Tom

Tom Lewis (known as Jaja Tom) was the man with a vision to start House of Joy. His vision has shaped what House of Joy continues to be to this day. This page was set up to honour his work for the children in Uganda.  The following was written by House of Joy chairman Ronnie Maund.

It is an honour for me to write these words to pay my respects to my father-in-law Jaja Tom [Jaja is the affectionate title the Ugandan people gave to Tom Lewis]. People, who knew him in the UK, didn’t necessarily know the man that I had the pleasure of knowing. In the UK he was just a retired man but in Uganda he was known as a master builder and a mathematician. Jaja Tom had strong views on life and some would say was not an easy person to get on with. But for me and those who knew him in Uganda he was a giant of a man with such a heart for the children. The evidence of that is the transformation of the village of Kasala that has taken place over the past five years.

There are so many memories of his life and what he has done that it is hard to select a few. One memory is of Easter time when Jaja Tom wanted to the children to celebrate Easter. Jaja Tom bought, cooked and hand painted 365 boiled eggs for every child to have on Easter morning. It took him approx 17 hrs to do and it took approx 5 seconds for the children to eat.

He was a man who knew his days were numbered because of his age and health but he worked tirelessly to raise funds.

His motto was that every child deserved a place to sleep, food in their tummies and an education.

His last wish was that when his days were over that others would take up the challenge and run with it. It is an Honour and a privilege for my wife and I to take up the challenge and continue the work of House of Joy.

Tom didn’t have a lot of money to leave his family but the legacy he has left is more valuable than silver or gold; in fact it is priceless and beyond value. We will never be able to thank him enough for what he has given us.

We have a lot of footage of Jaja in Uganda but he would always say it’s not about me it’s about the children. So with that in mind we would like to take this opportunity to show you just some of the children whose lives he has changed.