President’s Statement

I was born and raised in a remote corner of southwestern Uganda, near the border of Rwanda and Congo. My parents could not write, although they could read a little. There was no electricity or running water in our village, and there still is none today. People survive by subsistence agriculture.
There is only one reason why you are reading this now, and that reason is my parents, Stella and Simon. When we hear the word “fanatic” it makes us uncomfortable, but it’s the best word I can think of to describe their attitude towards our education. It makes me cry even today to think of the sacrifices they made to ensure that my brothers and sisters and I went to school.
Simon would go away for months to work in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, as a labourer. Used books are sold in the street there, and he would buy large volumes and bring them back home to us because they looked serious. Some turned out to be in German or French, but we never told him that they were useless to us. He doesn’t know to this day.
Meanwhile Stella bought and sold land, ran a small store, and did anything else she could think of to earn money, all for one purpose: to pay “school fees” for her children. Our foundation is dedicated to her memory and to that of my husband’s late wife Rosie, a Filipina scholar, teacher and life-long advocate for multicultural education.
My mother taught me by her example how fierce determination can achieve great things. But she taught me something else as well – she taught me to help other people. Poor as we were, there was always food in the evening for our poorer neighbours. There was always shelter for abused wives and abandoned children. As children ourselves we used to resent her boundless generosity. Now when I am an adult and my mother is dead, I am so ashamed of those feelings.
When my brother died leaving seven children, I felt I had to step in, otherwise they would have become throw-away children. But this soon grew far beyond my own family. When I saw how education transformed their lives I became determined to expand my mother’s work into the wider world, and our foundation now supports over 20 children, from primary school to university.
The purpose of our foundation is to place deserving children in private schools so they can take advantage of the opportunities provided by such schools. I do not want anyone to think that I am criticising my country of birth for its public educational system. Education is a high priority for the government, but there are simply not enough resources to educate its children to the limit of their abilities.
I have no illusions that our foundation will transform education in my country. My goal is only to help as many children as I can to gain the chance for education that I was so blessed to have.
I have had some successes on my own, and I will be so grateful if you can help me achieve more through gifts to The Stella-Rosie Foundation. Thank you very much.

Florence Kamahoro Goulet