In 2000, Stephen Shames, a New York based photojournalist, was on assignment in Uganda doing a story on AIDS. He photographed the funeral of a woman who had died of AIDS leaving behind five orphans, the youngest a baby named Sarah. Shames formed a special relationship with Sarah who calls him “dad.”

Knowing the path out of poverty is through education, he paid school fees for Sarah and her family, as well as a dozen other orphans from the village, to attend the best primary and secondary schools in the country.

While photographing AIDS orphans, children affected by war, and street kids in Africa, Asia, and Latin America — Steve ran into children who desperately wanted to go to school but couldn’t because they lacked school fees. In Uganda, children often got sent home from school because they don’t have a pen or paper. Steve realized a small amount of money could transform a child’s life.

By 2004, Shames’s outreach evolved into a leadership program entitled LEAD Uganda. Lili Perski of the Jacob & Malka Goldfarb Foundation helped us create a long term plan and funded the hiring of a director to run the program in Uganda.

In 2006, we further expanded our focus to include the humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda. The Open Society Institute gave Steve a grant to enroll a dozen students from refugee camps in the north. Eight were former child soldiers.

Where We Stand Now

The LEAD Uganda partnership reached our most important milestone in June, 2007, when the Ugandan staff and students took over management of their program and formed Concern for the Future to run the program. It was always our goal for the Ugandans to run LEAD Uganda. We are delighted this happened years ahead of schedule.

In 2008, Forefront Church in New York City partnered with us. This faith-based connection with a community of caring people will allow us to bring education to many more children.

Five years later — 2009 — the lives of seventy-five children, including Sarah, now 9, have been transformed. These AIDS orphans, children living in refugee camps, former child soldiers and sex-slaves, street kids, and child laborers are excelling in school.

Twenty maintain “A” averages, and eleven received first grades on their national exams. One was accepted at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, one of Africa’s top high schools. A dozen hold leadership positions at their schools.

While many non-profits in Africa pay school fees for children, what makes LEAD Uganda unique is its emphasis on training leaders.

“LEAD Uganda gives our students the 21 st century skills necessary to lead their country into the future,” said Stephen Shames. “Our model is a prototype for the kind of global educational venture that will reduce poverty and create a safer world. What’s the point of sending a child to a substandard school that doesn’t give them the chance to go to college or to get a good job? That’s why we send them to the best boarding schools, give them everything they need to succeed, including leadership workshops, a nurturing family environment, and emotional support.”

An immediate goal is to build a computer school in Uganda for both student-members, who would receive scholarships, as well as tuition paying students; thus providing an additional revenue stream, while simultaneously closing Africa’s digital divide.

Thanks to incredible school children, caring religious communities, forward-thinking foundations, enlightened corporations, and people like you, the dream we had five years ago of providing the best education for orphans, working children, kids is refugee camps, and child soldiers is being realized.

LEAD Uganda’s aim is to grow our student membership to three hundred and branch out to other countries in Africa and the developing world.