The story of Hope Children's Foundation

The story of Mr. Kayamba continues as the story of Hope Children's Foundation, which in varying ways has been in operation since 1999. Back then, almost 15 years ago, he was starting up his own building business and lived in a rental apartment with his wife Prossy and firstborn son Moses. One Saturday, when the family attended church, Kayemba went up to the children's section. He found five poor children, who were supporting their old blind mother by collecting garbage out of streets. Kayemba decided to enroll the literacy-lacking children to school and help their mother financially. The oldest girl, almost a teenager, was placed in a nursery class due to her nonexistent academic skills. Being overaged, she struggled at school but at the end managed to acquire a vocational job.

When the five children's mother died a year later, Kayemba took them into his home. They lived as Kalema family members and at all times someone of them was taking care of baby Brenda, Kayemba's only daughter. During the following years Kayemba helped to pay living and schooling for several poor children, who otherwise would have been left uneducated.

In 2008 Kayemba was supporting altogether 26 children. His friend, a pastor at Kigoma Seventhday Adventist Church, suggested starting a foundation to help the growing number of children. The church donated a plot of land and together its members renovated an old building, which became an office, school rooms and dormitories. Also a local school helped by giving a roof to another class building. This was the beginning of Kigoma Adventist Primary School and Hope Children's Foundation (HCF). On his second day in Kigoma Kayemba met Meth, who became his trusted partner and the school's head teacher. When Meth realized not many of the students had opportunities to continue studying after primary school, he donated his homeland to be used for a vocational school, Net Institute.

When HCF was founded most of the children supported by Kayemba moved into its dormitories, and many more followed. In the peak year, 2008, the number of Hope children reached 120. When Kayemba was commuting around the area for other purposes, such as building contracts and church events, he kept finding vulnerable children and bringing them to HCF. One of them is Joshua, who has only one arm. Kayemba found him and his three siblings sleeping on a mud floor, picking up their things over their heads when it was raining. He took them all to HCF and adopted Joshua. As the boy's guardian Kayemba can ensure that he gets basic education, as he cannot earn a living doing physical work without an arm.

HCF was officially registered with the Ugandan Government in 2011, in order to get engaged in partnerships and receive more sources of funding. Kayemba and Meth have ambitious plans to expand the school, that currently has 150 nursery/primary class students of which 80 are Hope children, to include also secondary classes and exclusive boarding.The major constraint is lack of funding. In addition to boarding moneyless Hope children the school takes in nonpaying students from poor families, thus reducing its income from school fees. To overcome this, the plan is to widen the school's offering and raise its level of education to attract more paying students, who in turn can help in supporting poor students.

In the meanwhile, HCF has generated success stories. Some years ago, when Kayemba had higher personal income, he sponsored secondary education to the school's brightest students, of which most continued on to universities and good jobs. One of them has now started his own foundation, very similar to HCF, helping vulnerable children in South Africa. Some others help HCF with small donations and come in every now and then to greet the children. And last but not least, HCF has also promoted love as two couples have formed within Hope children.

The school building in 2000

Dormitories

Joshua