All posts by Edwin Byarugaba

Ateme’s ‘professional’ heart beats for agriculture

March 18, 2024News, Students, UCU Alumni, UCU School of Social SciencesEdwin Byarugaba

Julian Ateme believes that hers is a perfect story to debunk the myth that agriculture is not for people who have formal jobs

By Pauline Luba
In Primary Four, Julian Ateme was transferred from St. Joseph’s Nsambya Girls Primary School, Kampala, to Stella Maris Nsuube boarding school in Mukono district. The main reason for the transfer was her parents’ belief she would become more disciplined under a closer watch of school authorities.

In the midst of that lesson, Ateme discovered gardening. Within the school’s garden, pupils engaged in practical work twice a week – every Wednesday and Saturday. There, among plants, Ateme began a lifelong relationship with agriculture.

It is the lessons in cultivation of soil learned while at Nsuube that enabled Ateme, a Uganda Christian University (UCU) alum, to appreciate her father’s efforts in farming. He had vast lands with trees, fruits and crops. Ateme, also a wife, a mother of three and community services assistant with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said her father often encouraged people in the community to grow passion fruits.

Whatever she learned at Nsuube and from her father’s farms, Ateme did not abandon. She started growing vegetables, as well as food crops like cassava and groundnuts, alongside rearing animals such as pigs, goats, cows, rabbits and ducks. Piggery is currently her highest source of income from the farm.

“I am known for having informal meetings with the people in the village, encouraging them to invest in agriculture,” Ateme says.

In Uganda, some people continue to perceive agriculture as business for the uneducated. It is perceptions like these that Ateme is out to change. A holder of two degrees — Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and Finance of Kumi University and Bachelor of Social Work and Social Administration of UCU — Ateme believes that hers is a perfect story to debunk the myth that agriculture is not for people who have professional jobs.

She says the proceeds she gets from the farm have enabled her to pay her children’s school fees. Since the children know the source of their school fees, they are eager to visit the farms during holidays – something that leaves Ateme with a grin on her face because she knows she is slowly passing on the farming culture to her children.

Even in the community, the sweat that Ateme has broken to preach the gospel of farming is already bearing fruit. She said on many occasions, she has met community members who have encountered positive economic change on account of agriculture. One man had embraced agriculture and confessed to getting financial empowerment from the surplus of the food crops, as well as the fruits that he sold.

Even as she preaches the gospel of agriculture, Ateme knows the importance of achieving education. She is currently supporting the education of six children who are not part of her family. This outreach started when Ateme asked for house-help, and a girl younger than 10 years arrived. The girl said she had been forced to repeat Primary Three more than once because the her parents could not afford the functional fees.

Instead of employing her, which is illegal in Uganda for children under 18 years, Ateme put the girl back in school. That girl will graduate as a nurse this year.

“God has blessed me through this child,” said Ateme, who originally had hoped to pursue a career in law, but did not, due to lack of funds for the course.

In addition to farming, she credits World Vision, a non-governmental organization, for her experience, ability and desire to help children. At World Vision, Ateme worked as a child protection officer.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

Also, follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook

Love for English landed Congolese national at UCU

March 15, 2024Congo, News, Students, UCU School of Social Sciences, WarEdwin Byarugaba

By Kefa Senoga
When Micheline Ugara Mazo arrived in Uganda more than six years ago, all she wanted was to pursue a university education. She did not care what course she studied. To get herself ready for education in Uganda, Ugara Mazo, a native of he Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), took lessons in English for more than eight months.

She chose to undergo English lessons because, apart from admiring the language, she did not know much about it. People in her home country speak French as their official language. It is also the language of instruction for students in schools.

“I loved English so much,” she said. “Sometimes I would get newspapers published in the English language and try to read them, but I would hardly understand anything. That experience stuck in my mind that I had to learn the language.”

She says she felt that after exclusively studying French for most of her life in the DRC, it was time for her to immerse herself in an English-speaking society.

