YouthSpark Star of the Week: Nyaka AIDS Orphan Project, Rural Uganda

Editor’s note: this is the first in a regular series of posts featuring projects on Give for Youth, a micro-giving site focused on empowering young people around the world.

“It takes children to raise a village.” – Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, founder & executive director, Nyaka AIDS Orphan Project

In Uganda, over 2.2 million children have been orphaned due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Without their parents, many of these children go without an education or in many cases, having basic needs met. The Nyaka AIDS Orphan Project fights poverty by empowering these children, especially girls, through free, quality education, school supplies, healthcare and more.

What makes this project special is the support for the students' caregivers and 7,000 area grandmothers through access to clean water, vegetable seeds, counseling, health care, micro-finance and more. The effort heralds the “unsung heroes of Nyaka” – the thousands of grandmothers caring for their orphaned grandchildren after losing their own children to AIDS.

Nyaka AIDS Orphan project

"I grew up in rural Uganda where my parents sold goats, cows, & land to educate me. Despite not having parents to make such sacrifices, the students at Nyaka still have a chance for a bright future,” said Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, the executive director and founder of the Nyaka AIDS Orphan Project.

Spark Change Today!

Find out how you can help change lives and spark change via this cool project on Give for Youth. Just $10 can provide a young girl with school supplies to help her complete her education.

Give for Youth is a Microsoft YouthSpark program.

Learn More:

Nyaka AIDS Orphan Project on Facebook and twitter

A School for my Village” – by Twesigye Jackson Kaguri

Jackson Kaguri, CNN Hero profile