About

It all began with the Nyaka Primary School, a two-room school on a small plot of land serving 55 students. All the students had lost one or more parent to HIV/AIDS and lived in extreme poverty.

As enrollment increased, we built additional classrooms to accommodate the growth. We knew the urgency of getting children in school quickly, so we made use of each new building as soon as it was complete. We used new buildings even as the rest of the school was still being constructed!

A gravity-fed clean water system was built to provide clean water to 17,500 community members. Then we placed tap systems throughout the community. This meant women and girls no longer had to walk for miles to gather water, miss school, and risk assault.

The nutrition program began after teachers noticed students fell asleep in class, because they were too hungry and had too little energy to learn. We built kitchens at both primary schools to provide two hot meals every school day.

Grandmothers raising HIV/AIDS orphans had few resources. We launched the Grandmothers program with 51 Grandmother groups of 25-70 members each, and they gave each other peer support. Soon after, we began providing them with microfinance loans and training in budgeting, leadership, agriculture, and child rearing.

The pioneer class of Nyaka Primary School graduated from primary school in 2008. There were 22 graduates, 21 of whom passed their national exams to attend secondary or vocational school. Nyaka sponsored these students to attend secondary and vocational schools in the region.

After a young boy named Hilary traveled 40 miles when he heard there was a school for HIV/AIDS orphans like him, we decided to build a school in his community. Kutamba was built over several years, admitting a new class each year, just as with Nyaka Primary School.

Kicked off in 2009 and completed in 2010, the library provides access to newspapers, literature, computers, solar powered Wi-Fi, and a safe place to study for thousands of students and community members in Nyakagyezi.

Our farm began small, but has grown to encompass 10 acres of crops with cows, chickens, and other livestock to provide food for the primary schools. Since then, the farm has created new sources of employment for the area, made food cheaper at the primary schools, and opened up new, sustainable revenue streams through the sale of surplus crops. The farm’s impact has been profound.

The Mummy Drayton School Clinic was built to provide free and low-cost healthcare and medicine to students, Grandmothers, and community members. Although both primary schools had a school nurse, the need for healthcare was greater than what they could provide alone.

The 29 students in Kutamba Primary School’s pioneer class graduated! Sheila (pictured center left) danced all the way to the ceremony because she was so excited. They joined 30 Nyaka Primary School and 15 regional secondary school graduates.

The first class of Nyaka Primary School students graduated from secondary school! Fourteen students received their high school diplomas. Twelve of these students applied to universities to continue their education.

Fifty students came from Nyaka and Kutamba Primary Schools to begin their first day of secondary school. Construction on the school continued until 2020.

The school grew to educate over 160 students. After that, six out of the eight planned buildings were opened and operational, including the administration building, girls’ dormitory, boys’ dormitory, biology and computer labs, and the carpentry, brick laying, mechanical, and metal workshops.

EDJA Foundation was started by Tabitha Mpamira in 2015 to combat sexual assault and gender-based violence in southwestern Uganda. Nyaka and EDJA merged in 2018 to strengthen capacity and help more victims become victors. The program is supporting 120 victors, and has secured convictions of 43 perpetrators. And 10,000 community members have been educated on SGBV prevention.

We opened 3 more Healing Centers, bringing our total to 4 Healing Centers. All of our Healing Centers are hosted by hospitals or health centers in Kanungu (Kambuga Hospital, Kanungu Health Center IV, Kihihi Health Center IV, and Nyamirama Health Centre III), and our staff work in partnership with local police and other agencies to provide medical care, legal advocacy, and counseling to survivors across the district.