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How It Started… First there was Paddy… Paddy Luzige has experienced first hand the destructive affects of poverty. As an on-and-off again street kid in Uganda, Paddy’s own traumatic life experiences fostered a deep passion in him to do whatever he could to ensure that other Ugandan children did not have to suffer in the way that he did. His work led him to Kabalagala, a slum hard hit with poverty and the AIDS epidemic, and with children and street kids struggling to stay alive. There, he is a community leader, founder and pastor of New Life Church. About 80 percent of the church’s members are under the age of 18, so much of Paddy’s focus has been on working with children, many whose parents have died of AIDS. He has instituted several children's programs to keep them off the street and works closely with the local community to help place orphaned children with extended families. Paddy says that he founded New Life because, rather than focus on the theory of religion, he wanted to use faith to reach out to the poor and organize projects that help them—and teach them how to help themselves. Over the years, those projects have grown in scope, and range from after school programs with computer and drama classes. In addition, Paddy has also set up a school at the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Karambi, a place where many children are left disadvantaged because of the rebel groups that have waged war there. Then there was Jane... Jane Dicker grew up in a children’s home in England that was run by her parents. Her deep attachment to Uganda started at the age of four when she first began living with children who had fled from northern Uganda to escape the conflict there. Jane first visited Uganda in 2000, then again in 2001. In 2003, she moved to Uganda for a year to teach. For five months, she lived in a village with a Ugandan family and experienced first hand what life without electricity or running water was like. Jane’s time in Uganda was paramount in enabling her to empathize with the daily and ongoing struggle for survival that the majority of Ugandans face everyday. For the remaining time Jane was in Uganda, she lived with Pastor Paddy and his family. She taught teachers how to teach literacy, she taught adult literacy, she taught children English and Art, but more importantly she continued her steep learning curve. What consistently struck her was how hard life was for so many people in Uganda. Death was a weekly event. It was not reserved for the elderly but rather swept through all sectors of the community, killing indiscriminately. When she left Uganda, she knew that she would return again. Another beginning... In 2001, Joanna Breitstein, a healthcare reporter working in New York, began to write about AIDS issues. In particular, she began to examine the issue of how antiretroviral drugs got—or in many cases, didn’t get—from companies to patients in Africa. It was during that time that Paddy Luzige began e-mailing people looking for AIDS information to distribute in his community. He sent one of his e-mails to the general inbox of the magazine where Joanna works. It was a shot in the dark—this pastor in Uganda reaching out to a reporter that he had never met. But his words resonated with Joanna, and she wrote back to him. At the time, Joanna was writing a story about Pfizer’s program of donating Diflucan, an anti-AIDS drug. Joanna was able to direct Paddy’s efforts in order to get the Diflucan to take care of some of the disadvantaged children he looked after. Paddy wrote back and let Joanna know about this happy event, and over the next few years, Joanna and Paddy continued to keep in touch, e-mailing each other quite often. In 2004, Joanna applied for and was one of 10 journalists in the world to win a Kaiser Family Foundation media fellowship, designed to encourage reporting on AIDS. With that backing, she traveled to Uganda, and past the tarmac road into Kabalagala. After so long, she finally met Paddy in person, along with many of the children and community members she had heard so much about. She had the opportunity to listen to their story, as well as the story of AIDS in Africa. When Joanna got back to New York City, she couldn’t forget the faces of the children she had met in Uganda, a multitude of them AIDS orphans. She couldn’t get away from the fact that it seemed possible to help them—and yet, she felt powerless to do anything on her own. But time went by… In 2005, Jane began working on her masters project on AIDS in Uganda at the University of Cincinnati. Looking for some contacts, Paddy put Jane and Joanna in touch. While their initial emails were filled with advice about Jane’s project, these two women began to realize that they both had a deep passion for helping the people of Kabalagala. Was there anything they could do? Jane and Joanna met in New York, stayed up all night talking, and realized they shared a few beliefs that could enable a project: In Kabalagala, a little bit goes a long way. Joanna and Jane saw how little it took to change children’s lives in Kabalagala. For just a few dollars, children could go from living out on the street, malnourished, without schooling, to having the opportunity of a productive future. They felt dissatisfied with current giving options. Joanna and Jane supported other philanthropies, but often felt disconnected from their contribution. They didn’t know if their donation was reaching the people that needed it, and never knew how it made a difference. They felt with e-mail, digital cameras, and other technology, it would be possible to more closely connect the donor community with how their dollars were being put to work on the ground—and that the feedback loop would benefit all stakeholders. There was benefit in starting small. So many people are overwhelmed with the need for aid in Africa. One common response is to shut off from the issue, figuring that there is nothing that person can do to help. Instead, Jane and Joanna knew they couldn’t help all of Africa, but they couldn’t ignore how it was possible to help one child at a time. Moral/ethical obligation to help. Media reports widely cite Uganda as an AIDS “success story.” Many global NGOs have offices in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, and white SUVs touting the names of these groups fill parking lots in town. However, when Joanna and Jane arrived in Kabalagala, a slum just outside Kampala, there was no evidence of that success story they read so much about, or the presence of the aid organizations residing in Kampala. Though Kabalagala has epidemic rates of the HIV/AIDS, no patients were on treatment, and they simply suffered through the virus, and died. This also created a dangerous situation, since it left the youngest children without a parent or both parents, who were often left to fend for themselves after their parents died. Having seen the reality of the situation through their own eyes, they decided it was time to do their part to make a difference. They realized they could do more together, than apart, and began to formulate the plans for a project. They knew they had one key advantage in helping create a project that would help the people in Kabalagala—strong partners and experience in that community. Paddy’s vision for a primary school in Kabalagala offered a starting point. Since the other schools in this community were being run as for-profit businesses, a sizable percentage of the school fees were lining the pockets of the affluent businessmen who owned them—and in effect, blocking the children who needed it most from attending school. Paddy dreamed of running a school which was not-for-profit—one in which every penny would be directed toward the people most in need. In 2006 Paddy, Jane and Joanna formed The International HUG Foundation (i.HUG), a non-profit whose mission is to reach out to disadvantaged and orphaned children in Uganda by providing them with an education, access to healthcare, and an environment that fosters their physical, social and emotional development. In order to ensure the sustainability of our mission, i.HUG strives to use local resources and to leverage our successes to benefit the entire community.

