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A STORY FROM AFRICA

Greetings from Uganda. 10/28/08

It has been a while since I last communicated to you. I hope all is going well.

I am ok and the gals too. Charlene is now 1 year and 8 months old now talking and able to use a potty by her self. Except Chantal 4 years and 6 months is not so well she broke her left hand above the elbow while playing 8 days back. She is now in POP and went back to school yesterday after a week at home. She will be ok with time.

My work with the mothers is going on slowly and well. At the moment it is a rainy season and we are planting vegetables and some fruits in our groups both for food and sale.

Yesterday when I woke up at 6:00am, my baby woke up too and when she wakes before 7.30am she doesnt want any other person except me because she breastfeeds at 7:00 am before I leave home. At that time I had to prepare her food and drinks before I get to work so I just got her in the ERGO-Bag and she nursed as I prepared her food. She couldnt resist the attachment and fell asleep again. I took her to our bed as she slept I left for work with my older daughter Chantal. The Ergo baby carrier makes my life so easy!

I was able to attend the VELB- ILCA Conference in Vienna (A worldwide view on breastfeeding, conference) 1-3 October. It was such an amazing trip for me from which I learnt so many things and I met nice people too. Iam currently working on a small project from what I learned and shared at the conference.

At the conference I took some of the craft materials that we make from some of the money I got from the sale of ERGO bags that I had left and I was able to raise Euros 120. This is part of the money that I have saved to contribute to the Euros 2000 project that we are planning for January - March 2009.

We make table mats, wallets, mats , baskets and other crafts from local materials which we sale to get more money for our project. We plan on expanding our products which we can sell to our friends outside Uganda because here at home the market is not so readily available.

I now have a new boy friend Victor and he is very loving to me and my girls. He bought one of the last bags I had left for his sister with a baby. He was so fascinated when he came home and found me doing my work (cooking, cleaning) with my baby at the back and asked me where I got it. I told him about my friends at Ergobaby who gave it to me and said he had not seen it any where.

Thanks for supporting me.

I wish you all the best and hoping to hear from you.

Wishing you good elections.

Sincererely yours, Josephine

A lot has happened since my first testimonial. I will start with the good news that I won a photo contest with WABA world Breastfeeding week which appears on the World Breastfeeding week Action folders and poster.

I got membership with International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA) through their partner programme Wisconsin Lactation Consultant Association (WALC). I was also invited for their annual conferences in USA - 23rd -27th July and Austria in October 1-3. I could not raise money for the one in USA but I am trying to raise money for the conference in Austria- Vienna.

I am currently working on my World Breastfeeding week activities to which I plan to sell some of the balances for the Ergo bags.

People admire me when they see me carrying my baby the ERGO way! Its such a sleek bag. My baby loves the bag too and when I hold the bag she feels like being carried because she breast feeds even when I am carrying her. This bag has made my work around the home easy especially when I do not have someone to help me! However, people tell me its expensive and that is why I have not managed to sell all of them.

From the money I sold from the ERGO bags, I have been able to train 20 more mothers in the mother support groups on breastfeeding and my collaboration with my local hospital is improving. I also covered the transport costs for the course in Integrated Infant and Young child feeding counseling I attended organised by IBFAN -Uganda and I was among the 15 people selected out of the 50 trained to become national trainers of Trainers. This may be a door opening for me. Thanks you for the bags!

I have completed a few activities for the World breastfeeding week some of the ideas I picked from LLI website others I developed myself and I am happy about it. I am still fundraising for activities but I am scared I have not raise the budget yet the time is running out but I still have hope.

I put ERGObaby Baby Carrier as one of my list of the sponsors that have made me achieve my dream to be displayed during the exhibition. I will keep in touch and send our love to the Ergo Baby Team.

We truly appreciate your support!

Sincerely Yours

Josephine

You cannot imagine the smiles all over my face when I am sending you this mail! This is my first time carrying my baby, Charlene, using a professional carrier, this time the ERGO baby carrier! 3 People have asked me where I got it.

I have a little story I want to share with all of you at ERGO Baby Carrier, Inc. I hope you will find time to read it. When I had my first daughter Chantal, 3 years and 3 months ago 24th May 2004, I went through a lot of hard times when it came to carrying my baby to hospital, about 3 kilometres to my garden and 3 kilometres from the garden, Monday to Friday. I devised means by using a cloth and tied her on my back or lift her on my shoulders because I wanted her to be close to me all the time because I wanted to breastfeed her, as it was cheap and healthy for me to afford. I could walk half way and take a rest in the Jackfruit tree (see photo 2 attached) for about 20 minutes and then later proceed home. When I got a job in May 2006 that I could work 3 days a week 9am- 5pm for $150, and my days were reduced to 3 garden days when I would do the same, and I should say it has been very difficult. I have experienced serious back pains especially at the behind part of the shoulders. I had my second daughter, Charlene, on 19th February 2007 who is now 6 months and not much has changed as far as carrying her is concerned. I devised means using ordinary cloth. I have managed through with God's Guidance and protection. I am sure this pain is going away with the use of my present.

Because I have interests in breastfeeding, I read a lot of information on bf and here I came to read information by LLL (La Leche League) USA when they organized their 50th anniversary. I read about you as one of the sponsors. Thanks for your continued support to breastfeeding. I sent an email to your company and I did not know who I was sending it to. I should say She or He is a God sent person for having decided to send me the "MAGIC" bag I call it. Send my sincere thanks to Sydney who replied to my mail.

When I was called to come and pick my parcel, I almost failed to sleep at night because a lot was running through my mind, imagining so many things, some work at home with my baby at the back, reduced weight, stress reduction, etc.

Thank you so much! You have not given this bag to me alone but to my children, too. I will have more time to spend with my baby because I almost left her home because of the kilos she is gaining. For those to come my project for supporting, promoting and protecting breastfeeding that I am working on because I take off time the days when I am not at my official job and night to work on my project. It has saved me some $s almost half of my monthly salary that I would have used to buy a carrier. I want to see my self independent in the near future supporting breastfeeding and other mothers going through difficult situations with little support from their partners because I feel the best thing I can give to children is spending enough time with them and learning from their development. I have a dream of happy children and happy mothers. Thanks\ you for my wonderful present! It is helping me to add on my savings for my dream project. I am going to add $50 on to my project account with currently $355. It is going to increase to $405. If there are any people you know who can support me with my project in any way I will be very grateful.

I cannot thank you enough and I have nothing much to give you If only I could post a cabbage or jackfruit or one of the plants in my garden I could. I invite those of you who can come to Uganda and my home in particular for days because I have nothing much. I can only pray for you and wish you all the best and ask the good Lord to give you more wisdom. I will keep in touch and tell you how I am moving on with my ERGO baby carrier.

On Sunday I was making juice for lunch and my baby did not want to keep down. I just picked my ERGO and carried her and here she was breastfeeding while I was making the juice! How magical the ERGO baby carrier is! Thanks so much

See here with sample photos attached. Please let me know if you needed post the photos, I can send them too. These may not be clear photos but I will send the best ones soon.

Thank you so much!

Sincerely yours,
Josephine Nalugo