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September 1, 2007 Newsletter Why We Are Needed The Stephen Shames Foundation partners with Concern for the Future, a leadership program focusing on marginalized youth whose human rights do not exist in any real sense. The children we serve have been discarded. They are child soldiers, youth from IDP camps, AIDS orphans, sex slaves, child laborers, street kids. They live in child-headed families. Our students have seen their parents hacked to death. They watched their guardians waste away and die from AIDS. They are unable to attend school. They eat sporadically. We Train the Next Training discarded young people to be leaders is an effective way to promote justice and reconciliation. Healing traumatized children and reintegrating them into their communities makes the community stronger. Educating leaders expands the human capital of northern Uganda. Our students will become lawyers, judges, doctors, business owners, government administrators, journalists, artists, and aid givers. Our marginalized youth will help rebuild northern Uganda. They will help set up structures that protect human rights, create economic opportunity, and empower the disadvantaged. Donate on PayPal Education: Educating leaders in sub-Saharan Africa is especially important because the AIDS pandemic has devastated the educated and managerial classes, including teachers, civil servants, and army commanders. Insecurity in northern Uganda has affected two generations. If we do not educate talented young orphans, if we ignore the brightest child soldiers, a nucleus of new administrators will not emerge, making it difficult to address issues like justice, reintegration, poverty, and hunger. Our Unique Contribution The education and cultivation of young leaders is a crucial but often overlooked component of our efforts to alleviate poverty and create a safer planet. Concern for the Future offers an innovative policy solution to the issue of child soldiers, child abductees, refugee children, and AIDS orphans. We formed a leadership program because the leadership of northern Uganda has been decimated by war and AIDS. We train leaders so that Uganda can determine its own destiny, develop economically, and heal. Our unique contribution is seeing that, if we do not devote special attention to training local leaders and innovators, we will fall short. Even where aid addresses significant issues, it remains inadequate in the long term if it fosters dependence. Bono, Bill Clinton, and Bill Gates have made enormous contributions with debt relief and vaccinations. But if Africans are not equal partners in these endeavors, the continent will Outsiders cannot make Africa independent. Nor can they create institutions that will provide justice and prosperity. Only indigenous leaders can accomplish that. If East Africa is to transcend the legacy of colonialism and climb out of the morass of AIDS and war, the cultivation of a new generation of home-grown leaders must begin today. What better place to start than by educating today's most promising orphans and child soldiers? Why not give them the skills to steer Africa into the 21st century? Thus far, the digital age has benefited countries such as India that made a concerted effort to train leaders and harness their energies. What keeps Africa from emulating India's success is not brain power: According to Vanity Fair (July, 2007), "African college students [in the U.S.] are doing exceptionally well....In 2000, Africans averaged the highest educational attainments of any group in the United States - higher even than whites and Asians." The problem is lack of opportunity for millions of children living in poverty. The issue is a lack of funding for programs dedicated to finding and cultivating leaders among the dispossessed. Concern for the Future is a model of what can be done. Our students are recognized leaders. New Vision, Uganda's largest newspaper, named the best student at each of Uganda's top eleven secondary schools. Two of the scholars mentioned, students from the top two schools in Uganda, are Concern for the Future members. Donate on PayPal The leaders Africa desperately needs can be found among the groups most affected by crisis. If these talented young people are nurtured, if they are given world-class skills, they will lead their compatriots, their tribes, their countries, and their continent to a brighter future. That is our vision, our unique contribution. We Complement Our Model Is Visionary We transform children's lives. Concern for the Future is an intense, leadership building program. We locate excluded youngsters -- child soldiers, AIDS orphans, children working in rock quarries, kids in refugee camps, young people in child-headed families, and street kids. We enroll them in the top schools, help them climb to the top of their class, and propel them to university. Concern for the Future creates Our dedicated young people will help Africa achieve democracy, prosperity, and stability. Please support the
Stephen Shames Foundation and Concern for the Future so that our 76 youngsters can realize their goals. See what your donation accomplishes Donate on PayPal Help Concern for the Future's Students We rely on the generosity of donors to support the dreams of the children, and we need your help. A donation of $150 a month covers Total Care for one high school student - tuition, room and board, books and clothing, tutoring, medical care, and other essentials. $100 a month provides Total Care for a primary school student. Please consider making a donation of $100 or $150 a month for a year to guarantee one of these children the educational and psychological support they need to recover and flourish. In return for a Total Care donation, you will receive a photograph of your sponsored child and regular school updates. If you can't give $100 a month, please give what you can. All contributions make a difference. Donate on PayPal Photography ©2007, Stephen Shames
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Visit our site: Donate on PayPal The Stephen Shames Foundation locates forgotten children with innate talents and molds them into leaders. We do this by partnering with Concern for the Future, an indigenous Ugandan NGO (non-profit) — raising money, providing financial oversight, and assisting with staff development. Concern for the Future finds bright, motivated AIDS orphans, child soldiers, and other vulnerable children in Uganda who want to go to college but can't because of poverty, AIDS, and war. Concern for the Future pays their school fees and prepares them for university. Concern for the Future runs all aspects of the program in Uganda. The CFTF board and staff, all native Ugandans, select and nurture of our young scholars. Concern for the Future sends them to the best schools and provides them with everything they need to succeed including books, school supplies, medical care, food, clothes, and emotional support. In addition, we teach our scholars 21st-century skills such as web design and video production. However, our most significant gift is spiritual.CFTF's nine volunteer "moms" and “dads” provide our traumatized scholars with a warm and encouraging family, while imbuing them with a strong work ethic and a desire to serve.. |
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Newsletter Editor Photography Please feel free to distribute or forward this newsletter to friends, co-workers, and anyone else you think would like to know about the situation in Uganda and our program.
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confidence to lead their communities. We give a strong voice to those whose dreams and aspirations are seldom heard. 
program for discarded children unequaled anywhere in the world. 
remain in a neocolonial situation, relying for its survival on the good deeds of others. Who is going to feed all the people being kept alive by vaccinations? Who is going to ensure that debt relief brings better governance? Who is going to make the next breakthrough in AIDS research? 
lifetime. Universal primary education is one of their objectives. The Ugandan government exceeds the Millennium Goals by offering its citizens universal primary and secondary education. This is a giant step forward. However, putting millions of children into substandard, overcrowded schools will not lead to the tipping point needed to jump-start Uganda's economy or allow East African nations to benefit from globalization. These primary and secondary school graduates will still lack the skills necessary to participate in the global, computer-based economy. That is why Concern for the Future's leadership program is needed. Our holistic approach to creating leaders complements the Millennium Goals and the educational accomplishments of Uganda's government.