“I want to be a doctor. Right now, I help my big sister with her tea business to support our family. We wake up early, prepare the tea, pack it in flasks, and go out to sell it. It’s not easy, but it keeps us going and reminds me to stay focused on my dream. I know that many young people want to be doctors until they realise that science subjects are hard. Some get discouraged. But I believe that if you really want something, you have to focus, pay attention, and work so hard for it. You’ll eventually reach your goal.
Well, when I’m gone, I would want my siblings to remember me as someone who was understanding and someone who tried to avoid conflicts and fights. Life hasn’t been easy, and I’ve faced my share of challenges. After my primary seven vacation, I joined senior one and only managed to study for one term. When that term ended, I went back home and expected to return to school just like other children. But I couldn’t go back because my mum didn’t have the money. While we were still in term one, our father just disappeared one day. He left all the responsibilities to our mother. She has many children, so she chose to send the younger ones back to school and left the older ones at home. At this point, it’s where I realised that my Education dream had come to an end. I started to look for work. Something to do to keep me busy, make some money and divert my thoughts from thinking about going back to school. Because I knew this would never happen. The people around and even some of our neighbours saw me as a failure. Many thought I would either end up getting pregnant, becoming a domestic worker or getting married at a young age. They became negative towards me and my sister. We even had to keep away from them. I never wanted to see them. Or them to see me.
But one day, a gentleman from Faces Up was buying something at my mother’s stall, and he saw me. He asked my mother whether I was in school. She answered NO. He then told her about a new program for women and young girls out of school. The program was going to teach skills to boost their livelihoods. I overheard their conversation. I told my mother that I wanted to join. I knew this would keep me busy. We got connected to Faces Up, where we learned a lot of things like basket weaving and jewellery making. Learning basket weaving was hard at first. We would often get pierced by the needles, and it was painful. That fear of being hurt again slowed us down, but we kept going. Over time, it got easier. We became better and more confident with each day. I’m proud that I now know how to weave baskets well. Even more, I can now teach other girls how to do it too. It’s something I couldn’t do before, and it makes me happy that I can help others learn a skill that might help them earn a living, just like it did for me. With the new skills, I started to look at life differently. He people who saw me as a failure also started to see a different me. Some even asked to see what I was making. Sometimes I wanted to show off, but that’s not me. So I showed them, but was also willing and open to teaching them in case they wanted to learn.
My mother is the person I admire most. She is such a hard-working woman. We are six children, and she has managed to support all of us, pay our rent at home, find food for us each day, and do so much more. She is my biggest inspiration. I dont know if she knows this.
The day I went back to school is the happiest day of my life. I had wanted it for so long, but I didn’t know if it would ever happen. I had lost hope. I remember it clearly, it was a Wednesday, actually Ash Wednesday. I couldn’t believe it. I was so happy. It all started one day, while at Faces Up, when they asked us if we still wanted to go back to school. I said yes. From that moment, I was taken back to school, and I’ve been studying ever since. The whole story is that Mr. Ssekitto Kalule Emmanuel and Kamanyire Nyakoojo from Faces Up Uganda reached out to my mother and later called me directly. They reminded me that I had said I wanted to return to school and told me to get ready. Mr. Emma told me told me that Faces Up would find a way to get me and my sister back into school to continue our studies. They asked me to pick up a school uniform and later come by their office to collect books, pens, and other school materials. Then they said, “Tomorrow morning, go to school.” And just like that, I was back. I couldn’t believe that I was now back to being a schoolgirl. All our costs were met, thanks to Lisa Issroff and Issroff Family Foundation. They bought notebooks from Faces Up. It’s from that money that all my school needs and fees were met.
If I could speak to young girls like me, especially those who dropped out of school because of money problems, I would tell them, if an opportunity to return to school comes, take it. Some girls start working and earning a little money, and when a chance to go back to school comes, they refuse. They say, “Why go back to school? I’m already making money.” But I want them to understand that education is so important. It stays with you for life, and it opens up more doors than you can imagine.”
Each and every day, we are seeing how art is drawing young people back to their dreams. It’s giving them a chance to express themselves, connect and also build a certain sense of hope that things get better or even come to pass. To us, the story of Flavia, plus several others, inspires us to push further in pursuit of our vision “For every young person to Learn artistic skills, Heal from Life traumatic experiences, Earn opportunities and incomes, to Thrive in school and in Life” We thank all our partners, Issroff Family Foundation, MTN Uganda, Myriad USA, DHL Express, CivSource Africa, CivFund, The New Africa Fund, The Latitude Hotels Group Kampala Global Fund for Children for investing into our mission.
We are grateful to Someone Else’s Child, Inc., for their support and for enabling us to help young people tell their stories via the #ArtAndThePeople campaign. The team Humans Of Uganda at led by Nasawali Leslie Emmanuel and Nasawali Charles Humphrey for helping us shape these stories.
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Thank you for reading this far. Come back next week, Friday, for another story