The Jona Foundation is carried by entrepreneurs, consultants, students and a Ugandan leadership team — united by one conviction: that no child in Uganda should have to go without education and medical care.
0 €in salaries across the whole German team
0people on the team — from Cologne to Mityana
100 %volunteers. Travel and admin we pay privately
2021founded — not a single paid position in Germany since
0team meetings a year — in person, not on video
Who we are
Passion is our only budget
We are entrepreneurs, management consultants, growth strategists and students — and we all do this on the side. After work, at weekends, on the train. Nobody on the German team is paid for their work.
That is not a sacrifice, it is a decision: if the structure costs nothing, every donated euro arrives where it is needed. What we bring instead is time and what we do professionally — construction, budgets, logistics, networks. Where every euro goes is open in our annual reports.
And the most important half of the team is not in Cologne but in Uganda. That is where the planning, the building and the decisions about what the village really needs happen.
Our team
Ten people. No salaries. One goal.
Some do the numbers, some build, others open doors. What they share: the German team does this after hours — and nobody on it earns a cent.
Hover over a photo — some hold more than one role.
In Germany
Cologne & around
Funding, budgets, logistics and partnerships — so that building can happen on the ground.
Discovers the world with open eyes and finds inspiration in encounters, cultures and art.
Monthly team meeting — once a month everyone sits in one room.
Monthly
The Cologne team around one table
Once a month we meet in person — not on video. Coordinating projects, checking numbers, growing ideas.
Once a year
A long weekend for ourselves
Every year the team takes a long weekend for itself: time for the big questions instead of the next invoice.
Whenever needed
On site in Mityana
We do not travel to Uganda by calendar but when the project needs it — for the start of construction, for decisions, when someone is needed. Flights and accommodation we pay ourselves.
On that long weekend, each of us said what drives them. What everyone shared is written here — agreed together.
„We pass on what we ourselves have received: the love and grace of God. So we bring hope to where people no longer see any — through education that overcomes poverty, and through a continent unfolding its own potential.
Together we achieve what none of us could alone. Our lifetime is finite; we invest it in values that last.“
Hope
Education
Acting together
Lasting values
Partnership, not project visits
We do not build for a village, we build with it
Our work rests on trusted relationships and a continuous exchange with the people on the ground. Planning happens together with the families, local craftsmen did the building, and a Ugandan team runs the kindergarten.
What grows is not outside help that vanishes when the money runs out — but structure that stays.
“From the very start, our project has been carried by the faith and giving of many people. When people truly burn for a cause, doors open that nobody saw before.”
Jasmin K.
Become part of the team
Three ways to take part
01Join the work
You can do something we need — construction, finance, communications, logistics? Tell us what you bring and how much time is realistic.
