TASAAGA's Story & The Development of Friends of TASAAGA

In order to understand our story, we first need to introduce you to Bruhan Mubiru. Born and raised in central Uganda, Bruhan was witness to the AIDS epidemic that devastated his country in the 80s and 90s. He watched as many of his neighbors, infected with the disease, gave up on modern medicine and started visiting traditional healers looking for answers. One of those traditional healers was Bruhan’s father. Knowing that formal medicine was the only way to fight the disease but recognizing their neighbors’ skepticism, Bruhan and his father committed themselves to using their trusted position in the community to educate people about HIV and connect them with formal medical services. From this commitment in 1996, TASAAGA was born.

Bruhan, as Founder and Executive Director of TASAAGA for the past two decades, has overseen every aspect of the organization’s evolution and continues to seize opportunities to serve an increasing number of vulnerable communities. Under his leadership, TASAAGA has grown its programming from its original grassroots educational campaigns to the operation of its primary school, secondary school, and medical clinic today.

TASAAGA’s success relies on the tireless work of its 25 Ugandan employees and dozens of volunteers from around the world who have passed through since the beginning to, even for a moment, be a part of the TASAAGA story. This is where we come in.

Friends of TASAAGA is the collaborative product of a number of those volunteers. Many of us have had the privilege of working with the TASAAGA team – some for a few weeks, others for a few months – and we all returned home inspired by Bruhan’s leadership and the work of the organization. We do not dictate programming but provide strategic guidance and funding for TASAAGA with the belief that only Ugandans know how to best serve their communities. We leverage our own skills and diverse backgrounds to serve as thought partners with Bruhan and his team as they work to continuously improve the services they provide and hope that by telling their story, we can build a network that extends their reach.

We are grateful you’re here and we hope you’ll join us. For more information on TASAAGA’s work, visit our Projects Page.