menu

Hello world!

  1. Hi, this is a comment.
    To get started with moderating, editing, and deleting comments, please visit the Comments screen in the dashboard.
    Commenter avatars come from Gravatar.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

our story

where it all began

In 2008, Craig Conover began supporting a small village in Uganda named Kotolo. Craig had an established friendship with Alexander Oboi, a local Ugandan. Alex and his mother Susan Mary asked Craig to pay for the construction of a primary school in Kotolo, because there was no local school. The closest public school was several miles away, and the children in Kotolo had to walk on foot to attend.

2008-2012

Craig had the idea to fund the school through asking for financial support and in turn would train and run marathons. He created “26 for Africa” – the ‘26’ represented 26 miles in a marathon. Craig was also simultaneously working full time, and was funding the majority of the school construction & teacher salaries (4 teachers to start) in phases out of his 401(K) retirement plan. Unfortunately, funding was few and far between, so Craig was funding everything for the school from 2008 to 2012 out of his own pocket. 

2012

In 2012, Craig and his daughter Becky had a conversation that led to Becky taking control of the non-profit organization so that Craig was able to eventually retire. Becky got a group of her friends together, formed a Board of Directors, changed the name from “26 to Africa” to “The Somero Project,” and started a sponsorship program to generate funding. The idea of sponsorship was to partner a student and a sponsor, putting a real name and face to the sponsor’s $25 monthly donation. 

throughout the years

In the years since The Somero Project was established, we have accomplished a number of exciting projects in Kotolo.

2008 – Original school block construction (4 classrooms)

2012 – Expansion of additional classrooms added on to original school block

2014/2015 – Construction of second school block (4 classrooms)

2014/2015 – Construction of rain-water catch system to catch rainwater in a large storage container for use in the dry season

2017 – Construction of teacher housing and student dormitories

2017 – Construction of well in village near school to provide access to water

2019 – Construction of security wall surrounding campus 

2021 – Construction of medical clinic to meet basic needs of students and community members 

2021 – Construction of new full service bathrooms  

2022 – Classroom floors re-done due to damage from normal “wear and tear” 


get in touch

Do you have any questions? We'd love to hear from you.