How It Started…

First there was Paddy…

Paddy Luzige has experienced first hand the destructive affects of poverty. As an on-and-off again street kid in Uganda, Paddy’s own traumatic life experiences fostered a deep passion in him to do whatever he could to ensure that other Ugandan children did not have to suffer in the way that he did.

His work led him to Kabalagala, a slum hard hit with poverty and the AIDS epidemic, and with children and street kids struggling to stay alive. There, he is a community leader, founder and pastor of New Life Church. About 80 percent of the church’s members are under the age of 18, so much of Paddy’s focus has been on working with children, many whose parents have died of AIDS. He has instituted several children's programs to keep them off the street and works closely with the local community to help place orphaned children with extended families.

Paddy says that he founded New Life because, rather than focus on the theory of religion, he wanted to use faith to reach out to the poor and organize projects that help them—and teach them how to help themselves. Over the years, those projects have grown in scope, and range from after school programs with computer and drama classes. In addition, Paddy has also set up a school at the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Karambi, a place where many children are left disadvantaged because of the rebel groups that have waged war there.

Then there was Jane...

Jane Dicker grew up in a children’s home in England that was run by her parents. Her deep attachment to Uganda started at the age of four when she first began living with children who had fled from northern Uganda to escape the conflict there.

Jane first visited Uganda in 2000, then again in 2001. In 2003, she moved to Uganda for a year to teach. For five months, she lived in a village with a Ugandan family and experienced first hand what life without electricity or running water was like.

Jane’s time in Uganda was paramount in enabling her to empathize with the daily and ongoing struggle for survival that the majority of Ugandans face everyday.

For the remaining time Jane was in Uganda, she lived with Pastor Paddy and his family. She taught teachers how to teach literacy, she taught adult literacy, she taught children English and Art, but more importantly she continued her steep learning curve. What consistently struck her was how hard life was for so many people in Uganda. Death was a weekly event. It was not reserved for the elderly but rather swept through all sectors of the community, killing indiscriminately. When she left Uganda, she knew that she would return again.

Another beginning...

In 2001, Joanna Breitstein, a healthcare reporter working in New York, began to write about AIDS issues. In particular, she began to examine the issue of how antiretroviral drugs got—or in many cases, didn’t get—from companies to patients in Africa.

