Comprised of a group of local educators and professionals, The Mwebaza Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization engaged in the promotion of cross-cultural exchange between partner schools in Colorado and Africa.

The family of Miss Catherine Namatovu built the Mwebaza Infant Primary School on their land in Uganda. Over time, the school came to serve roughly 150 students. All are poor and most parents do not have access to stable employment. Therefore, many students cannot afford the meager tuition payments and are allowed to attend for free.

“Mwebaza” means “gratitude” or “thanksgiving” in the local Luganda language. The family of headmistress, Catherine Namatovu, was pressed to name the school “Mwebaza” by members of the local community who felt gratitude to the family for opening an elementary school in a neighborhood where no school had existed before. The Mwebaza Foundation, in turn, took its name from Mwebaza School as a way to reflect the gratitude felt towards those who have joined in with the work of the Foundation to assist disadvantaged African schools such as Mwebaza School.

During the 2008 school year, the students at Mwebaza School became pen pals with the students at Niwot Elementary in Niwot, Colorado. In the spring of 2008, the Mwebaza Foundation was formed. Since then the Foundation has worked to improve conditions at Mwebaza School, and has welcomed four more partner schools into the Foundation.