Eddie's Story

Growing up in Uganda, I often heard the family’s story of my birth.  My mother was young and unmarried, considered a disgrace in my devout Catholic family.  Living in poverty, my family couldn’t afford a hospital birth, so my mother was taken to the barn next to our house and that is where I was born -- surrounded by goats. 

In school kids would laugh at me when they learned of this and caused me to be ashamed. I became depressed and bitter about the life God handed me.  But after being baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was 12, I heard Jesus saying, ‘You share the same bed with me!’ What looked like a disgrace now had a new meaning.

In 2013, while volunteering in Kampala City, always I looked at all the kids in the streets I thought, ‘Why can’t these kids just go back to their villages and plant crops and leave the city!” But that night I heard within me, ‘Before making conclusion about someone try to hear their story, everyone has a story.’” That small voice turned into a 10-mile walk alongside Margret. Margret was a young girl whose father had died of HIV/AIDS, and whose mother had run away in fear to Sudan. She managed to survive and support her brother and sister, Andrew and Joan, by traveling by foot miles to Kampala to beg, coming back only to live alone in a filthy, canvas with no mattress. That night, I cried as I considered my own small worries. Again, I began to see things differently. Begging friends for help, I started plans to build an orphanage in Kampala in an attempt to address the same issues Margret and her siblings were facing with other children. Meanwhile, I took on Andrew, Margaret and Joan under my care. I did all this holding onto God’s promise; “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.”—Philippians 1:6

Later that same year I was invited by a friend to visit Franciscan University in Steubenville. On visiting, I thought, “This is my dream school!” While at mass on campus, listening to the congregation praise the Lord, I thought immediately “they sound like angels!” I remember students remaining after Mass to give thanksgiving. It was like heaven. I could hear God calling me, but at first, I doubted—where could I get the money? I’m from Uganda, and I couldn’t even afford the university there, much less a private school in the United States. But God provided. I was blessed to be a student there through the help and generosity of family from Florida. God is a miracle worker.

My providential stay at Franciscan led me in 2017 to pray and reflect deeper on the issues children like Margret, Joan and Andrew faced. After prayer, reflection, and in-depth dialogues/conversations with families from my community in Uganda, together with my close friend Brendan Avila my spiritual father Fr. John Mary Busobozi, we discerned that the problems faced by children such as being orphans, early pregnancies among teenage girls and drug abuse were manifestations of deeper rooted problems that goes back to the culture within families. There was a deeper sense in all of us that we are called to a ministry; thus the formation of Bugumiro Foundation Uganda. 

In 2019 by the grace of God Bugumiro Foundation Uganda was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in the USA with its operations in Uganda. As I lead the daily activities of this ministry in Uganda with the support of Fr. John Mary Busobozi, we are blessed to have Brendan Avila leading our efforts in USA. Please pray for our ministry and that God may act powerfully to continue to reveal his grace and healing to families in need.