February 3, 2014

Visit to Keframa College

First an additional note from the marriage ceremony:  I was the only white person there, and all of the children without exception just stared and stared. One little boy came and sat down beside me and touched my arm in disbelief.

Another wonderful day. It was arranged that I would be picked up at 9 AM, because Sam wanted to leave by  1 or 2 to take a bus to Kampala, and at exactly nine the driver came and I was ready, but hadn’t had breakfast. I went anyway.  We arrived at the Uganda Christian Institute for Professional Development (the other campus I have referred to) to pick up Sam, but he was in a meeting. Sam and Jimmy Francis were both in the meeting, and we were supposed to travel to Keframa College together to see it and to discuss the division of my time between the two sites. Finally at 11:30, they were ready to leave. Fortunately I had been served tea and a biscuit, so I wasn’t in desperate straits. I spent the time writing down ideas for the blog, taking pictures and conversing with others who were there, including the Jimmy who was in the marriage on Saturday. By the way, I learned from him that the church/civil wedding may not take place for up to a month, and that he is not supposed to be with the bride until that happens.

It took about 30 minutes to get to KC, over very bad road. It is a very modest place. Pictures later. Jimmy Francis, Sam and I, after touring the grounds, sat under a tree to talk. And that is when the wonderfulness began.

I asked JF how the idea for KC began. He said that when he and his brother, Augustine, had finished their education, they went to work for an NGO called                           , which provided support for institutions but not for individuals. They were approached by many individuals and families, especially from the village where they were raised (near where KC is now located), asking for help to be able to attend secondary school. The people could not afford to go to even the govt. school. So Augustine and JF began to wonder what they could do to help the situation, and came up with the idea of starting a secondary school for people of low income. Of course they had no money or other resources, but their father had given them a parcel of land to be divided between them, on which to build homes for their families. They decided to build the school on that land. Many people, especially the elders, thought they were crazy, but they had a vision that they could do it.

When I asked Sam the same question regarding the origin of the idea for UCI, he said that his father was a preacher, so he had grown up in a very religious environment. At university, he joined with other Christian people to do community development. They noticed the same thing that A and JF had noticed, that capable people were unable to afford to further their education, and were going back to communities to work below their full capacities. They started an organization called Uganda Youth Action for Development. Augustine and JF met Sam through that organization and they began to work together on their separate dreams. A and JF, and in fact all of the people involved in these enterprises are very truly Christian people, who are motivated to give to their communities.

Both UCI and KC have slowly grown over the last four years and are serving hundreds of low-income students in professional and medical development (UCI), and in secondary school (KC).