BDI logo.

About Us

What We're About

Little boy with a pen-pal letter.

In a culture where Deaf children are isolated and called “Kisiru” (translated to mean “stupid”) we will work together to empower the disadvantaged Deaf Youth of Uganda to change the name of Deafness. BDIKids uses pain from the past and unfair circumstances as a launching pad for empowered transformation.  

BDI Started under the shade of a tree in 2003.  In 2012 we moved our school to the outskirts of Kampala.  Our facilities were satisfactory for the students we served.  God blessed our ministry, so we took on more and more children.  Soon we realized we were at an enrollment cap. BDI had to start turning away children and it broke our hearts!  Young people were denied the ability to learn a language, receive an education, hear about the love of Jesus, and find belonging within the Deaf community simply because we had no space.  This is when we really began fundraising for the new school! 

In 2013 we were gifted a 5-acre plot of land where we began to lay the foundations of what would become our current school location.  After 3 years of “official” fundraising, we moved in February 2018 from our tiny buildings in the busy city to our spacious buildings to a rural village.  Our kids now have space to play, run, learn, and grow!!!  
We do not know what the next chapter of our story holds but we invite you to come along with us.  Check back for more construction developments.  Pray with us for our continued fundraising.  Partner with us financially.  Together we will build a future: Brick by Brick.
Read Director Testimonial
Three image collage of a school and children.

Our School: Building a Future Brick by Brick 

Our school was started as a result of pain. Our founder/director, Joel Mwesigwa, had a brother Joseph who became Deaf as an adolescent. He quickly fell behind in school, could not communicate well, and dropped out. While working a small delivery job to make ends meet Joseph was mobbed, beaten, and burned to death as a result of a miscommunication initiated by his Deafness.  Joel and his family were called to come collect Joseph’s ashes then buried him at their family burial site. 
All this pain caused Joel to learn sign language and start teaching Deaf children under the shade of a tree. Boanerges Deaf Initiative was then born! The transformation that occurs within each student is beautiful. Over the years we have incrementally expanded locations, accepted larger class sizes, shifted to a rural area in Semuto Uganda, and transformed the land God has gifted us. We started farming and animal rearing on our property in 2012. We completed our “phase one” buildings in early 2018. In 2019 we brought clean water to our property. In 2020 we began our “phase two” construction. We are currently working toward electricity campus wide! 

Past, Present, and Future 

BDI has evolved over time.  Our buildings and locations may have changed but the mission and our faith has remained the same!  We are thankful for where we have been.  We are excited about where we are, and we are hopeful for where we are headed.

We are fundraising to continue construction of our new school.  $85,000 is the current goal.  This will complete the remaining phases of construction!  Please pray we can meet this goal.
“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”

― Hudson Taylor 

Read Statement of Faith
Group of people laying bricks.

Our Students

Our students are our WORLD!  They are the main reason we exist and do what we do.  They are the focus of School and overall mission.  We provide care, guidance, love, and instruction to each student when their community and/or parents tell them they are worthless.  We provide stability and a way to communicate with the world around them.  Please consider SPONSORING a student.  Your financial support, letters, and prayers all work together to give students a sense of value and worth. 

$30.00 USD Sponsors 1 student for 1 month. That is only $1 a day! 

Below you will find the images of our current students.
Sophia Basharashi profile image.

Sophia Basharashi

Arnold Nalwangu profile image.

Arnold Nalwangu

Charles Ddumba profile image.

Charles Ddumba

Davis Mutebi profile image.

Davis Mutebi

Frank Bawakana profile image.

Frank Bawakana

Sharon Naninde profile image.

Sharon Naninde

Sponsor A Student

Our Team

Joel Mwesigwa profile image.

Joel Mwesigwa 

Founder / Director

Founded the school in the early 2000’s under the shade of a tree with just one student and an ASL book. Director of the initiative and Pastor of the school. 
Heather Elliot with a group of students holding the ASL sign for "I Love You."

Heather Elliott

USA Liaison / Fundraising Coordinator

Visited BDIKids for the first time in 2015 and fell in love! She has been back at least once every year since. Sometimes she travels with her two children. 
PHOTO-2022-07-04-04-02-16

Collins Mulindwa

Operations Manager / Teacher

Submersed in the Deaf community at a young age. Started visiting as a friend of the kids we serve. Grew to become a Staff Member and advocate. 

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© 2021• Boanerges Deaf Initiative (BDI)

Boanerges Deaf Initiative (BDI) is a registered non-profit organization in both the United States as a 501(c)3 and Uganda as a NGO.

