“I want a Rainbow House in Uganda.” Ronald—14 years old at the time—experienced harsh discrimination and serious poverty as a result of losing his parents to HIV/AIDS. When he tried to describe how hard his life had been to an audience in Japan, he broke into tears. Ronald is now a grown young man, and, with Ashinaga support, he and five other children from Uganda orphaned by AIDS are now studying at two of the most prestigious universities in Japan. It is estimated that 1,200,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS in Uganda (UNICEF, 2007). Once these children lose parents, many of them drop out of school and are forced to work. When Ashinaga first visited Uganda in 2000, it was clear how desperately these orphans needed emotional and educational support. This led to the establishment of Ashinaga Uganda Rainbow House in 2003, and the Terakoya Literacy Education Program in 2008. Approximately 800 registered AIDS orphans regularly visit the Rainbow House to play, talk, and receive psychosocial support, while 50 orphans study at Terakoya on a daily basis. Our motto at Terakoya is “Education for the Future.”
