About the Founder
Saint Ann Foundation was founded in 2016 by Abel Robert Ssekayombya who was raised by his Auntie Ann Muyingo after being orphaned at the age of 8 years. Abel had been a product of a teenage pregnancy, her mother having conceived him at the age of 14 years. To this end ABEL didn’t grow up with his mother and was given under the care of his paternal auntie aforementioned.
Abel was not the only child under Ann’s care: over the years she took-in other 20 children from her relatives most of whom had succumbed to HIV/AIDS. Using her meagre resources Abel’s Auntie had to work hard to provide for the 20 children under her care many times resorting to acquiring soft loans and many times like you would expect her property was often impounded.
During his childhood Abel knew poverty and poverty knew him; he started school quite later than his siblings, often missing classes during the school term as his Auntie couldn’t not afford to pay his school fees and materials on time.
In 2015 after many years of a hard life but with determination to overturn the trajectory, Abel earned his B.A in Social Sciences at Makerere University. The university degree came with many realizations for Abel; first the realization that he had to do something for the many other children in Uganda and the world who were undergoing a similar experience like he had gone through.
Therefore building on the legacy of his Auntie, He established the “Saint Ann Foundation”, to promote her legacy of supporting Orphans and Vulnerable children(OVCs)(CWDs, Orphans, SGBV) through educational, skills Development, Art for social change, sport and health programmes, with a special emphasis on girls, and young women in need because they are often the most vulnerable.
The SAF was officially registered as a Non-Profit Company and NGO in 2017 with Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) and National Non-Government Organization Bureau and in the USA with Internal Revenue Service (IRS).