Citi's Mustapha Gore Named #2 on Fortune's Heroes of the 500 List

Citi's Mustapha Gore, was recently named #2 on Fortune's Heroes of the 500 list. This is his story:

Throughout my childhood, I slept alone in a Ugandan dormitory, after being orphaned by violence in my home country of South Sudan. The community took it upon itself to educate me and take me to their homes for Christmas and Eid (the festival marking the end of Ramadan). In 1999, I crossed the Mediterranean to build a new life in London.

I began working as a Security Officer at Citigroup in 2000 and still hold this position today, never forgetting the hardship of my childhood—or the generosity I encountered in Uganda.

In 2010 I opened Greenacres Junior Academy to about 115 students, including girls, indigent children, and orphans in the Ugandan town of Bombo. This was a vision I had for some time and my way of giving back to the community. The money I was now earning at Citi meant that I could begin the project. My background is actually in engineering, so I took my vision and put together the design of the school myself. In 2001 we had enough funds to start building the foundation. I sent a portion of my salary back to Bombo and asked my friends there to use it to buy bricks for the school. I worked closely with the builders and suppliers but as I was funding the majority of the work myself, it took us nine years until we completed the structure and were almost ready to open.

My next obstacle was figuring how I could complete the school to the standard needed for it to open. I spoke to one of our bankers about the project while he was visiting our office. I explained to him that I had built a school in Uganda but couldn't yet open it because it lacked essentials such as furniture, paint, and supplies for students. He took a keen interest in the project and was a knowledgeable resource to help start fundraising. The response from my colleagues was overwhelming and soon we had raised enough money to fill the school with desks, chairs, beds etc.

I now visit the school twice each year, for Eid and for Christmas. These children had nowhere to go but now they see me and we rejoice together. When I get there, the rules go out the windows. They run out of the classroom and come greet me, yelling, "Director's here! Director's here!'" Each year, the school has grown larger—now, it houses and educates more than 315 students.

The most rewarding part of this project has been hearing personal stories from the students. One student once told me, "If you hadn't sponsored me I would be a Herds boy in the village. I won't let you down." Another student refused to go on recess one day and told the head teacher, "I now sleep on a bed and mattress. Why should I go home to sleep on the floor?" Despite being children they have big ambitions and dreams of becoming doctors, drivers, teachers, nurses, and more. It makes me so happy to know that they now have some hope to achieve these dreams.