However, before Ugara Mazo came to Uganda to pursue her studies, she had to endure a two-year stay at home because she and her father could not agree on where she would go. Her father, Chrysostom Nyelegodi Azangi, wanted her to enroll at Kinshasa University, in the DRC, while Ugara Mazo preferred Uganda. To demonstrate her resolve and in the midst of conflict in the Congo, she started a fish trading business for the two years she was at home.

For years, the DRC has experienced violence involving militant groups over territory and natural resources. In addition to mounting civilian deaths in eastern Congo, the UN declares that the number of internally displaced people has reached a record high of 6.9 million as fighting, rendering a growing part of the country unsafe for civilians.

Azangi eventually gave in and let his daughter have her wish to leave the conflict-ridden area.

Upon reaching Uganda Christian University (UCU) in 2017, Ugara Mazo met the Rev. Samson Maliisa, the assistant chaplain at the institution, who helped to guide her on the course to pursue.

“He gave me two options — either Bachelor of Governance and International Relations or Bachelor of Human Rights, Peace and Humanitarian Interventions. I chose the latter,” she recalls.

Ugara Mazo says her motivation to pursue a course in human rights came from the fact that she had witnessed many cases of human rights violations in the Congo.

“In some parts of my country, people are constantly running from conflict, fleeing from war-affected areas,” Ugara Mazo says.

The DDR has faced decades of war, largely between government forces and rebels, especially in the eastern part of the country.

It is for that reason that in 2021, even after completing her undergraduate course, Ugara Mazo chose to further her stay in Uganda by enrolling for a master’s course.

“There was the Covid-19 pandemic and war at the same time back at home, so I decided to stay and study further,” she says, explaining how her father tried to resist her continued stay to study in Uganda.

“My father said he didn’t have the money to pay my tuition, but I persisted, and enrolled for the master’s course, believing that God would make a way,” she said.

The gold trading business of Azangi in Ituri province, DRC, had suffered significant setbacks due to the war. Initially, the father faced financial constraints and, as a result, he was not sure he could fund her course, the Master of Research and Public Policy. However, he later secured the necessary funds, enabling him to pay her tuition. Ugara Mazo is now finalizing her master’s research.

Her topic is the “Effect of Armed Conflict on the Implementation of Gold Exploitation Policy in Ituri, DRC.” She says it was born out of the need to gain more knowledge on the cause of the war in eastern DR Congo so she could detail the effect the war has had on one of the economic activities in the region — gold mining.

Incidentally, Ugara Mazo has had one of her sisters, Iyekane Elizabeth Yamba, follow her to pursue an undergraduate course at UCU. Yamba recently graduated with a Bachelor of Procurement Logistics and Management and returned to DR Congo. She expects two other siblings, Miriam Eri Kurunze and Eri Tende Somson, to join UCU later this year.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

Scholarship recipients narrate struggles to keep in school

March 12, 2024Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology, News, Students, UCU Alumni, UCU School of BusinessEdwin Byarugaba

In June 2022, Uganda Christian University launched “For Just 10k,”a campaign intended to raise financial support for students who are facing economic distress. One of the organizations that responded to that call was the Ubuntu Youth Leadership Centre (UYLC). Dr. Sabrina Kitaka, the chairperson of the board at UYLC, noted that they wanted to go beyond just contributing to school fees to supporting students through mentorship. Irene Best Nyapendi talked to some students who are recent beneficiaries of the philanthropy of UYLC.

Carolyne Anyango Ohanga has always desired to be an Anglican priest. For that to happen, however, she must attain a bachelor’s degree in divinity, which she is currently pursuing at Uganda Christian University (UCU). She joined UCU after completing a diploma course at Uganda Martyrs Seminary, Namugongo, near Kampala.

Financial challenges warrant Anyango to consider it a miracle that she is still in school. Even just completing her diploma course at Uganda Martyrs Seminary was an amazing achievement.

