Author: jbugembe

Overview

This is the autobiographical account detailing the early life, severe poverty, and academic struggles of Naphtali Kalibbala in Uganda. It chronicles his journey from a childhood marked by extreme hunger to his time at a rehabilitation center, highlighting a pivotal moment of prayer that shaped his life's mission to give back to the vulnerable.

Key Chapters & Themes

1. Family Background & Early Hardships

• Family Roots: Naphtali was born on December 23, 1985, in Miti village, Mukono Town. His father was an often-absent soldier with multiple families, leaving the burden of raising seven children entirely on his mother, Margret Batenga.
• Mother's Sacrifice: His mother sold locally made banana alcohol and wove baskets to pay for school fees. Despite her hard labor—which included traveling seven miles to collect materials—she eventually could no longer afford tuition, forcing Naphtali to drop out by Primary Four.

2. Entry into the Africa Foundation

• Rehabilitation: After spending time loitering on the village streets while his mother recovered from a severe injury, Naphtali and his brother were taken in by the Africa Foundation in 1996. The organization, founded by Rev. Dr. Kefa Ssempangi, was designed to rehabilitate vulnerable and street children.
• Survival of the Fittest: Life at the center was highly unstable. Food was scarce, and during school holidays, children had to work for their meals. Naphtali resorted to breaking stones at a local quarry and searching markets for discarded food scraps to survive.

3. Academic Determination

• Driven to Succeed: Naphtali believed education was his only escape from poverty. Despite suffering from severe hunger that made concentrating in class difficult, he consistently ranked at the top of his class.
• Working for Fees: When the foundation introduced cost-sharing and required unsponsored children to pay 60,000 UGX, Naphtali took on casual labor—such as slashing the school compound, cleaning the dining hall, and later, milking and tending to the head teacher's cows—to fund his education and scholastic materials.

4. The Turning Point: The Desperate Prayer

• The Incident (1999): While in Primary Seven, Naphtali experienced a day of absolute starvation. After finding no sugarcane leftovers in the nearby village, he discovered dry, discarded sugarcane husks on the ground that had been chewed by others days prior.
• The Promise: Before eating the husks, he made a tearful, desperate prayer: "God, if You ever bless me in this life, I will also bless others."
• Outcome: This moment became a profound emotional and spiritual turning point. It shifted his mindset from despair to hope, laying the foundation for his future graduation with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Management from Uganda Christian University and his ultimate goal to feed and assist vulnerable children.

During the Christmas festive season, our staff and volunteers reached out to over 50 families in slums of Kikandwa. The Kinkandwa community was given rice, sugar, loaves of bread, washing soap and cooking oil.

This brought smiles onto the families that received these donations.

Great thanks to HandS.e.V. Germany, wellwishers and KalibVille family for sharing this season with such families.

Kalibville Cooperative Community through Kalibville Give Hope Nursery & Primary School gave back to the community with its Christmas Party of 2025 which took place on 12^th Dec 2025 which included a match around the village, music, graduation of children from nursery to primary, speeches from distinguished guest, luncheon, cake feasts from both the graduates and father christmas.

The joyous ceremony which created hope and happy memories for the people in the community, included a number of things to further show the willingness and effort dedicated to serving children and the less privileged people in the community.

The ceremony kicked off with a march around the village where joy and happiness was witnessed by the village and further creating an outreach message and awareness to more people and children in the community.

The match was led by the band and our founder plus all stakeholders of the Kalibville Cooperative Community and it went around the whole village and neighboring areas and after the match concluded back to the school premises.

It was indeed a joyous moment and an early Christmas for all, where the audience received tremendous performances from the children which included folk dances, drama, music, and even a mega performance from the school choir.

The ceremony was also honored by the leaders in the community, who gave encouraging and developmental speeches to the community and children who had attended.

A special luncheon was also served to the children and the audience that had attended the ceremony showing more of the good work and outreach of Kalibville Cooperative Community work.

After the speeches from the distinguished guests, the founder and head of Kalibville Cooperative Community went ahead to award the graduates their certificates and a gift to each of the best pupils in school this year, followed by the serving of the cake to the audience and the children at large.

The ceremony was rounded up by father Christmas who gave out sweets and also served the second cake to the people creating a memorable experience to the community and further show that indeed it’s a pleasure that the Lord Son is born.

With utmost pleasure and gratitude, we would like to thank our development partners; The HandS.e.V Germany, godparents, corporates like BUCS I.T, Kalibville family and all well wishers.

We wish you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.