My Nonprofit Reviews

Sembatya Raymond: RESCUED FROM THE PITS
"What a joy to share the autobiography of a total orphan, who has lived in total rejection under abject poverty!

I am not a blood relative of the grandmother who raised me. My father, who died of AIDS, on his dying bed asked that I be raised by her. I never really knew my mother. Though I was accepted by this grandmother, I was not accepted by the other members of the family. I was always the outsider.

I am Sembatya Raymond, a Ugandan, aged 26 Years. Allow me to share my story about the organization that gave me a family thirteen years ago, when I had no hope, when life was meaningless. In 2005, I used to see a white woman drop by my village to clothe the almost naked little boys and girls, bare footed, with mucus flowing down their cheeks. We were easily 15 grandchildren being cared for by our grandmother. Continually another grandchild was being dropped off. My grandmother could not afford to pay tuition and we often went to bed hungry.

In 2007 I heard the smiling white lady say, “We’re willing to sponsor this child in his secondary education”. It was as though I was day dreaming, until another voice translated in Luganda to confirm what I had just heard. Grandmother with a wide African smile said tens of unending thank you(s).
"Like a caring parent, Connect Africa wished the best for me carefully choosing the correct standard of the school I would join. Hard work coupled with continual counseling from Charles and Lynn paid off and I excelled. I realize that the people in charge of our lives at Connect Africa are generous individuals who really listen, understand, respect our emotions and gently guide us."
After graduating secondary school, I acquired a micro loan from CAF to start a business selling sand for construction. Within five months I raised 50% of the required tuition for University and enrolled for a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. Lynn marvels that I am the only student so far who has worked and gone to university at the same time.

Because of the virtues that CAF has instilled I am now the Assistant Director in charge of General Duties and Internal Accounts of a large whole sale business.

Long live CAF to help the thousands who continue to live in abject poverty."