Connect Africa was founded as a non-profit in 2005 to help families, often helmed by women, who value education but can’t afford its costs. From a small cluster of villages, we have expanded our reach to over 50 villages throughout Uganda.
Lynn S. Auerbach is the founding director. Lynn resides in Uganda half the year and Boston, MA the other half. Martha Namukagga is our Student Support Coordinator, Uganda is her home. They are both actively involved in assessing family needs, implementing startup initiatives and supporting the students’ endeavors to attain an education. What sets us apart from other non-profits is our collaboration with villagers about the needs of their communities. This information helps generate a connection between Ugandans and donors.
Our mission is to provide education opportunities for Ugandans to create a better future for themselves.
About Us
Lynn grew up in a working-class family with a single mother and grandparents in an apartment in Brooklyn, NY. She was street-smart but struggled in school. With this less-than-ideal history, Lynn earned a Ph.D. in psychology specializing in trauma. She bought and ran a business, Impact Model Mugging, a personal safety training program that targets psychological and physical safety.
With all that she has done in her career, Lynn always carried a yearning to live and work in Africa. She actualized this dream in 2004.
Laughing that her street was the book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, where there was one tree outside her apartment building, and when she returned years later, it was gone. How ironic that Lynn grew up not remembering when she saw her first flower, and now resides in the fertile green agricultural land of Uganda.
My name is Namulagga Martha, I am a nurse as well as a youth mentor.
This is my story.
I lost my mother when I was 3 years old, I later lost my father at the age of 7 years.
Living a life of no protection, denied education, physically mistreated and psychologically tortured at that young age, I thought that’s how my life would be – forever full of pain and confusion with no one to run too. No safe place to call home.
Not until I started living with my maternal grandmother and she learned about Connect Africa Foundation did my life change.
Joining “Connect” (that’s what we students call it) gave me a safe place. I joined school and got to know the purpose of education. I was sponsored for 11 years, finishing with a nursing degree.
Becoming the Student Support Coordinator is a honor. Because I have been there, I know what they go through and am part of them as well.
I am the second generation of graduates of “Connect” and now I am here to help the many generations to come!
– Yours faithfully, Namulagga Martha