To all our dear viewers, I am so honoured for this opportunity which I do not take for granted.
I thank the Lord because I am going to be able to share my testimony with you about His goodness and my life journey with Him.
I am a born-again Christian who accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour when I was a young boy, in 2007 in Primary 4t was during
It was a gospel crusade at Mulago grounds when I confessed salvation and I accepted Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
Immediately I realized a change in my life because before salvation, I used to get bad dreams and nightmares.
I would feel something strangling me in my sleep.
But from the day I confessed salvation to date, I have never had such bad dreams.
At first, I was in an admirable family setting because both my parents were alive.
But while I was in Top class, life changed because our parents used to fight a lot. So my father told our mother that he was fed-up of us.
I think he had got another woman, Telling that to my mother, came as a shocker.
During that time, our mother had just given birth to our young sister Doreen. We moved out of the home but we left everything there and started staying in a kiosk.
Then came an outbreak of cholera and the community leaders decided to chase us away because we were at risk since we were young.
We did not have a place to go. The community members held a meeting and the area chairman said that if they want us to leave, they should provide us with money for renting a house as well for upkeep.
So the community members decided to let us continue staying in the kiosk. In the Mulago grounds, is where they used to treat cholera patients from. So we were exposed to the cholera disease but we thank God that we never got infected with it.
My mother used to sell fried cassava to earn a living though most people had left the grounds because of the cholera patients being treated there.
We continued going to school and my mother used to pay for our school fees. We used to attend church at St. Paul C.O.U.
They announced in church that there was registration for children to get education sponsorship with the “Compassion Company” and the exercise was to take place at St. George’s church in Kamwokya.
My mother is the one who heard the announcement since she had attended church that day.
So she took me the following day on Monday and left me there since she had to come back and work to earn money for buying food.
I stayed there the whole day and we had to line up for the registration. They also took our photos.
She came back to pick me at around 4:00pm and asked whether I had been registered and given a number and I told her yes.
My mother got a relief since I had got sponsorship. My mother paid for my education for the 3 years of nursery and 3 years of Primary level.
We used to sleep in it but at the same time, she used to sell fried cassava, tea and cooked food. Time came and the owner of the kiosk wanted it back.
He chased us out while I was in Primary 6. So we constructed a house out of used boxes under a tree that was near the kiosk.
I used to go around selling maize and that is how I was able to collect the used boxes. I also got some papyrus which was being sold at 3000/= by then plus polythene which we used for roofing.
We started staying in that kind of house. We would sit the whole night whenever it rained. The area was not safe because Mulago was surrounded by bushes.
We were always attacked by snakes and one would wonder where they used to come from since it was in the city area. One time a snake attacked me while I was seated in the door way and it was killed by a motorbike rider.
Some would appear at night from trees while we were sleeping. God was our protector.
I used to go to school where I faced a lot of challenges because pupils who knew where we used to stay, would laugh at us while others would even gossip about us.
There was one girl from the neighbourhood, whose parents owned a bar; she used to protect us whenever we were laughed at.
She was called Miria. She would warn the pupils not to laugh or gossip about us because that could happen to them as well.
Sometimes I would feel out of place and I never liked talking about it or anyone feeling pity for me.
I always made sure to change the topic whenever someone brought it up. I wanted to be happy.
I would get involved in activities that made me happy like watching movies at our neighbour’s house or playing football with my colleagues. I never wanted to be sad.
My mother was fed-up of the bad condition we were in and to make matters worse, she developed a problem with one of her breasts when she had just given birth to our last born. So, she could no longer work.
We spent a full week without eating food but only drinking water. She went and bought poison at 200/=, lit a candle and played a gospel song by Judith Babirye
She cried as the song played and that was the first time, I saw my mother’s tears. She put the poison in the cup and asked us to go to sleep.
She felt lonely, helpless and was being laughed at by the community which regarded her as a failure in life.
The community mounted a lot of pressure on her and blamed her for not being able to give us a good life.
The pressure was too much and at times she would transfer the anger to me, being a boy.
She would abuse me and order me to go and look for my father. I prayed to God for things to get better.
Much as I was still young, I did understand that she was doing that to me because of what she was going through.
