Jeero is the youngest of eight children to a single mother.<\/p>\n
He remembers growing up sleeping on a bed of grass on a small verandah with his brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n
Jeero\u2019s mother couldn\u2019t afford his schooling, so he would sneak into his local class early and hide under desks to learn.<\/p>\n
Each time he was caught, he would be chased off the property.<\/p>\n
Jeero\u2019s mother went to a local Anglican church and explained the family\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n
The reverend pointed her to a half-built home with a leaky roof and no windows where the family could move.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo [Mum], it was God\u2019s answer to her prayers,\u201d Jeero said.<\/p>\n
The family moved possessions in multiple bicycle trips to their new home.<\/p>\n
The reverend then told Jeero\u2019s mother about Compassion International, a global Christian child charity.<\/p>\n
Jeero registered and was paired with Australian couple Jonathan and Rebecca Brake.<\/p>\n
With the Brakes\u2019 help, Jeero paid half his school fees.<\/p>\n
But that wasn\u2019t enough to get him back in class, and he continued sneaking in before being chased out.<\/p>\n
Jeero\u2019s mother spoke with the headmaster, who allowed him to return to class permanently.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I was in school, but life was still hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the family regularly went without food for several days at a time, but they \u201ckept on\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jeero\u2019s mother moved to the UK when he was 13, leaving him and his siblings living with an aunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know because they didn\u2019t tell me and she didn\u2019t say bye to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jeero\u2019s mother died just less than a year later when he was 14. This led him to lose hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of crying, I just got mad. I came out of the house and walked aimlessly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife was so challenging, but I thank God for Compassion International.\u201d<\/p>\n
The charity increased its payments for schooling, medical and food for him and his family.<\/p>\n
When Jeero turned 22, the charity ended its payments, but, thanks to his schooling, he was able to attend university.<\/p>\n
After graduating, Jeero was determined to make life better for Ugandan children.<\/p>\n
He started working for children\u2019s ministries at Watoto Church before founding a school bus service and an administration app called Quisat.<\/p>\n
Ronald Jeero says the family that sponsored him as a child in Uganda changed his life. Photo \/ Jack Riddell<\/p>\n
While at Watoto, he looked up the Brakes on Facebook and sent them a message.<\/p>\n
A year later, the family responded, leading them to attend Jeero\u2019s wedding in Kampala.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth is, if they weren\u2019t for them, I wouldn\u2019t be what I am today,\u201d Jeero said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have gone to school and, at that time, if a child is not in school chances of becoming a thug or joining bad peers were high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeero said the Brakes weren\u2019t particularly wealthy, but their sponsorship changed his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are saving a human life. You don\u2019t need a lot, but what you can give is always going to be a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke\u2019s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeero is the youngest of eight children to a single mother. He remembers growing up sleeping on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[58],"tags":[62134,134011,6636,90195,6585,160322,183971,16682,183970,3982,8499,6635,8803,183969,72630,5402,47690,183968,6640,45870,69665,183967,2238,27896,4822,153,41788,929],"class_list":["post-384367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uganda","tag-afford","tag-attend","tag-bay","tag-because","tag-child","tag-class","tag-couldnt","tag-day","tag-desks","tag-family","tag-fees","tag-from","tag-grew","tag-hawkes","tag-hiding","tag-how","tag-humanitarian","tag-jeero","tag-on","tag-path","tag-put","tag-ronald","tag-school","tag-sponsorship","tag-to","tag-uganda","tag-under","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117118084267630465","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}