{UAH} Priest has one foot in Keene, the other in Uganda
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Priest has one foot in Keene, the other in Uganda
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Rev. Robert Tumwekwase
Rev. Robert Tumwekwase, associate pastor for the Parishes of the Holy Spirit and Queen of Peace in the Monadnock Region, stands in front of a church school building, St. Paul High School, in his home village of Buchundura, Uganda.
Posted: Saturday, December 7, 2013 8:00 am
Posted on December 7, 2013
by Susan Reing
Rev. Robert Tumwekwase recently joined the Catholic community in southwest New Hampshire as an associate pastor in the Parishes of the Holy Spirit and Queen of Peace, which is comprised of five churches (St. Bernard and St. Margaret Mary in Keene, Immaculate Conception in Troy, St. Joseph in Hinsdale, and St. Stanislaus in Winchester). Tumwekwase, who is from Uganda, is a religious and missionary priest.
His native country is a landlocked nation in East Africa with roughly 35.9 million people. It is sandwiched between the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, Kenya to the east, South Sudan to the north, Rwanda to the southwest, and Tanzania to the south. It was ruled as a British colony from the late 1800s and gained its independence from Britain in 1962. Like many countries in Africa, Uganda has gone through periods of intense, bloody conflicts. Today, Uganda is still one of the poorest nations in the world.
Tumwekwase, the third of 11 children, attended school along with his siblings, despite tremendous odds. He graduated from high school at 23 and joined the seminary. He professed his religious vows in 1981 and then went on to earn a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies, a bachelor's degree in theology at the Apostles of Jesus Seminary in Nairobi, Kenya; a master's degree in canon law, a master's degree in education and a doctorate in canon law at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi.
He was the first person in his village to graduate from college, an achievement he wants children in his village to have the chance to accomplish. His own brother died, leaving five children, whom Tumwekwase adopted. He saved every penny he could to send them to primary school. He also realized there were many other children who needed help to break the cycle of poverty and disease. He started identifying children who couldn't afford the $30 needed for uniforms, underclothes, books and basic supplies, such as soap, and looked for ways to raise money to help them. He started out helping eight young people, enabling them to complete elementary school and continue on to high school, and in some cases, college.
Tumwekwase has continued to help children back in Buchundura, his home district. In 2007 he started working with 210 children. At the beginning of the 2013 academic year, there were 182 students.
Tumwekwase's friends from New Hampshire recently created a nonprofit foundation called AfriCAN Educate, to help him raise more funds to educate the poor, needy and orphaned children of Buchundura and beyond. They were deeply affected by Tumwekwase's childhood memories of friends who had no opportunity to go to school and inspired by those children he has already given the opportunity for a better life.
"There is hope for us to change the life of one person at a time; and then, the whole village will change," Tumwekwase said. "With more hands and more help, we can make a huge, positive change. The cycle of poverty, ignorance and disease can be broken."
The foundation is in the process of developing its own website (AfriCANEducate.org). Anyone wishing to help or who would like more information on AfriCAN Educate may contact Linda Griesbach at 357-0899 or 459-9092.
Anybody know where Mr.Simon Peter Okurut is? UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans and Africans in general. Individuals are responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.
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