Brenda Nakirya is one of the children that have gone through the trends of UCC Formal Education Sponsorship programme. She was enrolled on the programme after she was identified by UCC
Social workers in one of Kampala slums during their community outreach activities. Brenda’s family lived close to the makeshift hall provided by local leaders to UCC social workers to conduct
literacy and numeracy lessons amongst non-school going children in the community.
Kisenyi is a cosmopolitan slum which accommodates people of different ethnic backgrounds based on the variety of informal activities carried out in the area. The area accommodates most street
connected children due to the numerous hideouts characterizing it. Most Jua khali or local artisans involved in skilling work such as welding and metal fabrication, motor vehicle mechanics,
catering, waste management and many others are all in the area. This gives opportunity to moststreet connected children to find work to do and get free and less expensive food to eat from the
vendors.
Most children migrating to Kampala from Karamoja (eastern Uganda) and others from places facing unfriendly socio-economic situations end up in this place. It is also an epicenter for
Somali community in Uganda. They find the area friendlier and more accommodative due to their cultural attributes that may not easily be tolerated in other areas of the country.
The area portrayed appalling physical infrastructures such as poor drainage, dangerous housing, inadequate waste disposal, operational 24/7 min bars, high youth unemployment, high illiteracy
levels, prostitution, private low-cost schools and disorganized local informal markets among others. Community economic power lies strongly in the sale of local liquors, alcohol and illicit
drugs. It was extremely rare not to find multitudes of youths, adult men and women not intoxicated in morning hours and throughout the day. Crimes are rampant and mobile police is
seen severally patrolling the area throughout the day.
Brenda beat all odds by accepting to enroll in one of the nearby schools operated by one church called Hosanna Ministries. The school was registered by government and had an examination
centre for primary leavers. After completing this section, she joined High school which was a bit distanced. Her school performance was good and definitely rhymed well with her behaviors.
After completing Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) or Ordinary level or Senior four, she registered to train in Early Childhood Education (ECD) or Nursery Teacher. The training elapsed for two years and was fully supported by UCC formal education programme. We indeed thank MEM for enabling this sponsorship to happen. We also express our appreciation to individual sponsors of Brenda who time and again supported her with money for personal effects and scholastic materials.
After completing the ECD Course, Brenda made another insightful decision to specialize in computer studies to enable her join the world of work with digital skills. UCC accepted her decision
and was given the opportunity to join the computer training class at the Centre. The programme is for one year after which efforts will be done together with MEM to work out the process of
enabling her acquire a computer and printer to support her during her fulltime employment.
In the nut shell, we thank Brenda for being open minded, objective, optimistic and not possessing self-blame and inferiority complex traits. If she continues to trend with these self-belief traits in all her engagements, no wonder the sky is the limit. UCC management is ready to support her accomplish her set goals and dreams.