Life & Work with Marlene Ssebulime

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marlene Ssebulime.

Hi Marlene, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2004, I was serving a church in California as the Children’s Minister and I met my new neighbor, David Ssebulime. David was not like anyone I had ever met before. In our first conversation standing in the street, I learned he was from Uganda, and then he said, “Have you ever heard of the African Children’s Choir?” I said, “yes, of course!” And he proceeded to tell me how when he was a boy the African Children’s Choir was formed in Uganda as a sponsorship program to help poor and orphaned children who could not afford to attend school and he was chosen to be in the choir and tour Europe and North America. We became friends and I enjoyed learning about his childhood in Uganda. A year later, we got married in 2005 and began dreaming and praying about what life would be like together and how we were going to serve God.

Raise the Roof Academy started as a project in our living room with two other friends in November 2005. We invited friends over to breakfast to hear what then, was a simple idea, and what we believe is still a simple idea. That idea is, “we have an obligation, a solemn responsibility to act on what we know.”

Our work in Uganda was meant to be one short project to raise a roof on a church. This church was leaking and unsafe and had a school connected to it that served over 600 students. With those two friends we invited to breakfast we began asking other friends, family, and churches to help raise the $40,000 that was needed to raise the roof of this large church and school. We did car washes, bake sales, a silent auction, and a concert, whatever we could think of to raise another dollar. In just a few months, we raised the full amount and organized a mission trip to see the roof, meet the people, and provide some basic needs for children living in very remote villages. When we began on this road, little did we know we would end up where we are today.

Then, in 2008, we visited the village of Bwasandeku only for a few hours. This was the last place David’s father had preached before he was killed during the era of Idi Amin leaving David’s mom with 11 children and no source of income. David had always wanted to go there and meet the people that knew his dad. There were a lot of children who received us with their grandmothers and a handful of men. Sitting in the presence of children who have lost fathers, widows who have lost husbands, and mothers who have lost children to HIV/AIDS, is not something you can easily shake off. Their songs, prayers, and generosity were incomprehensible. They remembered the sermons David’s father preached, and we were told the story of the community and how the children could not attend school because they had no money to pay school fees. Public schools do not exist there as we have in the US. Most are subsistence farmers, working their gardens to live another day.

At the end of our time with them, the light bulb moment happened: these children need to be the change for their community, if we care for these children by providing them an education, they can change the cycle of poverty. These children did not have a choice in where they were born. I did not choose where I was born, David did not choose where he was born. We felt called to raise a roof for a reason, and it finally seemed to make sense. We committed right then and there to build a school in Bwasandeku.

In March 2011, Raise the Roof Academy opened its doors in a wooden shack with 2 teachers and 30 students. We carefully selected the most vulnerable children who had no hope. Our only committed revenue at this time was a monthly gift of $250. David is who he is because he was sponsored as a child to attend school. When his mom didn’t have money for school fees, all of the children had to stop attending school. David was the first person in his family to graduate high school, then college. We wanted to give back in that same way. We began our child sponsorship program and introduced our 30 students to anyone who would listen. Once our first 30 students had sponsors, we added another 30 students, and then 100 students.

Today, we have 1,500 students in our program, and those first students that began 12 years ago are now in high school. Since that day we have never looked back. Each step of the way, God has brought people. We rejoice every single time a child gets sponsored! Every single time we get to share the good news with them, they celebrate, and tears of joy stream down their grandma’s face as they begin to imagine what life will be like for their grandchild.

Those first 30 children were not attending school before Raise the Roof Academy. They had to wait. They were severely behind in their education. When they first began, they had to work so hard to make up for a lost time. The good news is that today, those first students are now the first in their families to enter high school.

Through abandonment, alcoholism, divorce, disease, and death, children have lost one or more parents. The government relationship is also very broken in Uganda. There is a severe lack of infrastructure for education. We didn’t even have electricity at RTRA until 2014 because there was nothing pre-existing in the community. There was no roadway system or postal system. There was no water works company.

And yet, Raise the Roof Academy is shining bright in Bwasandeku, Uganda. As more children have been sponsored, more teachers have been hired, and more building projects have required hiring local construction workers. Bwasandeku was seen as a depressed town, like a ghost town, before the school was built there. Now, 12 years later, it is a growing area. Many of our staff members are hired from other areas of Uganda, so when they move to Bwasandeku, they are increasing the local economy. Raise the Roof Academy is a part of mending those broken relationships and bringing hope, healing, and wholeness.

$35/month to sponsor a child’s education isn’t much to us, but to a child in rural Uganda, it is the difference between a life of subsistence farming and a life filled with choices.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The path is not always smooth, but definitely rewarding. When we began the school in 2011, we only had $250/month coming in. We didn’t know how we were going to raise support month to month while still working our other full-time jobs. But, we felt such a call to our mission that we knew all we had to do was tell people and those who could be compelled to join us and partner in the mission.

Every day there are new challenges like how to care for children with different learning and physical abilities, how to support children through losing a parent, how to build up scholarship support when sponsorship support is lost, and how to build infrastructure that will outlive our staff and remain for generations to come. So, one day at a time we continue to tell our story and invite others to help one child at a time because we want to see generations of empowered children lead community change and share their passions with the world.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We develop high-quality education centers, provide community health programs, create income-generating opportunities, and grow alongside local leaders. This multi-faceted, participatory approach builds local capacities and long-term relationships to create lasting, community-wide advancement, rather than a transactional supply of assistance.

Here’s What Guides Us:

+ RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
We believe the key to lasting success is to foster strong relationships that build trust and confidence. We seek relationships with each other, with God, and with creation.

+ LISTEN & LEARN
We are built by and for the community in which we operate; 100% of our operational staff are Ugandan nationals.

+ TEAM-BASED
We share the goal of collective success, which can only be accomplished through teamwork and collaboration.

+ EVERYONE IS A PARTICIPANT
We believe that age, gender, tribe, faith, or history should not exclude you from access to opportunity. Everyone should have a seat at the table.

+ THE RIPPLE EFFECT
The knowledge, skills, and confidence acquired through community-wide engagement have the ability to lead change for generations to come.

+ POVERTY ISN’T JUST MATERIAL
We aim to combat common misconceptions surrounding poverty by telling stories that highlight initiative, resilience, and achievement. We take into consideration the historical context and contemporary challenges faced by our community.

+ PROMOTE PASSIONS
We offer both formal education and vocational training to encourage students and community members to recognize their own unique skill sets and abilities.

+ EXIT STRATEGIES ARE ESSENTIAL
Our programs are designed to strengthen individual and communal capacities to encourage growth that leads to economic self-sufficiency.

Pricing:

• $35/month to sponsor a child in primary school.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.raisetheroofacademy.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raisetheroofacademy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raisetheroofacademy
• Youtube: youtube.com/raisetheroofacademy