NEW ORLEANS —

Ten years ago, Army Reserve Capt. Frank Musisi went home to Uganda, to the village where he grew up. He was still at the beginning of a career that began when he came to America to go to school.

What he saw on his return to the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria all but broke his heart. The HIV/AIDS epidemic had ravaged his village. Many people with whom he’d grown up had vanished. “Gone. I was shocked. People I knew. Same classmates who sat in class with me. They were dead,” he said.

At his mother’s urging, Musisi came to America for an education, and he ultimately joined the military. When he came home, his mother, Najjuma Mauricia, urged him to use what he’d learned in America to do something for his homeland.

“My village was going to die,” Musisi said. “People were dying and they needed help.”

Fully one-third of his Ssese Islands village had been afflicted with HIV/AIDS. So in 2004, Musisi used his personal savings and the back of his mother’s house to start a nonprofit clinic to educate and treat HIV/AIDS victims.

Najjuma offered more than just inspiration.

“She also volunteered to feed all the health workers who we bring in to work, so she would feed them and house them,” Musisi said.

A lot has happened over the last 10 years. Musisi is now a captain, commanding Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 377th Theater Sustainment Command at Belle Chasse.

His nonprofit, Ssese Islands African AIDS Project, is running full steam ahead.
Najjuma has since passed away.

Her inspiration, however, remains a driving force in Musisi’s life.

The effort that she urged him to begin a decade ago now tackles HIV/AIDS in an area rampant with prostitution and unprotected sex. The Ssese Islands African AIDS Project not only provides treatment, but teaching in abstinence, marital fidelity and protection.

The number of those afflicted continues to drop.

In the last three years, the clinic has treated over 44,000 people.

The Ugandan Parliament recognized Musisi’s accomplishments and what he was able to do with very little money, volunteers, teachers and village leaders.

Musisi also credits his military training and deployments for his ability to start the project and keep it going.

“(It’s) the critical thinking process,” he said. “When I go over there I am able to use the skills I’ve taken here and go over there and help educate the leaders on how to run the facility.”

Musisi credits the inspiration to his mother, much of his training to his military career, and the rest he leaves in the hands of his creator.

“Each time I have hardships, I pray. I go say a prayer, and I ask for divine guidance in things that I am doing,” Musisi said. “It is a very, very important part of my life.”

Source: https://www.wdsu.com/article/louisiana-soldier-fights-hiv-aids-battle-in-uganda/3375741