The Road To Kitgum

COVER SUMMARY

The Road to Kitgum tells the awe-inspiring story of the Teach Them To Fish Foundation’s mission to reduce the suffering of vulnerable children by building schools in rural Cambodia and Uganda. It emphasizes the importance of educating girls who are at risk of human trafficking.

The book describes how Chase Sizemore established the foundation in 2006 and details its early efforts to provide education to children in some of the most remote and underserved areas of the developing world. It begins with the construction of the foundation’s first primary school for over 380 children in a remote village in Battambang Province, Cambodia, and traces its growth into rural Uganda, where the first schools were built deep within the bushland of the East African Plateau.

Along the way, the story reveals the harsh human realities behind the foundation’s work. It recounts the search for the parents of three young boys who were killed after stepping on an American war-era land mine in Quang-Tri Province, Vietnam. It describes encounters with violence, disease, and the lingering scars of war, including a narrow escape from the Al-Shabaab suicide bombers who later carried out attacks in Kampala and a battle with cholera during a return visit to Uganda.

The book reaches its emotional high point at Kanyanga Primary School, where a young student quietly hands Chase a handwritten note from his mother. Her plea is urgent. She asks for help rescuing her son, Akiki, who was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) when he was about ten years old. More than six years later, he is believed to be injured and hiding near Kitgum. What follows draws Chase into the dangerous world of the LRA and their informants in internally displaced persons camps. During the rescue attempt, Chase is kidnapped by armed mercenaries and later escapes by jumping out of a window and fleeing to safety.

He returns to the village and reports his failed rescue attempt to Akiki’s mother. Before leaving Uganda, she asks him one final heartbreaking question.

More than an account of danger and survival, The Road to Kitgum is a story of compassion, courage, and the life-changing power of education. It shows how a single school can become a place of hope in a community that has long felt forgotten.

After more than two decades of building primary schools for tens of thousands of children, the Teach Them To Fish Foundation now shares this story to help expand its mission and bring education, dignity, and opportunity to even more children in need.

Every school we build changes the lives of thousands of children and their village forever. With your support, we can build the next one.