Tag Archives: Uganda

The Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, departing vice chancellor, shares thoughts with journalist John Semakula (Photo by Samuel Tatambuka)

Legacy – VC Senyonyi thoughts on education backlash of pandemic

COVID-19, Faculty, , , , , , , ,


The Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, departing vice chancellor, shares thoughts with journalist John Semakula (Photo by Samuel Tatambuka)
The Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, departing vice chancellor, shares thoughts with journalist John Semakula (Photo by Samuel Tatambuka)

At the end of August 2020, the Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi says farewell to 19 years of service at Uganda Christian University (UCU), having come first in 2001 as a chaplain. He has been vice chancellor since 2010. He retires in the midst of COVID-related, government orders of education shutdowns. In this two-part series, UCU Vice Chancellor Senyonyi gives his thoughts on the pandemic and other aspects of his leadership and the university. This July 6 interview was conducted by John Semakula, a UCU graduate and lecturer.

What has been the impact of closing the University due to the Coronavirus pandemic?The most obvious is finances of the University. Since the University largely draws its livelihood from student tuition, when students do not pay, the University is incapacitated. Moreover, the loss of revenue is equal to the period of closure. Therefore, if the University reopens next year, it also means that revenue lost probably will be for almost a year. That is over Sh50b (roughly $13.5 million American). In this case, the impact will be felt long after the reopening of the University. But then this affects many other aspects. The first and most painful is the Human Resource because it brings in many dimensions, as it should for any human being. Staff members cannot be paid. They suffer anxiety about the next meal, which could lead to distress and breakdown. Others consider abandoning University employment and look for where else to turn for gainful work. One can only imagine how all these affect the familial relations and other social interactions since in losing their monthly salaries; they are also likely to lose their self-esteem. People who think less of themselves than what God made them to be usually reflect that into the eyes of others. This is immediately followed by the impact on our students. In joining University, the students have the expectation of a straight and determinate period of study ending in completion and readiness for gainful work. This has been interrupted.

How can students be helped to continue studying amidst COVID-19?
COVID-19 has highlighted the need to run affairs differently. One evident positive impact is the enhanced exigency of online learning. As a University, we already had an e-Learning Lab that enables us to tap into online resources worldwide. We have been training staff members in e-Learning, and we have had a policy on entering students coming with laptops for many years. Unfortunately, many have until now considered these as luxuries. The present pandemic with its resultant restrictions has woken everyone up to see that if they do not shape up to this new normal, they will shape out of higher education in particular. Staff members are compelled to urgently train and apply the new technologies to remain relevant. The future has no room for ICT illiteracy.

What’s the fate of students who were supposed to study between May and August?Inevitably, there is going to be a rescheduling of the Academic Year to accommodate them – every delay implicitly reschedules our Calendar. First, we need to lead our Easter (January to April) Semester students to complete their examinations. The University remains committed to helping all students complete their requisite studies. This means that, depending on what is allowed, Trinity Semester (May-August) students may be brought back cautiously or complete their studies remotely. But we are also cognizant of the Advent (September-December) Semester students and the same applies to them.

UCU Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi (Photo by Samuel Tatambuka)
UCU Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi (Photo by Samuel Tatambuka)

How do the students who did not sit for their exams in April fit into your plan?
Of course they need to sit for the examinations before progressing to their next Semester or graduating. The mode of examining will depend on how National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) handles the new normal situation; UCU is able to administer either the Take-Home examinations or the face to face, although the latter now appears to recede in probability with each passing month of the lockdown.

And international students who didn’t return home due to the lockdown?
We continue to take care of them but of course they are idle. The Ministry of Education and Sports asked for their details, which we gave them. We did receive some help consisting of some food and body care items, but it is obvious that three months later, they cannot be living on those right now. So, the University has for long shouldered them single handedly. I cannot say how long we may be able to support them with food and board given that we do not have any revenue inflows at this time. The solution will be when foreign travel restrictions are lifted, and they are able to return to their nations. Moreover, some of these are students who were progressing to either the Trinity (May) or the Advent (September) Semester. I may conjecture that if they are caught up with time and need to restart in their scheduled subsequent Semester, they may not go back but continue with their studies.

Have you learned any lessons from the closure of the University due to COVID-19?
No one living has ever seen such a global pandemic that results in restrictions as severe as we have witnessed in the COVID-19 environment. Most pandemics or epidemics are restricted geographically. Although UCU has had an Emergency Response Policy for years, it never anticipated a global pandemic. Furthermore, in the past we have used the term global village to refer to non-pandemic influences. Now, we have to ask how to live in the new global village in light of such life threatening pandemics. At this time, I may have more questions than answers for I am not sure we have learned the “last” lesson yet.