It was during that time that Paddy Luzige began e-mailing people looking for AIDS information to distribute in his community. He sent one of his e-mails to the general inbox of the magazine where Joanna works. It was a shot in the dark—this pastor in Uganda reaching out to a reporter that he had never met. But his words resonated with Joanna, and she wrote back to him.

At the time, Joanna was writing a story about Pfizer’s program of donating Diflucan, an anti-AIDS drug. Joanna was able to direct Paddy’s efforts in order to get the Diflucan to take care of some of the disadvantaged children he looked after. Paddy wrote back and let Joanna know about this happy event, and over the next few years, Joanna and Paddy continued to keep in touch, e-mailing each other quite often.

In 2004, Joanna applied for and was one of 10 journalists in the world to win a Kaiser Family Foundation media fellowship, designed to encourage reporting on AIDS. With that backing, she traveled to Uganda, and past the tarmac road into Kabalagala. After so long, she finally met Paddy in person, along with many of the children and community members she had heard so much about. She had the opportunity to listen to their story, as well as the story of AIDS in Africa.
When Joanna got back to New York City, she couldn’t forget the faces of the children she had met in Uganda, a multitude of them AIDS orphans. She couldn’t get away from the fact that it seemed possible to help them—and yet, she felt powerless to do anything on her own.

But time went by…

In 2005, Jane began working on her masters project on AIDS in Uganda at the University of Cincinnati. Looking for some contacts, Paddy put Jane and Joanna in touch. While their initial emails were filled with advice about Jane’s project, these two women began to realize that they both had a deep passion for helping the people of Kabalagala. Was there anything they could do? Jane and Joanna met in New York, stayed up all night talking, and realized they shared a few beliefs that could enable a project:

In Kabalagala, a little bit goes a long way. Joanna and Jane saw how little it took to change children’s lives in Kabalagala. For just a few dollars, children could go from living out on the street, malnourished, without schooling, to having the opportunity of a productive future.

They felt dissatisfied with current giving options. Joanna and Jane supported other philanthropies, but often felt disconnected from their contribution. They didn’t know if their donation was reaching the people that needed it, and never knew how it made a difference. They felt with e-mail, digital cameras, and other technology, it would be possible to more closely connect the donor community with how their dollars were being put to work on the ground—and that the feedback loop would benefit all stakeholders.

There was benefit in starting small. So many people are overwhelmed with the need for aid in Africa. One common response is to shut off from the issue, figuring that there is nothing that person can do to help. Instead, Jane and Joanna knew they couldn’t help all of Africa, but they couldn’t ignore how it was possible to help one child at a time.

Moral/ethical obligation to help. Media reports widely cite Uganda as an AIDS “success story.” Many global NGOs have offices in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, and white SUVs touting the names of these groups fill parking lots in town. However, when Joanna and Jane arrived in Kabalagala, a slum just outside Kampala, there was no evidence of that success story they read so much about, or the presence of the aid organizations residing in Kampala. Though Kabalagala has epidemic rates of the HIV/AIDS, no patients were on treatment, and they simply suffered through the virus, and died. This also created a dangerous situation, since it left the youngest children without a parent or both parents, who were often left to fend for themselves after their parents died.

Having seen the reality of the situation through their own eyes, they decided it was time to do their part to make a difference. They realized they could do more together, than apart, and began to formulate the plans for a project. They knew they had one key advantage in helping create a project that would help the people in Kabalagala—strong partners and experience in that community.

Paddy’s vision for a primary school in Kabalagala offered a starting point. Since the other schools in this community were being run as for-profit businesses, a sizable percentage of the school fees were lining the pockets of the affluent businessmen who owned them—and in effect, blocking the children who needed it most from attending school. Paddy dreamed of running a school which was not-for-profit—one in which every penny would be directed toward the people most in need.

In 2006 Paddy, Jane and Joanna formed The International HUG Foundation (i.HUG), a non-profit whose mission is to reach out to disadvantaged and orphaned children in Uganda by providing them with an education, access to healthcare, and an environment that fosters their physical, social and emotional development. In order to ensure the sustainability of our mission, i.HUG strives to use local resources and to leverage our successes to benefit the entire community.