To go with their jerseys were a half-dozen new soccer balls, which I deflated and stuffed inside the duffle bag when I left for my journey to East Africa. The jerseys are a donation from the Durango Youth Soccer Association. (Full disclosure: The soccer balls are a donation from two of my sisters who live in Salt Lake City, one of whom last year co-founded a soccer foundation for at-risk minority children and young adults.)

Most of these children go to St. John Bosco School, which has also has a Durango connection. Each year, Durango resident Kathy Darnell hosts the Mother’s Day Telegraph Trail Run in Horse Gulch. The money raised from the event goes toward her foundation, Step Up Uganda. Two years ago, the foundation used some of that money to build St. John Bosco, a wooden school that provides an education for seven grades. At least half, if not more, of the children who attend the school are orphans. Their parents died of HIV/AIDS, and through the help of community donors, these children have been taken in and assured they will get an education.

Many other students are those whose parents have received little education. Katosi is a “landing site” on Lake Victoria, one of the African Great Lakes. The primary means of income for village residents is fishing. Typically, children follow in their parents’ footsteps and abandon school at early ages to become fishermen to make a living.

St. John Bosco kids are learning to value education enough to go on to secondary school, college and university. The goal is to help them learn diverse ways of making income.

In the coming weeks, I’ll write more about St. John Bosco, how it came to be and what its administrators have in store for the future.