  1. Will higher education still be relevant?
  2. Can our University remain viable?
  3. Are our e-Learning systems – staff, students and equipment – robust enough?
  4. How can we ensure business continuity if something as severe as COVID-19 happens in the future?
  5. How can education remain uninterrupted when all decision making is removed from our hands?
  6. How can we make online learning amenable to UCU’s holistic education?

The answer to all these questions, and probably more, will be a matter for serious discussion for any institution that wishes to live above such disruptions.

Which projects haven’t you accomplished because of the coronavirus pandemic?
There are doubtless many of these that I would have wanted to see completed, but I will mention just a few. About three years ago, I considered that my mission with UCU would be satisfactory if I accomplished four projects:

Ntawo Land: Securing this property is key to the financial health of UCU because if exploited it has the potential to generate revenue to alleviate UCU’s deficits. The continued forceful occupation of our land without any tangible benefit is a setback to UCU.

UCU Roads: I also thought it good to work toward the UCU roads. I was hoping that by the end of my contract that all roads would be covered. But alas, the costs had skyrocketed within less than three years to unmanageable levels.

E-Learning: At least the University now has an e-Learning Lab. The prohibitive challenge that has thankfully been highlighted by the present lockdown and may now be overcome more easily is staff and student training and use of online services more. For years, we have labored to get students and staff to own ICT gadgets and to learn their use with casual attention. COVID-19 has made online learning mandatory. I pray that when the University reopens, staff and students will be the main drivers for these modern resources. I also wanted UCU to have a Management Information System (MIS) that would essentially digitize all operations of the University, especially for our customers, the students. This is well on the way and most of it should have been completed but for the COVID-19 lockdown.

What is the cost of running a closed University during the lockdown?
The biggest cost is intangible; it is the staff and students whose life and livelihood has been disrupted irretrievably. We cannot tell a staff member or a student that this lost time will be redeemed. Neither can we estimate the personal cost each has suffered. I know we have many heartaches out there, and I hate looking in the eyes of these dear people without a solution to their present hardships. At the same time, while we put brakes on expenditure, some of the needs of the University do not go away simply because it is closed and there is no revenue inflow. So, another painful cost is spending without collecting revenue; we are running downhill without an end in view. Ordinarily, the barest minimum I would need, without counting loans, maintenance costs, etc., is over Sh. 1.7 billion ($460,335) per month, but we have tried to cut that down to chewable monthly bits so that the University remains afloat for a few months.

How do you feel about handing over your office to a successor when the University is still closed because of the Coronavirus lockdown?
It is admittedly a mixed bag of feelings. On the one hand, who wants to continue in this situation dealing with a daily crisis? On the other, I really want to support my successor to find some footing as he steps into the crisis.

Where shall we find you in retirement?
If it is about location, my wife and I hope to move into our own house on Mukono Hill. Career-wise, I want to rest a bit but also to read and write more during the initial months of retirement.

How has the UCU environment contributed to the growth of your family?
It would be wrong for me to say UCU has not contributed to our family growth though it is not easy to point at every aspect of that contribution. We came to UCU in January 2001, but really relocated to this Campus in May of that year. At the time, we had two of our children in Secondary School, and two still in primary school. Today, all of them are adults and graduates from different universities. Two attended UCU for their first degrees. As a family, we have been reminiscing about this since we arrived at UCU, and we are very thankful to God. We depart knowing that each of our children can now earn and live an independent life, and each of them has called upon Jesus to come into their hearts. I wouldn’t ask for more.

How do you feel that your tenure as Vice-Chancellor has come to the end?
Of course I will miss the friendships forged at UCU, and the familiar routine that comes with a prolonged stay in a station. At the same time I look forward to the relief of setting aside the stressful life of daily decisions with meager resources. I also look forward to living in our own house, something we have never done in all our working and married life.

What are some of your key achievements as Vice-Chancellor?
Interestingly, I started out faced with some doubters about if I would manage to run the institution. Some of that is a result of replacing a white man; very unfortunately, many Ugandans do not believe in themselves. The thinking that we cannot successfully replace a white man persists, and this is mainly because of the belief that a white man comes with money. So, one of my major achievements as far as I know, is to run the University and make some capital developments using Ugandan resources. It will surprise many to hear that I have not been receiving millions of foreign money to do what we have done; I have received no capital development money throughout my 10 years as Vice Chancellor. Moreover, during my first years, some students tried my nerves. They probably thought that I would be a push-over. It soon became clear to them that when I believe something to be right, I stick to my guns. But even more importantly, they have grown to respect my leadership, not to fear me or dread me. They know that they have had a friend in me, and I care for them. The hard decisions such as fees increments were not done to hurt anyone but for the good of all. Being accessible to whoever has issues has also been a key component of my leadership. I shun a leadership that is fenced from those we lead. No staff member or student who has sought my audience has failed to see me. They have been my priority. Finally, the growth of UCU is there for anyone to witness. UCU’s status among higher education institutions as well before Government and general public speaks for itself so much so that other universities and Vice Chancellors have come to benchmark with UCU.

