From left, former Kansas University professor of journalism Malcolm Gibson and Mackenzie Jones, assistant director of the Kansas African Studies Center, are working together to bring Lubega Henry, a Ugandan refugee to Kansas by way of an education visa. Jones, while teaching in the Ugandan village outside of Kampala in 2009, says that Henry saved her life when he brought her to safety after riots broke out. The two are pictured on Friday, July 24, 2015 in Gibson's Lawrence home.

On Sept. 10, 2009, Mackenzie Jones, who had just graduated from college, was teaching elementary students in a village on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda, when she first got wind there was trouble.

Jones saw dozens of Ugandans running through the village toward the church that was next door to the school. Another teacher told Jones that there were riots breaking out in the city.

Not knowing what to do — Jones was working for a small nonprofit, alone and had only been in Africa a short time — she called 20-year-old Lubega Henry, a man who had been helping her at the school.

Within minutes, Henry got to the school and suggested that she go with him to his friend’s house, one of the few places in the village with a television. The TV news showed angry people and burning buildings, Jones said.

Henry told Jones her life was in danger and she needed to get to a compound about five miles away. He managed to get her past the rioters, the police who were shooting live rounds, and the burning buildings.

Human Health Watch says more than 40 people were killed that day, many by the police, and dozens more were injured.

“I’m alive because Henry went out of his way to help me,” Jones said Friday.

Jones, now an assistant director of Kansas University’s African Studies Center, and Malcolm Gibson, retired KU journalism professor and Africanist, are trying to help Henry by bringing him to Lawrence to attend college to obtain a teaching degree. With a degree, he can return to Africa to help his people and also hold a good job, they said.

Gibson, who calls Henry a hero, met him this past year while Gibson was the executive editor at the Daily Monitor, a newspaper in Kampala.

Much has happened to Henry since Sept. 10, including being kidnapped by a rebel group and being forced to fight in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He escaped and was able to get back home.

Henry, whose family is poor, has found it difficult to get a steady job in his country, Gibson said.

While Gibson was in Uganda, he said, he helped Henry get a job as an intern at two radio stations, where he worked hard.

“He (has) better grammar than I do, and I teach it,” Gibson said. “Henry is a wonderfully engaging fellow and has a wonderful tale to tell.”

They are trying to bring the 26-year-old to the United States on an education visa but need $15,000 in a bank account in the next couple of weeks; that is required as a show of good faith to the government that Henry will attend college. In addition, Gibson plans to write a book about Uganda based on Henry’s life.

“He is most deserving, and when you meet him, you’ll agree,” Gibson wrote in an email asking friends and acquaintances for donations.

Henry grew up in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, which is located on Lake Victoria. He is close to his mother and siblings and also helps take care of an aunt who is ill. His father who was in the military died under mysterious circumstances when he was 17 years old, Gibson said.

In the spring of 2009, Jones was graduating from Washington and Lee University and had been awarded an Elrod Fellowship that connects the university’s graduates with public service organizations that address poverty and social issues.

Jones planned to stay six months in Kampala, teaching children in the village that had no running water or electricity except for those households that can afford small generators or solar panels.

Sept. 10, 2009, had been an uneventful day until early evening when Jones saw the people running.

After Jones and Henry saw the TV news, they took the dirt road to the main road.

Once there, Jones couldn’t believe her eyes.

“It was complete chaos,” she said, with rioters setting fires and people trying to get home on foot because public transportation had been shut down. “I was definitely afraid.”

Henry was able to persuade a driver of a Boda Boda taxi to take them to the compound but they had to pay extra because the rioters could become angry that he was helping them.

“It was very dangerous for him,” she said.

Rioters had set up burning roadblocks and at each of these they had to stop so their driver “didn’t get in trouble for taking us. We would stop, he would walk his bike around it, and we would walk around a different way.

“And then there were points where police were shooting in the air, and we would run and take cover.”

It took several hours to make it to the compound.

“With the walking, the riding, the running, things burning in the road and the police shooting, eventually we made our way to the hotel,” Jones said.

But even inside the compound, with a place to stay and food to eat, they could still hear the shooting.

The next day, it was calmer and Jones and Henry returned to the village. Jones finished her teaching fellowship and returned to the United States that December.

Over the years she got married, got a master’s degree from Yale University and moved to Kansas, but she stayed in touch with Henry, which was made easier with social media.

Henry continued to look for work, and a flier on a pole offering work with the United Nations led to his capture by the rebel group March 23 Movement in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, Jones and Gibson said.

He and several other men applied for the jobs, met the recruiters and were escorted to the Congo border, where the recruiters suddenly pulled out guns, ordered them to strip and made them put on uniforms, Gibson said. They then trucked the men eight hours inland to the front lines of M23’s rebellion.

M23 rebels killed men who tried to escape and dragged their bodies into the camp as a warning to anyone who wanted to get away, Gibson said.

Eventually Henry did get away and made his way back to Kampala just a few months before Gibson and his wife, Joyce Gibson, moved to Africa last year.

Gibson said they are in the process of setting up an account at Central Bank of the Midwest in Lawrence to accept donations. Meanwhile people can send donations to his Paypal account, jayhawkprof@yahoo.com, or to his address at 1013 Holiday Drive, Lawrence KS. 66049.