Friday, September 2, 2005

Couple starts a school in Uganda

The Okemos pair use their savings to educate 116 orphans who lost their parents to AIDS.

Associated Press

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OKEMOS -- Twesigye Jackson Kaguri knows he can't help every child orphaned by HIV-AIDS in the part of Uganda where he was raised.

But he and his wife, who grew up in Arkansas, are doing their best to help.

The Okemos couple co-founded a school near Kaguri's native village that provides free education to children who have lost their parents to the deadly HIV-AIDS virus that has devastated parts of Africa.

Kaguri lost a brother and a sister to HIV-AIDS and has assumed financial responsibility for their four children.

"In Uganda when parents die, the children are taken care of by the extended family," Kaguri said. "When AIDS swept in, there was no extended family to care for many of them. Before that you never heard of an orphan crisis."

During a visit to Uganda in 2001, Kaguri and his wife, Beronda Montgomery-Kaguri, an assistant professor in Michigan State University's plant research laboratory, came up with the school idea.

"I was looking after my nieces and nephews after their parents died, but what about those who didn't have an uncle?"

The Kaguris first planned to just send money. Then they decided they could do more by starting a school where orphans could get a free education, learn vocational skills, get basic health care and be placed with a foster family.

In addition, the students receive free vegetable seeds and learn to plant gardens in an effort to improve nutrition in the area, and learn how to prevent the spread of HIV-AIDS.

"These children are the poorest of the poor," Kaguri said.

The school opened in January 2003 with 56 children, ages 5-14, enrolled in the equivalent of first and second grades.

The school is adding one grade level a year and by the end of 2008 will offer grades one through seven. Enrollment is 116.

The Kaguris used their savings to start the school. Many people from the village contributed materials and labor.

Kaguri, who came to America in the 1990s to attend Columbia University, works for H&R Block and spends much of his time raising money and writing grants for the school, as well as caring for the couple's 3-year-old son, Nicolas.

He recently made a presentation about the school to the East Lansing Rotary Club, of which he is a member. The club almost immediately donated $1,000.

"I don't think any of us was aware of the extent of the devastation of AIDS in Uganda," said Walt Sorg, the organization's president.

"We here in East Lansing have an interest in international affairs and trying to create better conditions for all kids," said Roger Niemeyer, the club's international chairman.