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One Mango Tree Hearts

This year for Valentine's Day, we're kicking off our "Share the Love" campaign. It started as a fun product made from our scrap fabric and herbs. However, the favorite holiday of lovebirds happens to fall around the same time as the new year's first school term in Uganda. In our workshop, that means that among our ladies, 84 children will be hurried off to nursery, primary or secondary school this month. This send-off is a labor of love, even more so when you learn that almost half of these children are orphans - children of relatives, friends and neighbors who were killed during the war.

One Mango Tree helps our tailors with school fees - providing $15 per term for nursery, $25 for primary and $50 for secondary.

So, to celebrate a much-loved holiday, we're suggesting that you Share the Love - buy a cute little heart sachet for your sweetheart, friend, mom, sister, grandma - and 100% of the price (minus the labor we paid Concy to make the hearts) will help us pay school fees.

And remember, you can Share the Love all year round. There's always room for another heart.

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Spring Break in Gulu

Auma Lucy's daughter Ruth, Ayel-Rwot Ruth, primary 7 at Mary Imaculate

photo credit Pete Muller

Spring break came to a close this week in Gulu as students packed up their trunks and school bags and headed back to class for the next term. This is an exciting term for the children of our One Mango Tree tailors - we're launching our school fees stipend program, which provides a lump sum payment to our tailors for each school term. We've been collecting donation gifts from our online shop, as well as funds raised from events for the past six months. I'm happy to announce that between donation gifts and profits, our school fees program is now sustainable.

For each child in nursery school, tailors receive $15 per term. For primary school students, the stipend is $25, and for secondary school it is $50. For most of our tailors' children, this fully covers the costs of their school fees, which greatly reduces the cost burden - allowing our tailors' salaries to go further at home. It also gives the tailors some leverage to improve their child's education, as they can also use the stipend to reduce the costs of sending the child to the best school available. Lucy chooses to do so, sending a some of the older orphaned boys that she cares for to vocational programs so that they can learn a trade.

We offer the school fees program to our tailors after they've worked with One Mango Tree consistently for one year, and we monitor the program by requiring that tailors submit receipts to verify payment, and we also collect report cards to review at the end of each term. For more detailed information on development and implementation of our program, contact us at info@onemangotree.com.

Interested in supporting the program? Check out our donation gifts section and give the gift of education.