Connect Africa was founded as a non-profit in 2005 to help families, often helmed by women, who value education but can’t afford its costs. From a small cluster of villages, Connect Africa has expanded its reach to over 50 villages throughout Uganda. In addition to academic education, Connect Africa also has vocational training, microloans, business management, tutoring, and local crafts support.
What sets Connect Africa apart from other non-profits is its collaboration with villagers about the needs of their community. This information is conveyed to donors and creates a connection between Ugandans and donors. Our mission is to aid Ugandans to create a better future for themselves.
The committed and passionate Founding Directors are Lynn S. Auerbach and Kalule Charles. Lynn resides in Uganda for half the year and Boston the other half, while Uganda is Charles‘s home. They are both actively involved in assessing the families‘ needs, implementing startup initiatives, and supporting the students' endeavors to attain an education. Connect Africa relies on local staff and advisors who intimately understand the complex needs of the community.
“Every time I think about Connect Africa I end up in tears because I always think of how can I pay back the love from people
who do not even know me and have contributed to this organization to help my country. Thank you thank you thank you!
These words only portray one percent of what I feel. Connect Africa – you gave me a chance to live,
gave me meaning in my life and I only hope and wish that I will give back to people as you have given to me.”
– Kalule Charles
About Us
Lynn grew up in a working-class family with a single mother and grandparents in an apartment in Brooklyn, NY. She was street-smart but struggled in school. Despite this less-than-ideal history, Lynn managed to get a Ph.D. in psychology specializing in trauma, and then buy and run a business, Impact Model Mugging, a personal safety training program that targets psychological and physical safety.
With all that she has done in her career, Lynn always carried a yearning to live and work in Africa. She actualized this dream in 2004. Lynn spends half the year living in the village Kyaliiwayala, and half in Newton, MA.
Lynn laughs that her street was the book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, where there was one tree outside her apartment building, and when she went back years later, it was gone. How ironic that she grew up not remembering when she saw her first flower or playgrounds that weren’t cement, and now resides in the fertile green agricultural land of Uganda.
Charles grew up in the slums of Kampala. During a period of his life, his family experienced homelessness, and he saw many of his friends face the same plight.
The main problem in Uganda is poverty. Charles says, “Many things seem not to work, like the ability to go to school. I failed to continue my higher education, and then realized that things don’t happen the way we want them to. When seated on our mother’s lap when we are young, we don’t know how hard the road ahead of us is.”
Charles earned a degree in Counseling and Guidance, which he utilizes to offer a better life to those he
works alongside.
“Personally, something told me to keep hoping.
It is unbelievable that I met Lynn on this side of the world who has a big, big, big heart.”
– Charles