Program Summary

Our core focus is ‘youth leadership development’ – all the various programs we run are aligned in their missions, each working in different areas, and at different stages of engagement, towards an overarching collective vision.

Cornerstone Leadership Academies:

These are “Advanced Level” boarding, high schools that aim at molding young people coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, but with high potential, into future leaders. Out of several hundred applicants each year a small cohort of young men and women are selected from all over each country on the basis of leadership potential, academic potential, financial need, and a eagerness for personal/spiritual growth. In Uganda and Tanzania, this level of High School covers two years so we have roughly 100 students in each school at a time – each cohort having 25 boys and 25 girls. In Rwanda, it is a three year program with roughly 120 students – each cohort having 20 boys and 20 girls. A central aim of this program is to teach young future leaders from various religious backgrounds and different tribes, to learn to live together as brothers and sisters in the spirit of Jesus, despite their differences. And, then to help them advance a movement of ‘men of integrity and women of virtue’ that can work across these long standing divisions to build a more peaceful and prosperous society through out this region. In addition to the academic studies the program involves a comprehensive discipleship program following the principles, precepts and person of Jesus. After developing the model in Uganda, we then started up Leadership Academies in Tanzania, Rwanda and South Sudan.

For more information, please visit:
www.CornerstoneSchoolsAfrica.org

 

 

Alumni Associations

The schools are really just the beginning of a long-term relationship with these young people that continues on into University and beyond with a vision: To create a life long brotherhood & sisterhood of friends in the spirit of Jesus that will support each other in a movement of ‘integrity and virtue.’ We have weekly meetings at their various colleges so as to maintain our relationship and commitment to the values we hold in common and an annual retreat for all our past graduates. We now have about 500 that have come up through the program since we began. So, this dream is steadily becoming a reality. Many are in positions of leadership at their respective colleges and the university. Others in more quiet ways are making a positive impact on those around them. The long term potential to positively influence society is increasingly becoming evident as we see the maturity and commitment exhibited in the lives of these future leaders who are working together to make a difference.

 

 

Africa Youth Leadership Forum

At the heart of AYLF is the that dream that African leaders will know how to reconcile relationships, speak the truth without being religious or divisive, see people without labels or stereotypes, and ultimately love each other and those whom they lead. This program works with student leaders in over 100 universities through out 7 East and Central African countries- Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, DR Congo, and South Sudan. Through this work, we seek to create a movement of friends and nurture a new breed of African leaders, basing on the leadership qualities, values, and principles of Jesus. We also draw inspiration from the best points of leadership in modern figures such as Julius Nyerere, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., William Wilberforce, Kwame Nkrumah, Anwar Sadat and others of their kind.

 

 

High School Leadership Development:

This is one of our newest programs, that seeks to bring many of the same programatic elements from AYLF down to the highschool level – providing an outreach component for our Leadership Academies. This program is currently most active in Uganda and Rwanda, and Tanzania. In Rwanda this work occurs under the name Youth Impact Mission.

Youth Corps Homes:

This is a program that provides loving homes for homeless street kids from both Muslim and Christian backgrounds. Currently we have 8 homes and each home has 10 to 20 youth with 3 to 4 mentors. College students who have graduated from our Leadership Academies are involved in running the homes. The homes work with kids that are tired of the street life and are ready to change. The children get a place to sleep, a ‘family’ to belong to and are taught a better way to live – in line with the principles, precepts and person of Jesus. Most go to school. They also do community service work in their neighborhoods. We have homes in Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, and Tanzania.

Salam Mentoring Program:

In the Salaam Mentoring Program, we seek to build meaningful relationships that bridge the Muslim/Christian divide in the spirit of Jesus. We create space for individuals to have authenitc conversations about the principles , precepts, and person of Jesus and how this provides a common ground for a better and more peaceful world. There are currently 20+ small groups meeting weekly around eastern Africa to this end.

The Wolves Football Club:

Established in 1989, the Wolves Football Club is the longest running football (soccer) “academy” in Uganda. This is a year around soccer training program that attracts idle teenage young men around Kampala city. Most have dropped out of school and are unemployed. Presently we have around 200 boys grouped into 5 teams playing in the city leagues. Our program works on the prevention side of the street kid problem by providing a structured, disciplined daily sports program to keep teenage boys from broken homes off the streets, out of trouble and off drugs. The head of the program is Stone Ndibassa – a former professional player – who serves as coach, role model and father figure. The whole program is built around his love for these boys and the trust he has earned from them. Many of the guys are Muslims and we have a “Club House” in the Muslim suburb of Kibuli that allows for further contact in the evenings and provides a place for meetings, studies as well as positive entertainment. This program specifically tries to improve understanding and relationships between Muslims and Christians. This program has been featured in a video used in Stephen Covey’s courses on “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” A copy of the video called “Stone” – comes with each hard copy of Covey’s latest book “The 8th Habit.”

Other Cornerstone Schools:

Ekitangaala Transformation Highschool
This ‘O’ and “A’ level secondary school was opened in 2003 and now has over 500 students. It is the first high-school ever for the local community and it was started to provide modern secondary school education and to meet the high demand of students that want a ‘Cornerstone’ education, but can not get into our leadership academies. The school teaches the national academic curriculum (the essential subjects that the ministry of Education and Sports has formulated), as well as the Character Development, Leadership Empowerment, and Spiritual Formation found in Cornerstone’s CLA discipleship curriculum.

Ekitangaala Primary School
This elementary school started in 1991 and has 700+ kids. The majority of pupils are from disadvantaged households in the neighborhood of Ekitangaala Ranch. The school runs from Primary One to Primary Seven, which is the end of Elementary School in the Ugandan education curriculum. Alongside the national academic curriculum, the school runs an entry-level discipleship program.

The Ekitangaala Ranch Community:

We have a ranch outside of town on which the Boys Leadership Academy is based as well as the Ekt. Primary School and Secondary Schools for the kids living in that area. It’s a large commercial dairy ranch. The whole ranch community – including the schools’ staff – is comprised of about 200 people living on the ranch as well around 1100 student in our three schools there. It is our hope that as we work and live together we would shine as a light in the surrounding areas. (Ekitangaala means “the light” in the local language.) We also have facilities where college age young people from Europe and North America can come to volunteer and join in the life of our community – in the middle of the bush for a few months.