Sometimes, an investment in changing one life can alter the course of many others.  That’s the backbone of Project Redwood grantee Educate!’s program in Uganda to nurture young business and social entrepreneurs.  For twenty-one year old graduate Davis, it’s a philosophy that inspired him to find an unusual method to save homeless orphans from life in the Kampala slums.

Like many African nations, Uganda bears the scars of more than a century of colonialism succeeded by decades of political turmoil and cruel despotism.  Pervasive unemployment outside of Uganda’s cities beginning in the 1970s and 1980s brought throngs to its urban areas.  That sustained migration, combined with little, and often ineffective, planning left Uganda’s largest city, Kampala, with an estimated 60% of its million plus population living in slums.  In these densely packed, vast areas of urban poverty, there are few jobs, and little infrastructure, safe water, sanitation, or roads.

Davis luckily was not among those relegated to a childhood in the slums, and he was fortunate enough to be raised in a family that could afford to educate him.  The secondary school he attended was one of the first in Uganda to offer the leadership and entrepreneurship curriculum devised and implemented by Educate!.  Its two year program teaches students business and management skills, arming them with the knowledge and confidence they need to become change makers.

Davis was an early beneficiary of the program, and when his mentor sent him out into the community, to observe, to find a social issue where he might make a change, Davis headed for the Kampala slums. 

It isn’t unusual for Ugandan children who are mistreated by their families to run away to the city; kids who are orphaned and placed with indifferent or abusive relatives often find the path to Kampala as well.  When he visited the city’s slums, Davis knew right away that he wanted to help these kinds of kids, the ones who are stranded in squalor and fashion “homes” out of broken bits of wood and metal; who join gangs, and resort to stealing or panhandling, and sometimes, to using drugs.

While it was Educate! that fueled Davis with the acumen and self-possession to want to be a change maker, it was another skill that helped him connect with the slum kids.  He taught them breakdancing.  He’d demonstrate his basic toprock steps, work up to a side spin or windmill, and throw in a kip-up or headspin.  The throngs of kids who gathered to watch wanted to learn too.  That’s when Davis started talking with them about changing their lives.

Eventually, he took in four children.  They started out in a one room house, which a local church helped Davis find and rent.  To sustain this growing orphanage, he and the children began breeding and raising rabbits, which they sell for meat.  Handcrafted woven and brightly beaded jewelry bring in a bit of cash as well. 

And, of course, they breakdance.  Sometimes Davis and the kids put on informal demonstrations and pass the hat; sometimes one of several local churches helps out with organizing a show.

As more kids gravitated to Davis’ orphanage, he expanded his plans.  He moved the crew to a three-room house, and recruited two older adults to live with them and help out.  

One of the biggest disappointments for Davis is that he cannot send all of his “adopted” family to school.  The younger children can go, for them the fees are small, but for the teens, secondary school tuition is out of reach.  One of the adult caregivers, George, works with the older kids on basic literacy, math, morals, and lessons on how to be a good citizen.

Among his biggest accomplishments, says Davis, is his success at reuniting some of the children with their families.  He takes pride in tracking down relatives, assessing if a reconciliation is possible, and safe, and then working to bring adults and children together.  At its peak, Davis’ orphanage housed 40 children; his efforts at re-forming families have reduced that number now to 15.

Davis loves his role, and hopes that his efforts to nurture and mentor children will yield other community organizers and change makers as well.  He’s formally begun a charitable enterprise, The Jesus is Great Development Foundation, to help him continue to feed, clothe, and hopefully educate children from the slums. 

But Davis has even more on his already packed agenda.  He studies part-time at St. Lawrence University in Kampala, and aspires to a career as a photo-journalist.  He enthusiastically acknowledges the influence of Educate! on his ambitions and successes.  Educate!, he says, made him a visionary, and taught him how to teach other people.  That’s something he’ll continue to pay forward.

Note:  Project Redwood has funded Educate! with $25,000 in each of the last three grant cycles (for a total of $75,000).  Sponsor Ann Gordon McStay learned of the organization by fortunate happenstance on a trip to Africa in 2010.   She opted out of a white water rafting trip down the Nile in favor of a visit to the Kampala slums, where she met Educate!’s country manager, who put her in contact with the non-profit’s co-founder, Boris Bulayev.  The two met in person back States side, and corresponded for six months.  “I became more and more convinced,” says Ann, “that Educate!’s program, coupled with Boris’ tenacity and ability to make connections, would make Educate! a great candidate for a Project Redwood grant.”