While many of us are celebrating the fourth of july with barbecues and fireworks, it's easy to forget how lucky we are to live in this country. But one local man is doing all he can to spread this freedom to others.
He's leading an international effort to build homes for orphans in Uganda, many homeless after losing their parents to HIV/AIDS.
Many people call Jackson Kaguri a hero, including CNN who has nominated him as one.
But Kaguri thinks of himself as an ordinary volunteer, doing something anyone would if they saw the children in his native Uganda village.
Through their stories, Kaguri says he realized how lucky his life's been and that he needed to give back.
They live in simple houses with just the basic necessities, but for these villagers, all of this is a blessing. Just a few years ago, most of the children were homeless after the AIDS epidemic killed many of the adults, including Kaguri's brother.
"Each time I would take my nieces and nephews to the village, we realized so many people had passed away because of HIV/AIDS. That's putting the number of orphans close to 2.2 million," said Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, the founder of the Nyaka AIDS Orphan Project. "We said you can do something about it, rather than giving pencils and pens. We can give children a school, which they can call a home away from."
Now the villages in Uganda are filled with the songs and laughter of children, many who have a home and a chance to go to school for the first time.
Kaguri's Nyaka AIDS Foundation has touched thousands of others. The organization has helped build libraries and clinics for adults and taught children how to grow their own food.
"It's so crucial for us, because we want to make sure we take out as many obstacles as we can so children can succeed," Kaguri said. "We graduated the first class in 2008. 100 percent of the students passed. That gives you a lesson really that regardless where a kid grows up, in Lansing, or in the Chicago ghetto, that given the opportunity, they will succeed."
Kaguri's foundation has received tremendous support from people in mid-Michigan, from stores offering to sell Uganada handicrafts to volunteers flying out to the village.
"People go back and they say 'oh!' To change somebody's life, you don't have to be Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey, you can still make a difference regardless who you are and how little you have," Kaguri said.
And nobody knows better than these kids how much just a little help can do.
"Two cents is one number two pencil, and because these kids are poor and because they can't afford two cents, a kid's dream education ends," said Kaguri.
To stop that from happening, Kaguri says he's dedicated the rest of his life to helping out his village.
"If I can create a thousand mini Jackson's, who are going to grow up and go back and do something in this village, there would never be poverty in that village," Kaguri said.
