By William Opio
Sunday Patrick Jamunda grew up in a large family where providing food and paying school fees was a daily struggle. As the firstborn of his mother’s six children, he soon found himself helping with responsibilities at home.
His father, Endricko Onyai, had three wives and many children.
“Mine was a humble family,” he recalls. “Sometimes we would take one meal a day and supplement it with porridge.”
By age 10, Patrick and his younger brother, Kucel Newton, were already working at a milling machine during times when they were not at school.
As he grew older, Jamunda started working as a mason at construction sites. The money he earned helped with food at home and supported the education of his younger siblings.
“I learned that nothing comes easy. If you want something, you have to work for it.” Despite the early challenges, Jamunda was a high performer at school.
He was among the best in his district in the national examinations at the end of the primary school cycle. Despite this stellar performance, he could not proceed to secondary school, the next level of education. His father did not have the money for tuition.
Out of frustration, Jamunda left his village for Kampala, to seek menial jobs. However, his start in Uganda’s capital city was not what he expected. He spent several months on the city’s streets.
His situation changed when Catherine Akullu, a social worker, picked him up and took him to a children’s centre in Kampala.
“At Agape Christian Center, I found a new family,” Jamunda said of the children’s center, which was founded by Akullu and became his new home in Kampala.
Sunday Patrick Jamunda when still a student at UCU
According to Akullu’s LinkedIn profile, Agape, which means the Divine Love of God, takes care of children, orphans and the homeless.
The centre offered Jamunda accommodation and food, but could not cover his tuition. He therefore had to find ways of contributing towards his own education. Jamunda worked whenever opportunities came up, doing small jobs during school breaks and at other times to raise money for fees and school requirements. He attended schools whose fees he could manage and, when money ran out, sometimes had to stay out of school before returning to continue.
Through those years of uncertainty and irregular schooling, Jamunda managed to negotiate his way through O’level.
After completing his O’level, Jamunda vended electronics and juice in Gulu, northern Uganda, to raise money for A’level.
He says while still at Agape, someone promised to pay his university tuition once he reached that level. However, when it was time to apply for courses at university, he said he could not locate the person.
Not to bother himself so much, Jamunda retreated to his village in Pakwach, northwestern Uganda. Around that time, he began living with his partner, Dellis Awekonimungu. However, three months later, he received a phone call that changed his life. Jamunda had been admitted to Uganda Christian University (UCU) through Uganda Partners.
“The UCU admission meant everything to me,” he said recently during an interview with Uganda Partners.
“My mother, Christine Onyiragio, cried when I told her I had joined university.”
The scholarship eased the financial burden on the family. As a result, this freed up money to pay school fees for some of Jamunda’s siblings.
Jamunda had initially wanted to study for a Bachelor of Law. His interest in the course came from experiences he had witnessed while growing up, particularly the struggles of poor families facing injustices, such as land grabbing.
“I wanted to speak for people who could not speak for themselves.”
However, Jamunda was instead admitted for a Bachelor of Social Work and Social Administration. He was quickly able to learn that the course could enable him to fight for justice for vulnerable people.
Upon arriving at UCU, Jamunda says he found the environment intimidating. “I felt like a small fish in a big pond. The campus environment, the facilities and the students around me were all intimidating.”
Then another responsibility emerged. His partner, Dellis, told him she was pregnant. He had to fend for a pregnant partner. He thus focused on two things: completing his course and finding ways to earn money to support Dellis and their newborn daughter, Elliana Diane.
He took up casual jobs and carried out academic research for fellow students to earn extra income. The money helped him meet his needs, support his family and contribute to raising his daughter.
He eventually completed his degree with a Grade Point Average of 4.08 out of 5.0. Jamunda said the achievement was as much his as it was for all the people who supported him.
On July 3, 2026, Jamunda’s parents travelled to Kampala for the first time to attend their son’s graduation. Onyiragio does not speak English. As such, she did not follow much of the proceedings at the graduation ground. However, she could not miss hearing her son’s name when it was called.
“My son, you have made it,” she said in Alur, the language they speak at home.
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