Testimony of Director Joel Mwesigwa

Joel Mwesigwa profile image.
Born in 1980 during a civil war in Uganda, I was raised in an extended family, my parents separated when I was a baby so I was taken to my Grandparents to raise me. Life was very hard growing up. At home we lacked almost every basic need.
I was raised in a family which I may term as a “Christian pagan” family. This means we could go to church on Christmas and Easter, but at home we had our shrines where worship to traditional gods was a daily activity and a must. Practice with adoration, fear, and honor to the gods and the guardians. There were many rituals and even sacrifices of animals were often done.
Growing up in such a life was so hard even to find a true God. I thank God for His grace and mercy, in that He found me where I was lost.

When I was in school I heard a lot about God, but that was not something I went to school for, so I really hated people who shared the gospel. My entire life I longed for wisdom, as I thought that with wisdom you can be every great thing/person you want to be. I wanted to read and seek knowledge to be wise. One day I stumbled on an old bible with pages from Psalms to John. I thought it was a great idea to have it and read even though I never believed in what it said. On many occasions I said there was no God, that’s why the Gospel never gave any meaning to me. Also the fact that the gods we served at home where so strict and always had to do with laws and physical punishments, which I suffered many times for not doing what is right.

The old bible opened with Psalms 14. “The fool has said in his heart ‘there is no God’.” In my interpretation with my search for wisdom this meant I was a fool, and all I wanted was to be wise. So, I said “ok there is God”, but I never meant it, I only wanted to maintain that am not a fool. There grew much conviction after I admitted that there was a God.

I chose to go to church to get to know more about God, who by doubting him makes a person a fool. Yes indeed He found me to find Him.

I fell in Love with this new God and wanted to know more about him, I found out that serving him was easier than the one I was serving, and I also knew that he appreciates me serving him. I dedicated myself to Christ and the bible teaching, becoming a youth leader and a pastor to new converts. Then I went to the Bible College where I was offered a work study scholarship. Despite facing many challenges during school, I graduated with a diploma in Christian Ministry.

After college I was on fire, I wanted to go back and be a pastor, or any leader in the church. God had a different direction for me though, one which I never knew. When I was young, like I said, life was so hard. I left my Grandparent’s home and went to live with my mom at age 13. At home there were many of us, about 9 siblings, but my brother Joseph and I were very close and shared a lot together; he was a brother and a friend. One day when we come back from school Joseph got sick and the next day he started telling me he couldn’t hear at all. As children we tried our childish first aid, but he still couldn’t hear, and from that day Joseph was deaf.

In Uganda being deaf is in many ways seen as a curse, taboo, or a shame to the family. A common name for the deaf in Uganda is “kasiru”, meaning a foolish one. My family’s, like many other families, attitude towards Joseph changed. He ceased to be that special child he was, school stopped, and one would care if he is home or not, I saw his life changing from bad to worse every day. I learned many things about how deaf people are treated, to me he remained a friend but with a great barrier, no language and no communication.

When Joseph was about 20 years old he was beaten by people and was set on fire. The reason for this is still unknown to me, and I grieved and felt very sad. We got his ash and buried him.

After my college, I was on the cross road like a soldier waiting for deployment. I never knew what God wanted me to do, it was about 8 years after Joseph’s death when God brought a fresh pain and conviction, about Joseph in my life. I felt like there was something I could do to save him, all this was to wake me up, I left with that pain and conviction as if it had just happened.

At church I was a Sunday school teacher and I also trained teachers for Sunday school teaching, I loved children so much. There was a deaf boy, Derrick, who always came to me. If he got hurt while playing he would run straight to me, I saw myself as his only friend, he never wanted to leave my side. I loved him and accepted him. He knew a few other deaf boys and every Sunday he started to them bring to me. There were now about four deaf children, I welcomed them, loved them, gave them candies, and hugs. He looked for more deaf children, now there were seven and I felt God was telling “this is the ministry I give you.” It was hard to take but I had the pain in my heart for Joseph and I thought they may end up like Joseph if I don’t obey and serve them. I started seeing Joseph in each one of them and I loved serving them, even to this very moment.

I started meeting them under a tree shade in my friend’s compound. We were meeting, having fun, learning some sign language together, and then we would go home. After a while it became a school under the same tree. We had been in a series of situations and levels, but we have became Boanerges Deaf Initiative (BDI), a registered charity in Uganda and America serving the Deaf people here.

As we say; Deaf people are rising above adversity.

Statement of Faith for BDI


We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God. 

We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory. 

 

 

We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential. 

We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a Godly life. 

We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation. 

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Connect Today

Please use this form to e-mail us about ANYTHING! Do you have a question? Suggestion? Want to learn more about a particular aspect of our ministry? Feel free to drop your ideas into our general mailbox by filling out the form. We will respond as soon as we are able.