Dear Friends,

Some moments change everything. For me, one of those moments came on a cold Sunday morning in January 2012. The leadership at Christ United Methodist Church in Franklin TN, invited me to share my stories with the congregation. I had just three minutes.

Standing before the church with shaking knees, I wondered if I could explain all that sponsorship had done for my life—or what it could do for the thousands of children still waiting for the same opportunity that was gifted to me.

At 7 years old I suddenly found myself being raised by a single mom after my dad was tragically killed. I and all my siblings had dropped out of school. I needed someone to be kind to me, a voice that would pull me of my pain and push me towards opportunities that other kids who had parents and lived in safe spaces had. That kind ‘someone’ came in the form of a child sponsor.

That single act of generosity changed the direction of my life. It set me up for opportunities across the world. It eventually brought me to graduate school at Vanderbilt University, gave birth to the vision that became Raise the Roof Academy and the story of my life and others is still being written. This is why I believe in advocating for children and the gift of child sponsorship.

On that January morning at Christ UMC, I invited others to do for a child at Raise the Roof Academy what someone had done for me. The response exceeded anything I had imagined. Raise the Roof Academy child sponsorship was born that day and so many friends across the country have continued to respond to this invitation to be that kind someone for a child they have yet to meet.

I know that my story is not unique. There are countless evils that hurt families just like mine—illness stealing parents away, deep poverty that feels impossible to escape, and dangers that prey on innocent children. But for the past 15 years, the gift of child sponsorship through RTRA has emboldened us to fight back and to begin writing a better story. You are part of this story.

At Raise the Roof Academy, we believe child sponsorship speaks. It is the voice of love that delivers what is needed for a child and their family to act on the plan God has for them. In the last 15 years we have learned that for a child in rural Uganda to achieve lasting transformation they should hear and experience these seven benefits sponsorship helps to deliver:

1.Learning

The promise we offer every child is, “here you will learn.” In everything we do, we strive to cultivate a disposition toward learning in each student. As children develop genuine curiosity and critical-thinking skills, they become agents of change in their families and across the communities to which they belong.

**2025 Student Retention Rate from Primary to High School**

why learning?
Before sponsorship, many RTRA students face steep barriers: household illiteracy, overcrowded classrooms, uncertified teachers, and the daily exhaustion of labor instead of lessons. Child Sponsorship removes those barriers and unlocks something rare in our district—a real path forward. RTRA students advance in their academic careers at rates that far outpace their district and national peers (see Fig. 1). Learning, made possible by sponsorship, is how a child moves from surviving to leading and how your support is reshaping what’s possible for an entire community.

2.livelihoods

Livelihoods refers to the resources, skills, and opportunities a household needs to meet life’s basic necessities: food, shelter, income, and stability. At RTRA, it’s the benefit that reaches beyond the child to strengthen the whole family, because a child’s education can’t take root in a home that’s still fighting to survive.

why livelihoods?
Most RTRA households live in extreme, multidimensional poverty, often headed by widows, single mothers, and aging grandparents raising children alone on income from small-scale farming and informal work. Without access to education, fair markets, savings, or credit, these families are left vulnerable to predatory lenders, unable to negotiate fair prices for their harvests, and unable to provide—a cycle that traps entire households in despair and uncertainty for generations. Livelihoods programming (at right) breaks that cycle at its root, giving families the tools to learn, earn, save, and build a future.

3.nutrition

A child cannot concentrate, learn, or thrive on an empty stomach. Good nutrition is the foundation upon which learning, health, and personal growth are built. At RTRA, we ensure every learner receives daily nutritious meals in a clean, caring, and supportive environment.

why nutrition?
Child malnutrition remains a persistent crisis: households rely heavily on subsistence farming with little dietary diversity and a meaningful share of children under five are already stunted or underweight before they ever reach a classroom. Nationally, food insecurity has climbed sharply over the past two decades and malnutrition robs children of their full physical and cognitive potential.

4.health & wellness

Health & Wellness brings preventive care, chronic illness management, and basic medical access to households with little reliable healthcare otherwise. It protects every other investment RTRA makes. This benefit includes trained Community Health Workers, daily on-campus clinic access, yearly dental and eye specialist visits, and our WASH program.

why learning?
In our district, healthcare is scarce, understaffed, and underfunded, and most deaths families experience come from treatable or preventable conditions — malaria, hypertension, diabetes, and illnesses tied to unsafe water. With few doctors covering the district and international health funding declining, families largely face medical crises alone. RTRA’s Health benefit closes that gap, reaching households the broader system doesn’t.

5.tuition & fees

A core benefit of Child Sponsorship is knowing that a sponsored child will never be sent home from class for their family’s inability to pay tuition and other fees. This core benefit covers university/vocational fees, uniforms, scholastic materials, and exam costs.

why tuition & fees?
Across Uganda, the cost of higher education is the single biggest reason children fall out of the system. The gap only widens as students get older and the pressure to earn income increases. Financial difficulty is overwhelmingly the reason attendance collapses.

6.room & board

Beginning in 2018, RTRA set out to build housing for its most vulnerable students because a child cannot focus on learning if they’re navigating an unstable, unsafe, or unpredictable home environment each night.

why room & board?
For many families, the nearest school is miles away on foot, and rural students already drop out at twice the rate of their urban peers—a gap driven largely by distance, instability at home, and the daily demands of survival. By housing students on campus, RTRA removes those barriers entirely: students receive consistent meals, supervision, and care, and can show up to class every single day without the burden of an unsafe or unreliable home life working against them.

7.mentorship & career readiness

Our goal is to prepare students for life after graduation, not just exams. Students receive structured career guidance, leadership development, and university/vocational application support.

why mentorship?
Youth unemployment in Uganda is high—17.9% among 15–24 year-olds in 2025, and even higher for young women at 21.0%. Many students graduate with no clear next step, simply because no one guided them there.

Everything you are about to read is a testament to transformation made possible when the 7 benefits of child sponsorship are delivered. These pages tell the story of what love has made us.

with gratitude,

David Ssebulime, Founding Director