Improving lives of Ugandan children is a top priority for Holmdel entrepreneur."The kids have triggered some emotions, given me focus and direction and a purpose for life. Some people never have a purpose."
STORY BY DALILA-JOHARI PAUL / STAR-LEDGER STAFF
PHOTO BY TONY KURDZUK / FOR THE STAR-LEDGER
In Masaka, Uganda, intuition tells Sylvia Allen that a man dying of AIDS needs to feel a human touch to know he is still alive. Rather than a prayer, Allen offers to simply hold his hand.
The day before, respect compels Allen to reassure midwives gathering outside that she is a guest in their town and just like them — a woman, a mother, married and a business owner. In return, they share their personal stories.
Yet on the last day of her first trip to East Africa, it is an odd request a man brings from the children playing in a nearby schoolyard — for her to become their adoptive grandmother — that gives Allen a purpose.
Today, Allen is the founder of Sylvia’s Children, a charity devoted to helping the 1,001 students and orphans, ages 3 to 14, at the Mbiriizi Primary School in Masaka, Uganda. Since that first trip in 2003, the 73-year-old Holmdel resident has raised $250,000 for the school.
