my very close friends in San Francisco dreamed I would have some of these things happen on this trip, before I left and while I was gone. It really shows how very connected we all are.
• Riots broke out only a few weeks after I left in the district our clinic resides in and in the major city of Kampala...things are not as easy right now as they have been.

Sweet Moments:
Mama Jamira is really the reason I do all of this. She inspires me to be a better woman and be joyful while I am doing it.

• Mama Jamira walking me through the garden, putting together a combination of herbs and natural medicines that healed all my sicknesses within hours of taking her remedies. I am amazed by her skill, insight and abilities more and more everyday.
• The heart of OneMama is Mama Jamira and her amazing ability to make magic happen. Daily she assists in delivering babies safely and has for over 20 years! She is the OneMama!
• I met some new people that started projects in Uganda, who I really bonded with and helped me not feel so alone
• I found a new level of faith and connection to draw upon and protect me when things felt scary.

My faith renewed even after all that happened this trip...
I renewed my faith that we really are all connected as ONE. When I could not continue, wanted to quit and we didn’t have the money we needed, all of you held me and OneMama up raising the money and mostly my HOPE. This project is no longer mine and actually never was. It is all of ours. Like Glide says, we are the “beloved community” no matter where you are in the world...

Still recovering from Jet Lag and the dreaded culture shock...
Every trip I come to terms with living full time in two worlds.
I am back to working as a consultant, and have officially launched the ShaBoomProducts.com cosmetics line to support OneMama. The new OneMama collection is ready to be purchased on OneMama.org after a weekend of modeling for pictures to post. Yes, I am already full speed ahead and have not even been back 2 weeks. I still have not conquered the 7000 emails still waiting for me...so if you are one of them...I am sorry, I promise I will get there.

I send you all love, light and protection,
Siobhan “Nakiganda” Neilland