I used to think and plan like an adult. She showed me too much love and she would always thank me whenever I came back from selling maize.
I used to be the one selling the maize being the boy since my sisters could not manage that kind of hustle.
I used to sell the maize around the hospital, in schools and I would also go to homes to sell milk from a jerrycan.
I used to be late for school because of that but surprisingly I used to perform well in class.
Actually, my report cards are with the Compassion Company and when you take a look at both my Primary and Secondary reports, you will realize that I used to perform well. I was always among the top 5 in Primary.
I used to compete academically with kids from well to do families. I then joined Secondary level but there was a school I wanted to go to called Nkoowe since we were allowed to make choices.
My mother told me that we could not afford the school fees for that particular school. I told her that I would not settle for any other school except Nkoowe.
And she said, okay. She took my sister to St. Margaret and I stayed behind. When my sister came back home, I checked in her books and they had studied chemistry so I told my mother that I was also ready to join St. Margaret.
My mother was so happy to hear that because at first, she thought I had been possessed by the evil spirit of not wanting to study.
She immediately went and ordered for my school uniform to be made since they were not bought at school.
She had the uniform made and I joined the school. I eventually liked the school and I was the best in performance in Senior one, Senior two and so on.
Still I used to be late for school and that angered the teachers. However, my sister used to arrive early because she was not involved in child labour.
She started doing such labour work when she was in Senior three. I also used to leave school early to go and sell maize. Two weeks after the rest of the students had already started. I did but with a lot of challenges.
I tried my best not to mind about people. Some students used to come with their parents to the hospital where I sold the maize but I would ignore them.
One time, the director of studies saw me selling maize but I hadn’t seen him. He said that no wonder sometimes I used to miss classes while busy looking for money. Good thing he got to know the reason why.
I never used to share my personal life with them. I never used to line up for school meals, I would buy myself better food with some of the money I used to get out of selling maize.
That way, they would never imagine what I was going through. One would never imagine that we lived in a house made out of used boxes and yet it was still the same house we lived in even during our Secondary level.
Luckily enough, they needed me the most because I used to perform well in class. They never had time to ask me about my personal life, they always asked for help in academics. I made sure that students needed my help academically and not the other way round. That was very important.
I used to read hard and even as I grew up, I made sure people needed me the most. Actually they helped pay my registration fees because we had failed to raise it and at some point, I thought that I was going to miss sitting for the final exams.
And that same year, my mother fell terribly ill for 8 months and we had to do chores in turns with my sister yet we were both candidates.
Teachers thought we wouldn’t pass the exams since our attendance was irregular. God performed a miracle and I am still thankful to Him because I was the best performer that year and I got a first grade.
I was unable to access my results using the UNEB SMS Code so my friend advised me to use Google and when I put in my particulars, my picture appeared and I was amazed.
Since I took long to access my results, my mother thought I had failed and I was going to faint on the streets. However, she was ready for any results that I got.
Everyone at school was happy for me, they all did not expect me to perform well since I was on and off at school.
Congratulations to you, Senior four exams are not a walkover and considering the harsh conditions you were living in.
I wanted to do a science combination but unfortunately the school where I was in O Level, offered me a bursary in an Arts combination yet I did not want Arts at St. Margaret College Makerere, owned by Hon. Zziwa.
They actually gave me a bursary but I had to do an Arts combination, and I said no.I used to work in the hospital where I sold maize.
When you mention working, one might think you had a job. But it was illegal because they did not allow hawkers in the hospital and sometimes, they would confiscate our items.
I would then go back and tell my mum the maize had been confiscated. But we never gave up on the business.
One day I was selling maize to a lady that I met at the Spinal ward and she told me that she wished for me to become a medical doctor.
She actually went ahead to lay her hands on me and to prayed for me so that I could achieve it. I also used to admire the doctors as they selflessly treated and cared for patients in the different hospital wards.
That lady prayed for me and told me that she wanted me to be like her son who was also a medical doctor. She told me not to mind about the situation we were in and that one, day I would become a doctor.
By the way, I do not remember how she looks like. So, since that day, you decided that you were going to become a medical doctor. I never believed in any subject being hard for me; I knew that I could do it. Nothing could stop me from becoming a medical doctor.
I decided to join Kololo Senior Secondary.
