Fr. John Mary's Story

My name is Rev. Fr. John Mary Busobozi, a Catholic Priest belonging to Hoima Catholic Diocese, in Uganda, East Africa. I was ordained on the 21st July 1996. I am the 4th of six children, 2 boys and 4 girls. We are still blessed to have our lovely parents Mr. Matia Muwonge (retired primary teacher by profession) and Mrs. Cecilia Nanyonga (also retired primary teacher by profession).

With the generous support of many, my dear parents, relatives and a priest benefactor (late Fr. Joseph Lule), I successfully underwent through formal education in Uganda, namely: Primary, Secondary, Higher, and University studies. In my 16 year priestly formation I also obtained two degrees, one in Philosophy and another in Theology both of Makerere University Uganda. Later, as a priest, I was sent to the Gregorian University, Rome, Italy for a four year course in Journalism (2002 – 2005), where I obtained a Masters in Social Communication (Specializing in Radio). After my ordination to the priesthood, I served as Assistant Pastor Bujumbura cathedral and later as Acting Pastor in the same parish.

At the same time I was appointed Director Communications department in the diocese of Hoima. After my Masters at the Gregorian University, Italy, I was appointed for one year, as Assistant Pastor in an Italian parish near Rome called Torvaianica (2006). Back in Uganda I continued serving in the Communication department and helped in the founding of Radio Maria Uganda Hoima in 2009. During summer, I visit Santo Stefano Protomartire, a parish in Venice, Italy for pastoral work.  

In the course of the 23 years of my priestly vocation and pastoral experiences, I have been greatly touched by the plight of the human condition especially in the African context. I have constantly been faced with the drama of the living conditions of marginalized families, adverse poverty, illiteracy, poor hygiene, diseases, abandoned children, orphans, cases of alcoholism and sexual moral deterioration especially among the youth. On different occasions I felt that the Lord was challenging me, as he once did to the apostles, to do something for these people in great need. It is in those very moments that the Lord opened my mind and heart to ‘look beyond’ my little means and resources and reach out to the wider community of the people of God for help and support. Since then, I have been able to attract a number of willing and generous benefactors both from abroad and from within our local communities, who have, over the years helped me to sponsor and give financial support to needy and desperate children so as to give them a future. And when in 2013, Eddie, my spiritual son, who had himself benefitted from the same support for his early education, shared with me his plans to start an orphanage and education center, I knew this was an added confirmation and sheer Providence, in response to the urgent call that Mother Church invites us to embrace, that is, to bring hope and healing to his people, to families and especially children. Bugumiro Foundation Uganda is founded from this very desire of living the gospel of Jesus in a more practical way.

Bugumiro Foundation, however, has something unique in its mission. Through the education centre and empowerment programs, the Foundation does not only seek to do things for those in distress, or to see them as objects of charity, but RATHER, we strive to receive each individual or family as a source of life and communion. It is a give and take scenario whereby members mutually enrich one another, regardless of status or individual circumstances. Our goal is to establish a Christ-centered Education centre so as to empower individuals and communities with both human and Christian values through formal and informal education of the children, youth, and parents. In this center, a holistic formation approach is followed so as to address all areas of human development, namely: mind, soul/ spirit, and body. The core values on which emphasis is placed are, namely: Compassion, Authenticity, and Integrity. And as the spiritual director of the Foundation, the mind and heart of Jesus, our Savior, is clear, and that is: “Be compassionate as your Heavenly Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:36).