A project that we are supporting is the Nyaka Aids Orphanage in Uganda. A few years ago, some of our Board members attending a University of California San Diego (UCSD) event for empowering the women, were introduced to Nyaka.

Since then we have tried to fund and help these wonderful children and their grandmothers who are trying to make a better life for these children.

The HIV/AIDS crisis has claimed millions of lives and left 1.1 million HIV/AIDS Orphans in its wake. There are few services available in the country of Uganda but what little there are can only be found in the major cities like Kampala, the capital. The small villages in southwest Uganda were devastated by HIV/AIDS but nobody was there to help them. Normally in Uganda, an orphaned child would be able to go to an uncle or aunt to take care of them but the crisis hit so hard that many children had nowhere to turn to. Many of them went to live with their aging grandmothers, some to caring women in their village and many others were left vulnerable and alone. Nyaka currently provides services to 43,000 HIV/AIDS orphans living in southwest Uganda but we estimate that the true number of children who have been orphaned is much higher.

Nyaka has two primary schools for HIV/AIDS orphans, Nyaka Primary School and Kutamba Primary School. Together they have 463 students this year. The Primary school in Uganda goes from Nursery Class (similar to Kindergarten) all the way through Primary 7. Unlike many schools in Uganda, our students do not have to pay any school fees. Nyaka provides free education, textbooks, uniforms, shoes, two meals every school day, medicine, and scholastic materials for free. The following is how the organization describes its school and work.

Nyaka Primary School

Nyaka Primary School was opened in January of 2003 in our founder’s hometown, the village of Nyakagyezi in Kanungu District. It was the first school of its kind. It was and still is completely free to attend and exclusively for HIV/AIDS Orphans. In the beginning, it was just a small two-classroom school with only 56 children.

These were our pioneer students. Today, the Nyaka Primary School is full to capacity with students in Nursery class through Primary 7.

Kutamba Primary School

A few years later, a little boy named Hilary heard about the school for HIV/AIDS orphans. He was so excited that he walked 50 miles all alone to ask to be admitted to Nyaka Primary School (Hilary’s story is the inspiration for Jackson’s first children’s book, Sitwe Joseph Goes to School). After Hilary’s harrowing journey, we were inspired to build our second primary school in his village of Nyakishenyi in Rukungiri District.