mission week 2024

From Sunday, June 30 – Friday, July 5th, we hosted our annual RTRA Mission Week. This is a week packed with activities built around service, friendship, play, healing, learning, worship, and inspiration. The stories and numbers in this newsletter highlight the impact of our mission. 

Our US & Uganda team hosted the School of Financial Empowerment, Medical Clinic, Rhino Kid’s Camp, Child Sponsorship, STEEAM, and the RTRA Choir. The theme was Words Matter. Words we hear, read, write, speak, and sing.

On the morning of the last day of Mission Week, we celebrated 19 students who are in their final year of High School. Next year they will be entering university or vocational school.

Later, I sat with them to reflect on their years in Primary and High School. I asked them to share a word that best describes their RTRA journey so far. Several words were shared but what caught my attention was 8 of them said their word was “surprise.” This got me thinking and I wanted to hear more.

Raymond Ssentongo, 2012

Raymond Ssentongo, 2024

meet raymond 

Raymond Ssentongo shared first. His eyes welled with tears as he told the details of his life. Though he was speaking to classmates and staff who have known him for years, many of us couldn’t hold back our own emotions.

Raymond lives with severe asthma and has never met his mother. His father died before he was born. He recalled being disowned as a child by relatives because his mother went missing after he was born. His relatives considered him cursed and castaway until the local church women brought him to RTRA in 2012.

He was in RTRA for 8 years without a sponsor until last year.

He described his life as a “surprise” because, in rural Uganda, someone with his health and family background rarely receives necessary medical attention, let alone finishes high school or dreams of university.

What is remarkable is that Raymond has grown into an optimistic young man with a clear vision of becoming a teacher. When I asked why, he replied, “I want castaway children to have a school like Raise the Roof Academy and dedicated teachers like we have here.”

Raymond’s other classmates, who will also be joining university/vocational school next year, shared words defining their own RTRA journey: love, advocacy, hope, prayer, family, compassion, success, and gratitude. Their words reflect the truth and power of their experiences.

RTRA is full of joyous “surprises.” It is a growing school welcoming kids who refuse to be cast off or forgotten. The progress on the new 12-classroom high school block is another surprise and a testament to our mission.

With your ongoing generosity, we are working to have these classrooms ready for use for the new school year in February 2025. We need your support to build the roof and install 60 windows, 36 doors, railings, and a water system, and to paint the classrooms and furnish 480 student desks and chairs.

Thanks to you, Raymond and his 1,600 peers can now stand tall and proudly declare, “surprise, this is my school. I belong here, here I am becoming.” We praise God that a place that once was considered a “nowhere” is now a destiny-shaping place. 

Until access to education, life-saving medicine, food, and a paying job is no longer a “surprise,” we will work tirelessly and give generously so every child can turn their story into inspiration just like Raymond and his friends.

with gratitude,

David Ssebulime, Founding Director