Welcome to season 4, episode 4 of the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast. Please take a moment to write a review and share this podcast episode if it resonates with you.

This week's guests are Sylvia Allen, President, Allen Consulting and Founder of Sylvia's Children in Uganda, Africa. Joining us is Terese Rolke, Executive Director, Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Listen in to hear how Sylvia became the grandmother to many in this incredible school in Uganda. Sylvia's Children is a non-profit founded to help the children at the Mbiriizi Advanced Primary and Day Care School in Mbiriizi, Uganda, Africa. The school is based on the British model and goes through Primary 7. After that the children go on to Secondary School (S-1 through S-6) and then can go to college and/or technical school.

The original objective was to teach the school how to be entrepreneurs so they would not be dependent on the charity. With the increase in enrollment (439 to 1080), the building of a 6,000 sq. ft. medical clinic, having a farm with 8,000 chicken, 42 pigs and 7 acres planted in corn and beans plus 100,000 coffee tree seedlings the school is capable of supporting itself. Thus,the initial mission was accomplished.

The mission of the organization has been expanded to include providing secondary school and advanced education to any orphan that wishes to go beyond P-7. As of January 1, 2023, they have 150 orphans in secondary school and 50 in college and/or technical school. They have already had 77 orphan graduates and another group will graduate summer 2023. These are the people that will change and improve the culture as they move into adulthood.

Sylvia invited Terese and others to take a trip to visit the school in Uganda in November 2023. Sylvia lives in NJ. Terese shares what an incredible experience it was to meet the children and provide them with gifts and trinkets during their holiday season. Included in the group of volunteers that took time out of their own busy schedules to have this incredible experience was a healthcare professional. She checked in on the children to make sure they were doing well.

Terese, started as a volunteer for the Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce, became a board member and the moved to a paid role as the full time, Executive Director. It is through her work there that she met Sylvia. Sylvia is a member of MRCC and has been honored through the organization with an Athena Award.

Terese described the experience of going to visit Sylvia's Children as “amazing”, saying the children “stole her heart” immediately.

To contribute to this cause or to learn more, visit https://allenconsulting.com/sylvias-c....

To learn more about the Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce go to https://www.monmouthregionalchamber.com/.