When Jackson Kaguri lost his big brother and sister to the AIDS epidemic in Uganda, he responded to the tragedy by creating opportunities for others. He took on the responsibility of helping to care for his nephews that had been left without parents. However, he soon realized that the many children in his village that had also been orphaned by the disease needed help as well. He opened a free, self-sufficient school in his village that quickly became very successful. His small project has since evolved into the Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project and is now running several schools in southern Uganda to help some of the 2.2 million children in the country who have lost parents to AIDS.
My classes were fortunate to host Mr. Jackson Kaguri (a 2012 CNN Hero) last week and hear his motivational story first hand. Students in middle in high school are often very compassionate and want to help others but struggle with turning their desires into action. Organizations such as last year’s Kony campaign often complicate matters and frustrate students who are told simply to raise awareness when they really want to get hands on. Mr. Kaguri provided an excellent example of the impact that an individual can have when they act locally on something that they are passionate about. Many students made it a point to tell me that he was the best guest speaker that we have ever had and I am hoping that we can continue to bring up his efforts in our future discourse and spin off some student-created action projects.
Mr. Kaguri’s schools rely on donors to operate and the cost to send a student to primary school (there is no public education in Uganda) for one year is $250. More about his organization and donating can be found here: http://www.nyakaschool.org/index.php
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