Love Mercy

72km north of a town called Lira lies a clinic - The Kristina Health Clinic. What should be an hour drive is drawn out to 2 as you navigate the potholes and rocks along the bumpy red dirt road. Rows of sunflowers and mudhuts here and there catch your eye, the window provides an insight into a world unknown. The clinic comes into sight; three stand alone buildings offering hope through basic medical services. The mango tree provides shelter from the blazing Ugandan sun as mothers to be wander the grounds, anticipating the arrival of another family member. The ambulance parked onsite is on call for emergencies, ready to travel along that red road which you came. It is peaceful. We are incredibly proud of the Kristina Health Centre. Opened in 2012, the centre was a dream of co-founder Julius Achon. His mother died from a gunshot wound in 2004. The clinic now stands in the village where this happened. Had she access to basic medical care, Kristina would have survived.

"The empowerment of rural women and girls is essential to building a prosperous, equitable and peaceful future for all on a healthy planet"  - Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General  The1 billion of the world's population that continue to live in poverty are heavily concentrated in rural areas. Of this, over 2/3 are women.   Women in rural areas are responsible for 43% of agricultural labour force, for rural development, improving food security and reducing & eradicating rural poverty. Their lives depend on natural resources, the environment and the climate in which they live.  In the same breath, rural women are far worse off than rural men. In developing nations women in rural areas lack access to education. They lack access to resources. They lack access to health care clean water. Women in rural areas most often do not have their basic needs met, because of both their remote location and their gender.  The empowerment of rural wo

Bump, Birth and Baby, Wollongong | August 4th  This event is all about empowering mums and women.  Bring your gal pals along and share brunch, while learning about the Get your tickets here Run Nation Film Festival, Sydney |  9 - 11th  We are so excited to announce that we are the Charity Partner for The RunNation Film Festival presented by Traveling Fit. A portion of ticket sales will go toward Love Mercy, so be sure to invite your friends along! Expo Level 4 of the International Convention Centre will hold the exhibition. Here you will get to meet with 100+ local and international brands & gain fitness and nutritional advice. Speakers - Real Stories |  Eloise Wellings  10am - 12pm | Buy your ticket  here . Our very own co-founder and Dual Olympian Eloise Wellings will join two others in sharing their inspiring stories of challenge and accomplishment. Don't forget to come say hi to Elzy on the day. Film Premiere - Tracktown 12.30pm - 2pm |    Get your

Love Mercy Foundation has been operating Cents for Seeds for the last 7 years in remote villages in Northern Uganda. On each of our trips, we could see the progression and improvement of our villages in a tangible way - the women and families had more food, they seemed happier, but we couldn't say for sure.  We did some pretty significant research in February to try to confirm what we had hoped- that Cents for Seeds was working. You can read the full report here BUT one of the key findings was that access to water has the highest correlation with levels of wellbeing in the communities studied in Northern Uganda. People who have to walk 10km or more (up to 3 times per day) have lower levels of Wellbeing. Which seems sort of obvious, but this means that, no matter how well the Cents for Seeds program is going, unless the community has access to clean, safe drinking water, the levels of wellbeing will not reach the highest point they could.  Enter.... Water for Africa.   W

LOVE ANOTHER MOTHER  Double your impact this mother's day! When loving a mother here, love one in Uganda too through the gifts below. 1.   Cents for Seeds Gift Card  Change another Mother's life in Uganda with just $30. She is given a seed loan, tools and access to educational workshops to ensure success for her crop.  The result?  Food on the table, children in school and improved wellbeing. Your gift is changing lives.   Gift Card - Cents for Seeds    2. Midwife Wages Midwives help create mums! Provide the Kristina Health Clinic with a midwife's wages for 1 month. In this month, a midwife might deliver up to 30 babies safely to expectant Mumma's in Northern Uganda. Gift Card - Midwifes Wages 3. Our Partners   T he Wanderers Travel Co  The Wanderer's Travel Co make the finest leather travel goods! We are OBSESSED with the Venetian Passport Travel Clutch, and we think your Mum will be too! The best part? $10 from the sale of eve

NOVEMBER, 2017  At the beginning of the 2017, I expressed my interest in joining the trip in November.  I had seen friends go before, and I must admit I was slightly jealous. When I learnt that the fundraising amount was $5,000, I totally balked. I couldn't do that! I was a nobody! Not to mention that many people in my circle already supported Love Mercy, and I couldn't possibly expect them to give more. I didn't reply to Cait for a while, trying to process and work out if I could actually make this happen.  One night, thinking and praying, I felt I just had to go. I could not miss this opportunity. Specifically in regard to raising money, I remembered that this was not about me, and that I should never put a limit on people and their generosity. Not. About. Me. This is about women, men and children on the other side of the world that needed me to give them a way to survive. No, not live, but survive. In a nation ravished by war and poverty that seeps into people

