Kiiza

I finally got to talk to Kiiza yesterday. It has been since October, I believe. He went to volunteer with Samaritan's Purse in Sudan for a few months - his summer. Now he is starting his last year at law school at the Christian University in Mukono, Uganda. He is one of the students I am helping to support. There are several other people that are supporting him financially as well. College fees are much higher than the secondary fees, of course.

He will begin working on his dissertation this year. He told me that he wants his topic to be on adoption. He is interested in family law, in particular in women/children issues. The topic of adoption will even cover issues such as immigration issues into other countries - since sometimes non-Ugandan citizens want to adopt Ugandan children.

Kiiza was my group's guide when I went to Ugadna. He knows a mutual friend of ours from the U.S., and she suggested that he be the one to show us around Uganda. He is such a pleasant person to be around, usually chipper - singing praise songs to God no matter what time of the day... even in the wee hours of the morning if we had to wake up early, when I couldn't even muster it due to a lack of caffeine intake!

Kiiza's mother lives in a village outside of Gulu. She does not own her own home, and is currently staying with a church friend - has been for the last year or so. She has diabetes so needs to live close to the town so she can get to the hospital to get free medicine when they pass it out. Kiiza cannot afford to buy his mother a home, since he is only in school himself. Although he does help her out with her needs when he visits her. I don't recall exactly how many children she has - but I do know that she has no husband and her children are not able to provide much for her. They are mainly caring for their own families. Kiiza has been the only child in her family to gain an education beyond secondary school.

She had been in a polygamous marriage when she was younger (which is culturally acceptable and legal in Uganda), but I don't know the deatils of what happened to her husband. As you can imagine, marriages in which the husband has many wives ends up leaving the woman as the primary caretaker for herself and her children. At a certain point, she was no longer provided for at all by her husband (he moved onto another wife) and had to fend for herself and her children. Kiiza hopes to provide for her once he is finished his education. After this year, he will have one more year where he has to study and pass the bar exam for Uganda. He will have many financial costs connected to starting to practice law in Uganda, including the requirement of having to purchase the case of law books.

Just to give you an idea, for under $1000 U.S. a plot of land with a hut on it can be purchased outside of the town of Gulu. This should have enough land to put a small garden. I'd like to attempt to raise some money for this for Kiiza's mom(which is beyond the money for the education fees of the 3 students). If you are interested in helping, let me know.