While visiting his home country Uganda in 2003, former Olympic athlete Julius Achon came across a group of children who were sleeping under a bus in Lira. These eleven orphans had escaped from the same Otuke village where Julius was raised after their parents were killed by the LRA, and were then living and begging on the streets. Touched by their suffering and grateful for his own blessings, Julius decided to adopt them.

What started as a small orphanage for children left parentless by the Ugandan civil war today encompasses the region’s only health clinic, a rural wellness-outreach initiative, a growing youth sports program, and a partnership with Cents For Seeds, which enables female farmer-entrepreneurs to “borrow” seeds, to move beyond subsistence farming. Our progress will continue until Northern Uganda no longer suffers from war-engendered poverty.