SEQUIM — She was in a rush to the post office. But on this day in 2008, Barbara Brown made a U-turn that would lead her in an entirely new direction.

She went to see the Rev. Henry Mulindwa, the Ugandan who, by several twists of fate, had become the shepherd to Catholics across the Dungeness Valley.

Ever since Mulindwa — or Father Henry, as he prefers — became the priest at St. Joseph Catholic Church, parishioners had been hearing stories of his African boyhood.

“He filled the church with people,” said Brown, “and with joy.”

Father Henry also expanded his flock, in number and in outlook. In homilies and conversations, he spoke of Uganda’s children: hundreds of thousands orphaned in the wake of the AIDS virus, unable to attend school for lack of basics like uniforms, books, pencils.

So it was that three years ago, Brown, owner and operator of Tender Touches Skin Care Spa in Sequim, postponed her errand and had a conversation with Mulindwa about where to begin to help.

“I told Father, ‘I want to do something. I don’t know what, but something.’”

That “something” became the Uganda School Fund, which Brown and others at St. Joseph established to help provide necessities for students at St. Charles School in rural Masaka, Uganda.

As parishioners at St. Joseph’s, and clients at Tender Touches, learned more about St. Charles School, the gifts flowed, for uniforms, tuition and supplies.

After Mulindwa was sent to his next assignment, St. Gabriel’s in Port Orchard, Brown and fellow St. Joseph parishioner Lonnie Pollard formed the Promise of Hope Foundation (www.ThePromiseofHope.org) — with far-sighted intentions.

Brown envisioned “adoption” of schoolchildren in Masaka — sponsoring of tuition, uniforms and other basic expenses ­— and even extension of a power line so St. Charles School could have electricity.

Last June, the Promise of Hope had its first major fundraiser, The Gateway, a dinner and auction so named since Brown sees it as a portal to a brighter future for the African youngsters.

She believes that providing the means for young people to get an education promotes peace and stability around the world. Simply put, school can replace despair with opportunity.

The inaugural Gateway brought in about $16,000, Brown said — and combined with other donations and smaller fundraisers, the money has funded school uniforms and supplies for St. Charles, plus those basics for St. Joseph Nkoni High School nearby.

Office supplies

The Promise of Hope Foundation was also able to buy a computer, copier and printer for that school’s office, patch the holes in its classroom wall, and buy mosquito nets for the students who board there, giving them a chance to escape the malaria that reportedly kills 900,000 African children each year.

The Promise of Hope has also gathered $18,000 in donations for an extended power line to St. Charles School.

Brown learned two weeks ago that the Ugandan solicitor general has agreed to fund the remainder of the $35,000 cost of the project through the country’s Rural Electricity Program.

“We are making history in Uganda,” Brown said of her Sequim foundation’s partnership with that country’s government.

As she rejoices over this progress, Brown is looking forward to the second annual Gateway, this Saturday evening at 7 Cedars Casino’s Club Seven.

Tickets, at $75 per person including dinner, are available at Tender Touches, 545 Eureka Way. Proceeds from the evening will be split between the fund for Ugandan students and the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula.

Health challenges

This year, Brown is facing an added challenge.

She spent much of February undergoing tests here and at Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center, after awakening one morning with no feeling in her legs.

Earlier this month, she had to shave off her gleaming brown tresses for a surgical biopsy of her temporal artery; her doctors have put her on medication that has made her face swell slightly.

Yet Brown didn’t bat an eye over having her picture taken for this story. She put on a hat and a little makeup, smiled and spoke with her signature passion about the Promise of Hope.

‘I feel close’

The foundation’s sponsorship program has raised enough to cover full tuition for 19 students for the 2011 school year, Brown noted. And letter after letter comes from Masaka to Sequim, expressing gratitude for the chance to go to school.

“These children are so far away. But I feel so close,” Brown said. “We get these heartwarming letters.”

Brown, 59, has believed from the start that small gifts pack a big impact. Buy an $11 Promise of Hope candle at Tender Touches, for example, and that helps a student in Masaka continue his or her education.

Brown’s dream is for the foundation to build a new school there, and to go to Uganda in January 2012, to meet the students she’s been corresponding with for years now.

World travel

In a former life, Brown did a lot of travel in the developing world. The girl who grew up on a farm near the upstate New York town of Lockport went to work for a California company that built power plants overseas; she met her husband, George Brown, at that company in 1985. They married in 1988, bought property in Sequim and moved here in 1995.

A licensed aesthetician, Brown had dreamed of owning a skin-care spa. She opened Tender Touches in the middle of another recession — and has built it into a flourishing business.

“I like teaching people how to take care of their skin,” she said, adding that skin is the human body’s largest organ.

Her advice for younger-looking skin?

Not surprisingly, Brown doesn’t point to a product or a treatment.

“This kind of thing keeps you young,” Brown said of the Promise of Hope Foundation.

Clients help too

Brown’s clients at Tender Touches have joined the effort, too: On “tuition Tuesdays,” when she gives 10 percent of product-sales proceeds to Promise of Hope’s school fund, people stream in.

“They hold out for Tuesdays,” to buy their makeup and skin-care products, said Sarah Lyons, Tender Touches’ spa coordinator.

“She is amazing,” Lyons said of her boss, who continues to work despite her health problems, at Tender Touches and as the organizer behind The Gateway.

“I love what I do,” said Brown. “I love to give.”