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Educational Sponsorship
In Uganda education is not free. AIDS orphans are cared for by family members. Aunties and siblings with their own very large families become responsible the care of the orphans. Elderly grandmothers, who are subsistence farmers with no income, do not have the financial means to educate the many grandchildren in their care. Providing educational support enables these children to remain in the care of family and have a future. We are committed to educating students from nursery school through university or vocational training. Our sponsorship program can carry a student through 20 years of education. We help fund tuition, uniforms, hygiene products, school supplies and medical and dental care and extra medical care for HIV positive students. Lynn and Charles review academic performance and behavior reports, work closely with students to provide them with any special enrichment they may need, collaborate with the families to help guide the student's performance and behavior and engage with the larger community to establish a strong partnership and a successful educational experience. Our students embrace our core values of taking personal responsibility for their future, with the understanding that their success will strength their community and country. “It takes a village to raise a child!”. Sembatya Raymond: RESCUED FROM THE PITS "What a joy to share the autobiography of a total orphan, who has lived in total rejection under abject poverty! I am not a blood relative of the grandmother who raised me. My father, who died of AIDS, was best friends with the son of this woman. On his dying bed he asked that I be raised by her. I never really knew my mother. Though I was accepted by this grandmother, I was not accepted by the other members of the family. I was always out of the circle. I am Sembatya Raymond, a Ugandan, aged 26 Years. Allow me to share my story about the organization that gave me a family thirteen years ago, when I had no hope, when life was meaningless. In that state CAF appeared as the light at the end of the dark tunnel. Way back in the early 2000’s I used to see somebody who would drop by my village to clothe the almost naked little boys and girls, bare footed, with mucus flowing down their cheeks, who where part of my family and lived in the surrounding communities. We were easily 15 grandchildren being cared for by our grandmother. Another grandchild was forever being dropped off at our home. My grandmother could not afford to pay fees for school and we often went to bed hungry. In 2007 an American lady accompanied by a gentle Ugandan man visited our home. It was an afternoon like any other that entailed house work together with my grandmother, and wondering whether I would go to the next level of education, which most of the families in our community could not afford. I heard the smiling white lady say, “We’re willing to sponsor this child to his secondary level of education”. It was as though I was day dreaming, until another voice translated in Luganda (our local dialect) to confirm what I had just heard. That’s when my grandmother also got to understand the reason of the surprise visit, she expressed her gratitude with a wide African smile coupled with tens of unending thank you(s). Like a caring parent, CAF wished the best for me carefully choosing the correct standard of the school I would join. Hard work coupled with continual counseling from Charles and Lynn paid off and I excelled. I realize that the people in charge of our lives at CAF are generous individuals who really listen, understand, respect our emotions and gently guide us. After graduating secondary school, I sat with Charles, who has experienced the reality of what it means to be an orphan, to determine what to do next. I saw a gap in the construction business in my community and acquired a micro loan from CAF to start a business selling sand for construction. This was not only to earn money but also to employ and inspire the many village boys that had dropped out of school and resorted to gambling. In a period of five months I raised 50% of the required tuition fees for University and enrolled for a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. I chose to enroll for Evening Program so that I could make money during the day to cost share with CAF for my degree. Lynn marvels that I am the only student so far who has worked and gone to university at the same time. Three months after University, I got a job in March 2018 as a General Manager of a large wholesale business. Currently, because of the virtues that CAF has instilled in us of ‘faithfulness’ and ‘contentment’, I am now the Assistant Director in charge of General Duties and Internal Accounts. Long live CAF to help the thousands who continue to life in abject poverty." Yours Sincerely, Sembatya Raymond To find out how to sponsor a student Contact Us. A little goes a long way in Uganda. Find out what your donation can do here. |