According to Ross, the porridge is essential to creating an effective learning environment and improving academic performance.

In 2007, the Project added a literacy initiative by opening lending libraries in their primary schools.

“You can tell a difference in between the kids who have been reading and have had access to these libraries,” said Michelle A. Sirois ’12.

Sirois worked with the literacy initiative in Uganda, where she helped students write down, translate, and construct books out of Ugandan stories they heard from their parents.

Equally important to Ross’s mission in the Kasiisi Project is the conservation of the Kibale National Park, which is home to many endangered species of monkeys, chimpanzees, and elephants. A rising local population and increased demand for resources has contributed to increased deforestation and hunting in the Park.

The Kasiisi Project works to educate students in waste and water management and sustainable living in order to help local families survive while keeping the forest alive. “The major threat to the forest is the people that live around it,” she said.

HEALTHY FUTURES

Although many Kasiisi Project programs are aimed at children who will remain in the Kibali Park area and grow up to be farmers, the Project also operates a scholarship program for exceptional rural students who would otherwise be unable to attain a good secondary school education, according to Ross.

Everyone who has gone through the scholar program was able to find a job, Ross said.

“It can be hard for them to get above and beyond if they have goals that are big dreams because you don’t make a lot of money in subsistence farming and education is expensive,” says Abigail F. Schoenberg ’12, who worked with the Kasiisi Project to create a ninety-second educational video for the students to promote hand-washing and health.

“The scholarship program has a huge impact. It really gives them a future that would be really difficult for them to get otherwise,” she added.

It was through this scholarship program that Dominic was able to enroll in a private boarding school. And for Dominic, that matriculation meant he no longer had to walk seven miles in the cold to get an education.

“It also provided us with mosquito nets, meaning that I no longer suffer from malaria due to mosquito bites,” he writes. “I have never suffered from Malaria since then.”

Dominic is the first scholar from the program to be accepted into an American university. When at Harvard, Dominic, who is interested in biological and medical research, plans to study neurobiology. He wants to use his education to contribute to scientific advancement in Uganda. Aside from his hard work, Dominic attributes much of his success to the Kasiisi project.

“If I had not become a Kasiisi Scholar, I would have probably dropped out of school in my early secondary school education,” he wrote. “Where I am going right now, Harvard, is due to the Kasiisi Project.”

—Staff writer D. Simone Kovacs can be reached at dkovacs@college.harvard.edu.