Lohmann: Uganda native collects shoes for homeland

Juma Semakula mows lawns for a living, but he cuts no corners when it comes to dreaming big.

How big?

He's attempting to collect thousands of pairs of used shoes, enough to fill a cargo container that he can ship to his native country, Uganda, where in rural areas shoes are an unfamiliar luxury.

You know how many shoes you can fit into a container that's 40 feet long and 8 feet tall? Semakula has done the math: about 30,000 pairs.

Are you serious?

He smiles.

"I am confident I will make this thing full," he said.

Kent Duffey, director of children's ministries at St. James's Episcopal Church in Richmond, said she's amazed at what Semakula is trying to do.

"He just seems very matter-of-fact: 'This needs to be done, and it's going to happen,'" said Duffey, who helped organize a church drive that collected more than 600 pairs of shoes for Semakula. "He doesn't see obstacles that take his eyes off the goal."

Obstacles include the sheer logistics of collecting thousands of pairs of shoes, and the challenge of saving money -- as much as $7,000 to $10,000 -- to pay for storage and shipping. But here's the goal he sees: barefoot Ugandans showing up for church on Christmas Day and being handed a pair of shoes.

"You can imagine how happy they would be," he said.

Semakula, 25, came to the United States in 1997 with his mother and brother. His father already was here, running a lawn-care business. He attended Thompson Middle School and Huguenot High School, working afternoons and weekends with his dad. The pocket money was a big draw, but so was driving a riding mower. It was downright fun, said Semakula, who liked it so much he wound up starting his own company: Juma's Expert Lawn Service.

Expert?

He laughed. "I've been doing it a long time," he said.

No doubt, Semakula has a winning personality. His customers, largely in Richmond's West End, consider him amiable and engaging. "A good man," one told me.

Semakula has built his business -- "I don't care if it's 100 degrees outside, I'll be out there working" -- in large part to support his wife and two sons, ages 5 and 6. They live in Uganda, and he visits them each winter when the lawn-care business lies dormant. (He met his wife on a visit to Uganda in 2002.) He regularly sends them money for living expenses, including the boys' schooling.

Semakula, who has green-card permanent residency status and wants to become a U.S. citizen, hopes to bring his family here eventually, but for now he has to be content with the annual trips to see them in Kampala. It was during one of those trips that he ventured into the countryside and discovered the plight of the shoeless, who besides the obvious comfort factor are at greater risk for disease.

"Then I remembered sometimes I find shoes in trash cans over here," he said. "I thought, maybe I can collect those shoes I see in trash cans, and maybe those people can have some shoes. So, I started picking up shoes, little by little."

He sent letters to his customers, which led to the involvement of their neighbors and St. James's. He would love for other churches or civic groups to hold used-shoe drives.

The other day, Semakula took me to the cargo container parked at a storage facility off Jefferson Davis Highway. He showed me bags and bags of, perhaps, thousands of shoes, but they still take up only a fraction of the container. His dream of filling the container, sending it by cargo ship and having the shoes delivered to rural churches in Uganda by Christmas seems a long shot.

But Semakula is keeping the faith. If not by Christmas, then a month or two after, he said. It will happen. He is sure of it.

Contact Bill Lohmann at (804) 649-6639 or . Follow him at http://twitter.com/wlohmann.