Every $30 invested in to Cents for Seeds is spent like this... Training, equipping, and empowering women with seeds to then go on to feed their families for an entire year. Here is a glimpse into exactly how...  1. Registration   Women who are the most in need in their village register with their local leaders 2. Workshops   Educational workshops teach the necessary skills for planting successful crops  3. Distribution   When the rain arrives, our team starts weighing and handing out each loan in a central location This year we are capturing more data than ever with each loan. Every woman is being issued with a photo ID $30 includes the provision of a hand held gardening tool To ensure that only one loan per person is taken, fingers are marked with ink  Once the seeds are all distributed, women then have monthly meetings with their coordinators and our agronomists conduct field visits to support their pro

Anyess (left) and Betty (right) who are our longest serving midwives at KHC A visit to Kristina Health Centre is always an exciting one. You never quite know what to expect or who you will find there. Being an extremely remote area, the Health Centre, which is classified as a Health Centre level 3, treats many and varied illnesses across a population of over 20,000 people.  When we arrived on Wednesday the midwives and nurses had just completed their free immunization service for babies. They were also being trained by the local health officer on the updated Ugandan immunisation schedule. After the generosity of so many of our donors over Christmas, we were able to hire 3 more midwives in January, taking the number of midwives to Kristina to 5! Once they were finished their training I asked our longest serving midwife Anyess ,who has just had a baby herself, if she could take me to the maternity ward. She went ahead of me to ask the mother who had just delivered if i

Read Semmy's (left) story below  Women in Uganda are the caretakers for their families. Our Cents for Seeds program provides a local woman with a 30 kilogram loan of seeds such as beans or sesame, as well as a hand held gardening tool, educational workshops and access to savings groups, empowering them to reinvest their earnings into food, education and health care. They also have access to savings and loans groups that enable them to borrow money for emergencies or larger household purchases. The women then give back their loan of seeds at the end of their first harvest so it can be passed on to another like her, making it a sustainable project while reaching more communities. She can also elect to receive another loan the following year if she still needs to. Here’s how Cents for Seeds has impacted Ogyang Semmy. "I am called Odyang Semmy. I am 35 years old and I have five children. In 2012, my husband died from sickness and left me a widow. I have been part of

She was an Olympic hopeful, he was a child soldier. Here’s how founders Eloise Wellings, Julius Achon and their friend Caitlin Barrett first came together to create real change in Uganda. Eloise and Julius on her first visit to Uganda in 2009  As long as she can remember, Eloise Wellings wanted to compete at the Olympics. As a child she would visualise winning gold ­– standing proudly on her makeshift phone book podium, singing the Australian national anthem at the top of her lungs. All she wanted to do was run. Julius Achon’s childhood was spent in the village of Awake in rural Northern Uganda, carrying water for miles for his family. At age 12, Julius was abducted by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army and forced to be a child soldier. During his captivity, he endured the trauma of both witnessing and being forced to carry out violent acts, living in a daily environment of atrocities. After three months, Julius had the opportunity to run for his life. A government

In 2011 Eloise and I came to Uganda on a trip to help plan the vision for Cents for Seeds. Eloise went on a training run (as she does, while I sleep…) and met a woman called Margaret from a village called Abako. They chatted for 10km or so as she rode her bike faster than usual to keep up with Eloise. Eloise told her all about Cents for Seeds, our micro loan agriculture program for women in northern Uganda. Margaret said that she thought Abako would love a program like that and today, 7 years later, we visited Abako to begin Cents for Seeds there with 250 women. It is one of two new areas that we are moving in to in 2018, bringing the total number of women in the program for 2018 to 13,800. That's 13,800 women who are now earning an income and providing for their families.  Despite never having been to Abako before we were given a warm greeting like we were long lost friends returning home. Their village was beautiful. It seemed greener than other areas given it is th

Anyess Aceng (prounced An-yes A-cheng) is a 26-year-old midwife who has recently returned to work at the Kristina Health Centre after giving birth to her first baby three months ago. She is from a town called Dokolo, but lives on site in the staff accommodation with her baby Shalon and her babysitter. Anyess’ husband comes from Alebtong and is a high school teacher. Anyess began working at the center in July 2016, when the maternity service commenced. 8:00am: Anyess begins work at the Kristina Health Centre Anyess’ day begins with the completing paperwork required for the USAID Voucher Program that all the maternity patients are on. Anyess tallies up the costs associated with the care for each patient. 9:30 - 10am: Patients start arriving at the clinic. As the pregnant women begin to arrive at the health center, Anyess puts the paperwork aside and commences the antenatal clinic. On average it takes about 40 minutes to see each patient. A lot of women have