Villages Need Schools and You Can Help

Like virtually every other developing country, Uganda is in desperate need of improved education at all levels. Although it has some excellent schools and universities, most of them are in urban areas. Yet most of its population are impoverished farm families or individuals using simple tools on small plots of land.

Twesigye Jackson Kaguri was born and raised in rural southwest Uganda. Despite extreme poverty, his parents knew that education was the key to an improved future for their children. They allowed Jackson’s two older sisters to go to school, but father felt that Jackson needed to stay on the farm. One day at age five, he sneaked off and followed them to school. His father caught him. Jackson expected a beating, but his father allowed him to stay in school on one condition: that he never fail a course. Jackson kept that promise by graduating at the top of his class for each grade level before getting a scholarship to the country’s top university. Again he did very well and got scholarships for additional studies at Columbia University in New York City and Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. Next he took a fundraising position at Michigan State University.

Despite becoming part of the American middle class, Jackson did not forget his roots as he began making plans for improved education, especially for AIDS orphans and their grandmothers, and other programs and facilities in his home community. Thus the Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project began (www.nyakaschool.org), and Jackson left his M.S.U position to become its full-time director. His fascinating autobiography is A School for My Village: A Promise to the Orphans of Nyaka.

I personally know Jackson and am glad to endorse what he and colleagues are doing. At the same time, there are many other equally deserving educational needs all over the world. Last year I met another very impressive Ugandan man at a Christian medical missions conference who earned his doctorate in Global Health and Wholeness at an American seminary. His name is Dr. Ronald Kaluya, and he is doing great things in education and other fields. His website is www.ugandaccs.org

We may not all be able to go on mission trips to places like Uganda and elsewhere in the developing world, but finding organizations that help with educational needs is major way to assist. The “General Humanitarian Organizations” category of this website includes Compassion International and several other excellent ones. Most charge donors approximately one dollar per day to providing schooling. It certainly is a good investment.