Harbert Ganyana’s Biography
I am called Harbert Ganyana, the Director and founder of Rock Foundation School.  I was born in 1968 in a remote village in Uganda called Rakai. My father never married my mother and when I was five months old my father took me away from my mother. He started looking after me with my grandmother. When I was 9 years old my dear father died. He left me with my grandmother who was very old and my stepmother. My stepmother being a good woman tried her best to raise me up. My father was killed by Idi Amin's soldiers who looted everything he owned, so my mother had nothing to raise us. I remember my education was not easy- most of the time I had no books, pens, pencils but the most challenging thing was the school fees. This challenged my mother a lot and I remember the school would send me back for school fees which I knew were not there and so many times I sat in the bush and cried. This affected my studies a lot and up to now I still have that effect. Through facing such situations, I was determined to study because that was the only hope for my success.
With God's help I finished the primary school and when I reached the secondary school I started digging in people's gardens in order to get money to survive and at the same time pay my school fees. Reaching senior five, an organization called African Rural Outreach and Development started to help pay for my school fees. By then I was in the city but I continued doing small jobs to get money for up keep. When I finished my secondary level I joined National Teacher Training College after which I joined a technical institute and also got a certificate in building.
After my studies, I started working with African Rural Outreach and Development (ARORD) as a child development officer. Later on I joined Compassion International which was also working with disadvantaged children. Being in Rakai, the first district in Uganda to be hit by AIDS, I saw a lot of suffering children who were left alone by the death of their parents. So many young children from the age of five upwards were left to look after other young ones. This challenged me more and always reminded me of the situation which I faced when I was left alone by my only loving father. Those children were always neglected, hated and always under went a lot of suffering and this built my ambition to do something for the disadvantaged children.
I got married to my wife Helen in 1995. I moved to Kampala where I started working as a builder. My wife was working with a school for mentally handicapped children. With our small earnings, we started sponsoring three needy children. We saved some money and we began Rock Foundation School in 1997. The school began with four children who were paying school fees and our aim was to have a school where some children pay money and we use those funds to help others who can't pay.
We thank God that now we have more than forty children we are helping. God has blessed me with four children: 2 boys and 2 girls and we have 2 adopted children as well as two more we are looking after in our home. I am still paying school fees for my younger brothers- both of them are enrolled at the University. In a simple way I am man who has seen a lot, thinks of more and expects the best .My life has never been easy but I think I can use my experience to be of help to others and I think that will be the purpose of my living on this planet earth. I really thank God for I have learnt to trust him in all the challenges coming my way.
Thank you.
Always remember Harbert.
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