Anyango, a Kenyan citizen, preferred to study in Uganda, where tuition is generally less compared to her country. While a student at Uganda Martyrs Seminary, Anyango one day packed her bags ready to abandon school, because she saw no hope in securing money for tuition.

However, she narrates that just before she left, she shared her financial challenges with the institution’s principal. And she was offered a scholarship.

Even for her first semester at UCU in 2022, Anyango faced challenges in paying the full tuition. She started studies after paying only sh200,000 ($51.22), which is about 13% of the tuition fees required for the semester.

As the examinations approached, Anyango presented her challenges to the office of the Dean of the Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology, who referred her to the UCU Financial Aid Office. The office secured partial tuition. To pay the balance, she had to mobilize her friends, who contributed towards her need. But still, that was not substantial to clear the tuition balance. Anyango eventually sat the exams without clearing full tuition, but only after securing permission from the university on the promise that she would pay the fees balance later.

For the semesters that followed, Anyango would receive donations from well-wishers, including financial assistance from the UCU Guild Fund.

As she started her final semester in the course, Anyango says she had lost hope in finding any funding for her tuition. However, she discovered a call for Ubuntu Youth Leadership Centre (UYLC) scholarships, to which she applied, and was successful.

Kogere, a final-year student of Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance at UCU, has been raised single-handedly by her mother, a primary school teacher.

For the times when her salary was inadequate, Kogere’s mother secured loans to pay her children’s fees. However, last year, Kogere’s mother was unable to meet the tuition obligations of her children since her loan dues had accumulated. Therefore, much of her salary went into servicing the loans and paying the debts she had accumulated. That unfortunate incident coincided with the withdrawal of Kogere’s sponsor who had been paying her tuition since Senior Five.

Kogere knew there was no money, but she still reported to school. The money she earned from her holiday job as a house-help was what she used for paying hostel dues at UCU. A scholarship from UYLC enabled Kogere to write her final-year examinations.

For Nalwadda, paying fees had never been a challenge for her family, until the unexpected demise of her father in 2022. Nalwadda, a final-year student of Bachelor of Procurement and Logistics Management at UCU, says she was left without the financial support she had always relied upon.

A relative who had promised to meet her tuition obligations could not pay the fees beyond one semester. As Nalwadda was trying to figure out where to get money, a friend brought her attention to a scholarship application call by UYLC. She applied.

“When I received a call that I had been selected for the scholarship, I shed tears of joy,” she said. “I was so surprised and when I shared the news with my mum, she was the happiest person.”

Rannie Ashaba – Business
The weight of the financial burden that Rannie Ashaba had to deal with at one point, she said, created anxiety, confusion and divided concentration in class. “Where will money come from?” was the question that consistently entered her mind. Despite all the challenges, Ashaba’s Grade Point Average has never been less than 4.3 out of 5.0.

“Early this semester, I was thinking about applying for a dead semester,” she said. However, that will not happen as she has been one of the lucky recipients of a scholarship courtesy of Ubuntu Youth Leadership Centre.

Ashaba, pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration and Accounting, said when she was five years old, her parents separated, leaving the burden of caring for her to her mother. However, tragedy struck in 2009 when her mother passed away.

In 2021, her maternal aunt took her in, pledging to cater for her academic needs, with some help from Ashaba’s grandmother. During the times they lacked, Ashaba applied for tuition top-ups and scholarships from the UCU Financial Aid office.

Last year, Ashaba’s aunt got a health complication which forced her to stop working and commence costly therapy. To date, the 27-year-old says, her aunt has not been able to pay her tuition since she is out of employment.

“I have faced obstacles to an extent that I learned to ignore some of them,” Ashaba said.

Drawing from personal experience, Ashaba urges other students facing financial challenges to share their troubles with people.

“A problem shared is a problem halved solved,” Ashaba said. “Also, keep searching for opportunities because there is always a second chance awaiting you, so don’t think about giving up.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also, follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook