About Us

Saint Ann Foundation (SAF) is an indigenous Ugandan nonprofit organization and 501(C3) in the US under the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), that makes all donations tax-deductible. Our EIN: 83-0562651. SAF is a Company limited by guarantee and NGO under the NGO Act 2016 in Uganda, operating in peri-urban (underprivileged slum areas) and in hard-to-reach rural communities of Uganda, with a special focus on availing life opportunities to the underprivileged and marginalized in society.

Our Vision & Mission

Vision: Saint Ann Foundation (SAF) envisions a world where children are nurtured, loved, and given the necessary support they need to live life to their full potential, rescuing them from extreme poverty and deprivation, and where girls and women have the opportunity to actively contribute to their communities.

Motto: Empowered Children, girls and women, transformed communities.

Mission: We exist to promote a coordinated effort aimed at the efficient acquisition and utilization of resources in order to enhance the welfare of children, girls, and women.

About the Founder / Our Story

Saint Ann Foundation (SAF) was founded in 2017 by Abel Robert Ssekayombya who was raised by his late Auntie Ann Wanyana Namuyaba after being orphaned at the age of 6 years. Abel, a product of a teenage pregnancy, her mother having conceived him at the age of 14 years, did not grow up with his parents and was raised under the care of his aforementioned paternal auntie.

Abel was not the only child under Ann’s care as over the years, she took care of other 20 children from her relatives most of whom had succumbed to HIV/AIDS. Using her meager resources, Abel’s Auntie had to work hard to provide for the 20 children under her care, many times resorting to acquiring loans, which numerous times led to her property being impounded due to defaulting on repayment.

During his childhood, Abel knew poverty and poverty knew him. He started school quite later than his siblings, often missing classes during the school semester as his Auntie couldn’t afford to pay his school fees and materials on time.

In 2016, after many years of a hard life but with determination to overturn the trajectory, Abel earned his Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences at Makerere University. The university degree came with the zeal and desire to do something for the many other children in Uganda and the world who were undergoing the same experience he had gone through. Therefore, in appreciation of his Auntie’s care and support, he established “Saint Ann Foundation,” in furtherance of her legacy of supporting underprivileged and marginalized in society, with special focus on children, girls and women.

Our Approach

Our partnership model is an effective approach that leverages the strengths of each partner, while maintaining collaboration and transparency. Through a grassroots approach, our development programs are implemented in consultation with the local/beneficiary community to identify the needs they want to address, utilizing their existing resources, knowledge, skills and materials. We seek to build local capacity by empowering beneficiaries to become responsible for their own development so as to ensure sustainable impact from our interventions.

Why We Do What We Do

About 1.4 billion of the world’s population live in extreme poverty, meaning they lack the basic necessities of life. While some people are unable to provide for their needs because of marginalization, others are curtailed by exploitation, disability, and illness, while age deters the ability of others. Inspired by the golden rule in Isaiah 1:17 (do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause), we feel obliged to create life opportunities for the marginalized in society by creating opportunities for them to access necessities of life such as food, education, healthcare and resources of production that they hitherto wouldn’t have afforded owing to the high levels of stratification/inequality in the society in which they live. We are inspired by the need to “square the pyramid” to ensure that everyone, at any level of society, has the opportunity to access the basic necessities of life, as well as resources to live a productive life.

OUR PRINCIPLES

Passion

We are passionate about making a difference as it inspires us to accomplish greater things even when we grow weary.

Accountability

Saint Ann Foundation actively promotes and works towards a culture of honesty, integrity and trust. We are committed to responsible utilization of the resources entrusted to us, with zero tolerance to any wrongdoing, attempted or committed to those resources.

Children and women Focused

We are committed to ensuring that children and women, who are our top priority, receive the best possible support.

Respect

We respect all our development partners and stakeholders and treat them as equals.

Partnership

A strong, mutual, working relationship is important to us. We aim at building and improving relationships with like-minded partners for the accomplishment of more targets together.

Creativity

We are passionate about achieving our bold mission, and we continually craft new ways to work and solve problems as they emerge.