His life spurred him to protect vulnerable children

Abbel Robert Sekayombya was born to a teenage mother. “All my mother knew was that my father came from Kampala,” says the 26-year-old jolly man. His father was construction worker at the time in Kyanamukaka in Masaka District. His mother kept the pregnancy, delivered in 1991, but abandoned the two-year-old at his grandmother’s house.
When Sekayombya turned eight, a strange woman who was later identified as Ann Muyingo, his paternal aunt, came looking for him. Muyingo told him that his father had died a year back but before his death, he had instructed her to look for his child.

Leaving the village
Muyingo told Sekayombya’s grandmother that her brother had left a child in Masaka whose details matched Sekayombya’s. “I first hesitated to associate with aunt Ann but grandmother convinced me that my future was going to be brighter in Kampala than in the village,” Sekayombya recalls.
Muyingo brought the young boy to Kampala in December 1999 and in February 2000 he was enrolled in Primary Three at Queen of Peace Primary School opposite Lubaga Hospital. From there, Sekayombya joined Makerere College for Ordinary and Advanced level certificates. While in secondary school, he says he had the urge to do something to help teenage mothers, orphaned and vulnerable children in community.

Initiative
“My aunt looked after me. I vowed that I would do something to appreciate her but it would benefit disadvantaged people in my community,” Sekayombya explains.
When he was in his second year at Makerere University as a student of Social Sciences, Sekayombya applied for apprenticeship at Nangabo Children Rights Advocacy and Lobby Mission. While here, he acquired skills and experience on how to handle children affairs and how to run a children’s home.
“I would deal with children of all kinds including orphans, the disabled and those living with chronic diseases. I consulted the managers and they told me that managing a children’s home needed more than love but spiritual and financial sacrifice,” Sekayombya explains.
He also sought advice from Moses Saka, a community leader in Wakiso district on how he could start up a children’s home. Saka encouraged him and supported his dream with a plot of land. He went ahead and helped him register the organisation at the district as a community based organisation (CBO), St Ann Foundation. He named it after his aunt Ann Muyingo appreciating her for bringing him up.

The hustle
St Ann Foundation offers free accommodation and education to vulnerable children in addition to supporting teenage mothers. Sekayombya built a home and school from where he looks after 51 children among them are orphans, some with disabilities and those living with HIV/Aids. The school called Eleanor Junior School in Nakanaku village, Kasangati Town Council, Wakiso District started running in 2015.
Initially, Sekayombya would use his Shs400, 000 monthly salary from a local non-governmental organisation where he works as support staff to feed the children. Last year, Diane Phillips, a California-based good Samaritan read about his organisation on the Internet and decided to partner with them.
“I was inspired when I read about a 26-year-old struggling to bring up disadvantaged children. I decided to mobilise my friends and we offer the little we have to support the innocent children,” Phillips says.
Phillips and Sekayombya mobilise well-wishers via social media and hope to build better structures. Volunteers from nearby nursery teachers colleges teach the children.
Sekayombya prefers volunteers because he cannot afford to pay salaries. He sacrifices all to feed the children and keep good hygiene. “ I earn Shs400,000, if I employ people who expect salary, I’m bound to fail because I cannot raise their salary. I work with only volunteers at the moment,” he explains.

Volunteer says...

Phillips alongside her friends came to volunteer at the foundation in December.
“I love his courage and commitment to looking after the young children. We shall continue using friends to raise funds to support this project. These children must live a decent life,” Phillips says.

The future...
“I would love to see the children I have brought up becoming useful persons in the country and entire world.” He says he walks with his head high whenever he looks at the joy he has brought to children whose life was in dark clouds.
He projects on getting vocational skills trainers to offer self-sustaining skills to teenage mothers. These would include knitting, tailoring, hairdressing and craft shoes making.