After graduating from college, Wareham's Brendan Sullivan had the urge to travel the world and help people in need.

He had a few false starts, however, trying to achieve both goals at once.  He first went to teach English in China, but he described his students as "mostly wealthy Chinese and Korean."

“I wanted to have a job that was more focused on working with populations that had more issues than the populations I was working with…I just didn’t find it to be the most rewarding experience,” said Sullivan, a graduate of Wareham High and Hamilton College in New York.

He found greater satisfaction working with Americorps, but he was in Fall River.

But now he seems to have found the perfect niche.  Sullivan, who spoke while stopping in Wareham before heading to a conference in California,  is currently working for Educate!, a nonprofit based in Kampala, Uganda which runs 24 schools where students learn about entrepreneurship and leadership, as well as how to be socially responsible while still turning a profit.

“Education [in Uganda] is very valued so families will go to great lengths to make sure their kids through at least primary education,”  Sullivan said.

However, Sullivan said that getting that education is often hard - both public and private schools in Uganda charge attendance fees.

So, the nonprofit hopes that it can provide Ugandans with the education and technology they need to be successful entrepreneurs.  After completing the education program, participants have access to a loan program that offers both small amounts of seed money for new businesses as well as technology.

"The program will be loaning out actual technologies so you can apply for a loan for ten stoves or five solar panels,” Sullivan said.

Educate! will be graduating their first class this year, and Brendan is currently involved in setting up an alumni institution which will mentor graduates about things such as solar technology as they try to build their businesses.  Some of the businesses that are already up and running include pig farms and a passion fruit plantation.

The organization is aiming to have 30 enterprises on the ground within the first year of graduating their first class.

Sullivan, the son of Kerry Mello and Mark Sullivan of Wareham, will soon return to Uganda where he has a life, an apartment, and a girlfriend. And he said that he has adapted well to living in what was originally a wholly unfamiliar place.

“There’s certain disorganization to everything, and I think it’s very much a part of the culture," Sullivan said, citing the traffic, and everybody's predilection for showing up late. "The hardest part is acknowledging you’re no longer in America…you have to make compromises and really work with where you as opposed to imposing your idea of the way it should be where you are.”