The Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project works in rural Uganda to build schools for orphans who lost parents to a terrible disease, providing them with an education and a community in which they can feel accepted.

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which is caused by the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is a deadly pandemic that has ravaged lives in Uganda. According to data compiled in 2012 by the United Nations, more than 2.7 million children in Uganda have lost one or both parents to this disease. These orphans often are often without food, health care, or education, and those living in rural parts of country rarely have a support system with people to turn to for help.

The Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project raises money and uses that money to support these orphans, building both primary and secondary schools so that they can receive an education regardless of whether they have a family or a sound economic background.

This project has succeeded in building two primary schools in Uganda, with 587 students in total. Nyaka volunteers are also currently constructing a secondary school so that these students can find expertise in a particular area and pursue it, then perhaps find a successful job in the future instead of getting a low wage job due to the basic level of education most students have after finishing primary school.

In April, Jackson Kaguri, the founder of the Nyaka organization, toured Asia to show the growth that the Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project has undergone and the show Asian students that they can have an impact. Various schools have also held fundraisers to collect money for this cause to contribute to the project, holding raffles, benefit dinners, and much more.

“I feel very honored and happy to help,” said Linda Park, age 16, in an interview with JSR.

Park, who is the president and founder of the Friends of Nyaka club at Korea International School, continued, “I find joy in helping out orphans who have lost their parents because of HIV and AIDS. Even though these children have lost their parents, they still deserve as much love and care as everyone else… I want to help make sure that they get that love and care.”