Meet Timothy: a Jewish day school student in Uganda

Eleven-year-old Timothy is a student at Tikkun Olam Day School in Uganda. Every morning, he wakes up at 6 am and begins his one-hour walk to school.

At school, he heads to his first class. When the bell rings, the students who can afford it get a bowl of porridge for a snack. Timothy doesn’t eat.

Lunch comes and goes, but still Timothy doesn’t eat. After his classes, he teaches us how to catch flying termites to snack on. “They are very sweet,” he explains.

After school, he walks the hour home and takes his two cows to graze before eating dinner himself.

When we ask what it would be like to have lunch every day, he looks at us like it’s obvious.

It would mean everything to be able to eat.

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Currently, just 40 of the 400 students at Tikkun Olam can afford to pay for lunch. The rest look on while their friends eat. 

Through a generous gift from the Women’s Endowment Fund (WEF)*, the school is in the process of building a brand-new kitchen and farm. Once the farm is self-sustainable, all children at Tikkun Olam will eat lunch. fundamentally change the lives of the students.

“If we ate lunch every day,” Timothy says, “we would be active in class, and we won’t be dormant.”

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The Ugandan school year just began, and when they children arrived this week they found a welcome surprise: a working kitchen and lunch, for everyone, every day.

Here’s where Timothy and his classmates need the continued support of the Minneapolis community. The WEF gift covered one year of funding for the kitchen, farm, and lunch.  But beyond that, we have some work to do. Help keep the kids, like Timothy says, not “dormant.

How you can help

Donate to the Uganda school fund

Set up a crowd-funding page for your birthday (or your anniversary! Or a Tuesday!)

Share this story

*the Women’s Endowment Fund is a fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation