Generous Benefits

On this week's episode of Generous Impact, our hosts Bret and Amanda Brummitt sat down with Jess Wiederholt, Founder and Executive Director of Crazy Love Africa.

Crazy Love Africa is a Denver-based nonprofit walking alongside single mothers in western Uganda who are living with HIV. After Jess and her husband Ben adopted four children from Ethiopia and Uganda whose mothers had been lost to AIDS, they realized their family grew by more than four. In Jess's words:
"When people adopt, they think they're just adopting these children. But what happens is you become connected, not just to them, but to the entire communities that they come from."

That connection became Crazy Love Africa in 2014. What started as a $500 micro-business grant for a few women has grown into a sisterhood of over 30 mothers and the children in their care. Twice-monthly Sisterhood Support Circles. Education sponsorships from nursery school through university. Fair Trade artisan work where every dollar of proceeds pours back into the program.

One detail that stood out on the episode: Jess never refers to the women her organization serves as recipients. She calls them sisters. And when she asks the sisters in Uganda each year what they are most proud of, the answer is always the same:
"We're all alive."

If Jess's work resonates, the easiest first step is to visit CrazyLoveAfrica.com. Buy a basket. Sponsor a student. Or, as Jess put it, "choose to care."

Episode 54: Jess with Crazy Love Africa | Generous Impact In this episode Amanda and Bret speak with Jess Wiederholt, founder of Crazy Love Africa, about how adopting children from East Africa inspired her to empower single mothers in Western Uganda through micro-business grants, sisterhood support circles, fair-trade artisan work, and child sponsorships.....