Please help Niwamanya raise funds for him to graduate from college!

Niwamanya Brian is a young Ugandan man from southwestern Uganda who is currently pursuing a BS in Computer Science at ISBAT University in Uganda. He comes from a household with limited resources who rely mostly on subsistence farming for their livelihood. He had to complete high school at a later age than many other students due to financial problems during that period of life. Later, his university pursuits were delayed due to COVID, but in August 2021 he was able to start his three-year university degree.

During the first two years of study, he performed well and he was consistently was a highly ranked student in his year during the normal course of classroom focused study. However, in the third year of his program, starting in August 2024, his department decided that all of the students in his cohort must complete “practical” projects at various locales around the country in order to complete the degree. While a good learning strategy in principle, the professors/administrators decided to charge exorbitant fees, far beyond the common school fees charged in the country, for these projects (in part due to their strategy of bringing international tutors for every project), often $1,000 per week or more, and they also charged cruel fees ($600+) if students paid even a day late.

This has caused many students to drop out due to the exorbitant school fees for these projects, though most have tried to hold on so they can actually graduate with their degree. Because in the system the department has created, any students who do not completed the projects will have to start back at their third year and redo all of the projects if they want to complete their degree. Beyond this they have lied repeatedly, whether due to incompetence or greed, about timeframes of completion for the projects throughout the past year.

The government has been informed but has largely proven ineffectual in preventing these abuses and thus is complicit. While relevant Ministries of the Government have said they will change things for students in the coming year, they have basically declared there is nothing they can do at the moment and thus have left this year’s cohort of students defenseless against the exploitation of the university and department.

These problems emerge from the trifecta of the oppressive greed of the school leaders, incompetence from various stakeholders through the past year, as well as poor educational policies in the country around post-secondary education. And the students are left in the barren wastelands between, with little recourse to alternatives.

A court case has been started against the school but this will take some time to move through the process and the court case may not necessarily be helpful to the students. It is hard to know.

All the students and their relatives have had to make a complex calculus of what to do in this situation. Many, including us with great sorrow, have chosen to try to get through the course so as to not lose the immense of money, time, and energy that has been invested. This has been a nightmare, but we should finally reach the finish line early in the coming week.

That said the well of our funds is dry, and, so we are seeking to connect with our wider networks of friends and relatives to get to the finish line after this long painful time in life. Our fundraising goals are below. Please help us get Niwamanya to finish his course, so he can graduate, get employed, and then work to reform the computer science sector in the country.

The following are the goals for this fundraising:

$2,500 for the fees needed to complete his degree (needed ASAP by 15^th December 2025 - sooner is even better if possible!)
$2,500 to repay people who loaned money along the way in the near future (by mid-January 2026)
$1,000 for him to start off his job search period in a strong way with money for living expenses in January 2026 (by mid-January 2026)
$2,500 to repay people who loaned money along the way in the near future (by early March 2026)
Stretch Goal: anything beyond the funding above will be used to repay other loaned money from various people close to us.

Any small or large gift is helpful. We sincerely appreciate your generosity in supporting this fundraiser!

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About the fundraiser:

My name is T.J. Espinoza, and I'm a member of Seed House, a small community house in the Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. We are fiscally a non-profit and are helping collect the funds to allow Niwamanya to have the funds needed for him to graduate. Niwamanya has been my best friend for many years and I have been the main person supporting him through college. This has required major, painful sacrifices from myself and people close to us, and, now we are seeking to connect with our wider network to help us support him to finish his course. Niwamanya is a good man and I am confident that he will use his skills and certification gained from this degree to work for the common good to the glory of God.

Help Niwamanya Graduate from College

By Seed House LLC

Help Niwamanya Graduate from College