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Offering A Hand Up

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When Vivian Glyck became a mother, she worried about the small stuff, like germs on the shopping cart at Costco. “Then I started thinking about Africa,” she says. “Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria — a treatable disease — and tens of millions of kids have been orphaned by AIDS.”

These sobering statistics encouraged Glyck to tap into her entrepreneurial spirit. In 2006, she founded Just Like My Child, a nonprofit that empowers thousands of women and children in rural Uganda.

The organization takes a multi-prong, “deep development” approach, which includes improved healthcare, education, and microfinance loans. Just Like My Child also tackles social justice issues, teaching women and girls to fight back against rape and domestic violence. The idea is to give “a hand up, not a hand out,” says Glyck. “We’ve been able to focus on the community needs and not just wave a magic wand.

“It truly is Just Like My Child,” she continues. “I would never want my child to be dependent on me. I want [our recipients] to learn to be truly self-sufficient. People can’t have dignity and hold themselves up if we’re constantly giving them aid and making them dependent on us for the continuity of that.”

On October 13, Just Like My Child hosts its fifth annual fundraising gala at the El Cortez’s historic Don Room. The event features a very special keynote speaker, Jared Cohen, the young dynamo formerly of the State Department and currently the head of Google Ideas. He will discuss why Africa is a focal point in achieving global stability. (www.justlikemychild.org)    ANNAMARIA STEPHENS

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