Welcome to Spotlight.
I'm Robin Basselin.
And I'm Ryan Geertsma.
Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Twisije Jackson Keguri sat quietly listening.
He was in a classroom at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.
He was learning about the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
On this day, he heard these words for the first time.
Everyone has the right to a life which includes an acceptable level of health and well-being.
This right is for every individual and his family, including food clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.
Keguri heard these words over 20 years ago.
Today, he still remembers them because they changed his life.
Before that day, Keguri had never heard people talk about human rights.
He was from a small village in Uganda called Nyaka Jezi.
In Nyaka Jezi, many people lived in poverty, particularly the many children orphaned by AIDS.
This disease had killed many people in Nyaka Jezi.
Many children lost both their mothers and fathers.
These orphans had few human rights.
And Kaguri wanted to change that.
Today's Spotlight is on Twasije Jackson Kaguri and the Nyaka AIDS Orphan School.
Keguri understood well the problems caused by the AIDS crisis.
His own brother, sister and his sister's son died from AIDS.
Losing his family members was very painful.
After his brother's death, Keguri began supporting his brother's children.
He paid for their education and made sure they had food, clothing and housing.
But this caused him to think about his whole village.
He wondered who would care for all of the other young AIDS orphans.
Often, other family members, like grandmothers, would try to care for the children orphaned by AIDS.
But many of the family members had other children they were already caring for.
Kaguri, explained to the news organization CNN.
You see the grandmothers again and again.
Their own children have died and left them.
Some of them have up to 14 grandchildren to care for in their homes.
Sometimes the child is living with HIV or AIDS.
They need medicine.
The grandmother needs food.
They need a house.
And nothing is there.
After university, Keguri moved to the United States.
There, he continued his studies and began working.
But he did not forget Nyaka Jezi.
He decided to work for human rights in his village, even if he was not there.
Each time he returned to Nyakajese, he brought supplies for the people.
He provided children with school clothes.
He gave grandmothers money for food.
And he paid school bills.
But there were always so many more children that needed help.
Keguri knew he needed to do much more to help the village.
He wanted to give the children hope for a better future.
So in 2001, Keguri and his wife made a major decision.
They decided to build a school in Nyakajese.
It would be a school for AIDS orphans.
It would provide free education and school clothing.
For many years, Keguri and his wife had saved money to buy a house for themselves.
However, they decided the school was more important.
So they used their money to build the school.
They did not have enough money to build a big school.
They started by building two classrooms.
Kaguri knew two classrooms would not be enough.
So he began to make plans for more classrooms.
He spoke about the project with everyone he could.
He told his friends in Uganda.
He told his friends in the United States.
And he told people at his church.
Many people shared Kaguri's belief that education could help the orphans of Nyaka Jezi.
They believed it could help them escape poverty and achieve basic human rights.
So they offered money to support the project.
The Nyaka AIDS Orphan School opened its first two classrooms on January 2, 2003.
And on the same day, Keguri began work to build a third classroom.
Building the school was a major achievement.
However, there were other problems that kept many of the children from attending.
Often, children were too hungry to study.
Other children stayed away from school because they were sick and dirty drinking water caused much of the sickness.
Keguri knew the school needed to care for all these problems.
So the school began many other programs.
They started feeding meals to the children at school.
They also started a seed program.
Students could take seeds home.
And the families could grow crops for eating.
Kaguri also raised money to pay for a water tank.
This tank would catch rainwater.
The water in the tank was kept clean.
And the children and villagers could pump water out of the tank when they needed it.
This clean water reduced disease and sickness.
Finally, the school provided the students with basic health care.
A trained nurse cared for the children's medical needs.
Life for the children orphaned by AIDS improved.
And in December 2008, the school held its first graduation ceremony.
The whole village celebrated as the first students of Nyaka School finished their primary education.
The Nyaka AIDS Orphan School has become a great success.
However, Keguri does not believe it is his success.
He told the Huffington Post news organization, I could take credit for the students' success.
But without God's guidance, every day, Nyaka School would not exist.
In 2010, Keguri stopped working at his job.
He decided to devote his life to working full-time for the school.
Today, there are two schools, one in Yaka Jezi and one in the village of Kutamba.
Together, the schools serve almost 600 students whose parents died from AIDS.
Kaguri's work is now even larger than the school's.
He has also helped build a health center, more clean water tanks, and a library for books.
Keguri continues to dream of doing even more.
And he encourages other people to do the same.
As he told Time magazine, Many people think an issue is so oppressive that you cannot do anything about it.
I believed that I could make a difference.
Now think of the 437 children that will finish Nyaka AIDS Orphans School over the next years.
The power of one person is going to increase and affect so many.
The writer of this program was Courtney Scutt.
The producer was Michio Ozaki.
The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom.
All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight.
You can listen to this program again, and read it on the internet, at www.radioenglish.net.
This program is called Niaka AIDS Orphans School.
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program.
Goodbye.
