Jim Steele with one of the students in Uganda. Click to enlarge.
Jim Steele has been a successful businessman and is dean at Chattanooga State Technical Community College. His wife, Lisa, is a local teacher. But foremost on their minds are the children of Uganda in far-away Africa.
Jim and Lisa attend Brainerd Presbyterian Church and four years ago were introduced to those childrens' needs by a visitor from Uganda.
He says, "Monique Mubiru visited us for the second time in the Spring of 2001 to raise money for her clinic in Ntinda. We had a wonderful time getting to know her and hearing about the dire situation in her country. As she was preparing to leave us, she told us her family had a serious problem. She and her husband have four children of their own and they've adopted two other AIDS orphans. As she was leaving for America, Monique learned that her brother-in-law had died. This would add another child to their household, and Monique said they simply couldn't afford the school fees to educate all these children. She said her family would be forced to choose one child to stay home while the others went to school.
"A man overheard Monique's story and said he would like to take responsibility for educating this boy. Monique estimated the cost would run about $200 per year. We learned that the government provides funds for education in Uganda, but the total amount provided by the government totals only $2 per child per year. The remainder of school expenses must be paid by the parents or guardians of the students.
"Monique went home and sent us pictures and information on 14 more children. Lisa and I took them to Brainerd Presbyterian Church, and the ministers and officers and their families agreed to sponsor all the children. So Monique sent us 50 more! We talked to friends, and we spoke to the church. By the time we found sponsors for these, we had more than 150 more."
By the summer of 2003, 84 children were being sponsored. Since no one from Brainerd Presbyterian had ever been to Uganda, Jim Steele and Rev. David Wahlstedt flew to Kampala and spent 13 days visiting children, schools and homes.
Jim says, "I will never forget what we saw there. The impact of AIDS is beyond anything I could imagine. There were so many children! So many living with grandparents and relatives. So many living on the streets alone. And so few in school.
"One day, we went to a village to visit two sponsored children. More than 130 showed up to meet us, and our two kids were the only ones in school."
Since then, Jim Steele and Lisa have made many more trips to Uganda, covering all their own expenses. They visit the children sponsored in the program and make sure the money pledged in Chattanooga and from a number of other locales in the U.S. is getting directly to them.
He says Uganda is a beautiful green country, but it has a history of insurmountable problems. In the early 1970's, Idi Amin became dictator of Uganda. During his cruel regime, more than 300,000 people were killed by the army. His successor, Milton Obote, killed another 100,000 Ugandans during the early 1980's.
Jim says, "The goal of these heartless leaders was to preserve their regimes, so they focused their hostilities against the educated. As a result, Uganda is suffering a tremendous shortage of managers and leaders. And then there was AIDS. By the early 1990's, estimates of the rate of infection ranged as high as 30% of the population. By the end of 2001, nearly one million Ugandans had died with AIDS. The result: more than 1/2 of the nearly 25 million population is under the age of 15. Life expectancy is only 43.2 years."
Today, more than 200 children are sponsored, but there remain more than 300 on a waiting list with many more children in Uganda praying for help, Jim Steele says.
The cost of sponsoring a child is $150 per year. This is payable in a single payment each year, or in three payments of $50 in November, March, and July. Each sponsorship covers tuition and fees charged by the schools, books, supplies, and a hot lunch each school day.
The sponsored children living in Kampala also attend a Saturday school program where they are taught about God. Jim said the program has a Christian emphasis, but ministers to children of all faiths.
He says, "When we receive your sponsorship, we will send a picture of your child and information about him or her. Your child will write you at least twice each year, and we ask that you do the same. The children especially want pictures of their sponsors so they can pray for them."
Vincent Lubuulwa is the director of the project in Uganda. He pays school fees directly to the schools. Parents and guardians never see the funds. He and his team also visit the children to provide encouragement at least twice each term, it was stated.
Jim and Lisa are both from Chattanooga. They grew up in East Ridge and graduated from East Ridge High School. They started dating in college at UTC and dated off and on for about seven years before getting married. They have been married for 24 years.
Lisa has a masters in Early Childhood Education from UTC, and Jim has an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management.
After Vanderbilt, Jim took a job at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. After a couple of years in the cold, he answered a Wall Street Journal ad for Provident, and the couple found themselves back in Chattanooga. He worked at Provident for seven years, rising up through Corporate Planning to treasurer, then vice president of finance for the Group Health business (which Provident sold). He went to Chattanooga State in 1998 to teach business courses. Last year, he was named Dean of Engineering, Business, and Information Technologies.
Lisa has been at Ooltewah Elementary for 24 years. She spent 16 years in special education, and the last eight years in regular ed. She has taught second grade there for six years.
Those interested in becoming sponsors should contact Brainerd Presbyterian Church, call 423-396-3777 or email
Jim and Lisa Steele at
ugandachild@prodigy.net
Lisa Steele and future student.