What are some of your regrets for the period you have been Vice-Chancellor?
I honestly do not have many regrets except for two: I am saddened by the continuing illegal and forceful occupation of squatters in our land at Ntawo, some of whom are in Government and boldly stand in our way to make use of our land. Therefore, up to now the University has a choice piece of land but is helpless and unable to build up its own endowment. Secondly, there is the challenge of unfair taxation on not-for-profit education institutions. It would help to learn from other nations about the primacy given to higher education, its role in national development and how they have brought it to the fore without endangering their economies.

 The interviewer, John Semakula, is a graduate of Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies of Uganda Christian University (UCU). Currently, he works as the supervisor of The Standard newspaper and lecturer of journalism and Communication at Uganda Christian University (UCU). John worked as a Senior Writer with the New Vision newspaper for eight years.

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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.

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A crowd under Ojok's exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year

‘Choose to see the good in the bad thing’

COVID-19, Students, , , , , , , , , , ,


A crowd under Ojok's exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year
A crowd under Ojok’s exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year

By Maxy Magella Abenaitwe

For most Ugandans, the COVID-19 lockdown has been a financially painful time of watch and see. The presidential speeches have been a wave of hope whose flap never settles. Lives have come to a standstill.

For a few, however, it has been a time of growth and development.

Denish Ojok, a second-year Social Work student at Uganda Christian University (UCU), is among those few. Being alone since childhood presented him many challenges to sail through storms at their worst. The lockdown with the inability to attend UCU classes was yet another to overcome. For Denish, of Gulu, the answers came through food, fitness and market deliveries with a bit of radio inspiration on the side.

Income from his Rock of Ages fitness club helped pay his tuition. When the club was shut down through government orders, he moved workouts online. Clients subscribed at a daily fee of 80 cents (Shs.3000), accessing exercise through such platforms as Go to Meeting and Facebook.

Ojok preparing a traditional dish for delivery
Ojok preparing a traditional dish for delivery

Realizing this wasn’t enough, he thought about how his other skills could be used. Ojok, who is good at boiling a cow hooves, started making door-step deliveries of a much-prized dish known as Mulokoni. Most days, this brought Ojok a minimum of $9 profit.

Ojok’s third idea related to helping people obtain food when they weren’t allowed to travel. With the suspension of public and private means of transport but allowance of motorcycle deliveries, he took orders and made deliveries of sugar, rice and other market goods. Business was so good that he was able to employ a handful of youth to help him.

This voice of hope – one that resonates with biblical scripture – has been echoed by Ojok on Rupiny FM radio. His encouraging words on youth radio talk shows are about growth during a pandemic, thinking “beyond the nose” in a positive way to overcome circumstances, and continuing good sanitation habits after the COVID-19 virus is controlled. Such habits as handwashing will solve other problems such as diarrhea, he said.

“Exercise financial discipline, spend less and learn to cope with any condition that comes your way,” the 24-year-old student entrepreneur said. “Choose to see the good in the bad thing. Stay positive.”

Despite the great work progress, Ojok is dissatisfied with the fact that a large portion of his potential clients are unable to access his services due lack of communications through smart phones and the Internet. This is a circumstance he is working to resolve.

Much as the lockdown has kept him away from people who inspire his spiritual journey, Ojok has disciplined himself to read and understand scriptures. Before he does anything he prays, as inspired by his UCU lecturer, Peter Nareba, who begins every lecture with prayer.

Ojok plans to maintain his online business after the lockdown. He believes post lockdown will be an era of innovations since it was a shock that left the world with so much to learn, think about and take action.

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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

Ayub inspects a backyard nursery bed with one of his learners

University staff blesses community amidst COVID-19 lockdown

COVID-19, Faculty, , , , , , ,


Ayub inspects a backyard nursery bed with one of his learners
Ayub inspects a backyard nursery bed with one of his learners

By Douglas Olum

When Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni directed COVID-19 restrictions on March 20, 2020, many citizens wondered how they would survive.  The lockdown order involved closure of all schools and academic institutions, ban of public transportation and shutting of businesses except for manufacturing industries and food dealers.

In addition to hindering the ability for workers to get to places of employment, drivers of motorcycles and taxis were out of work. The pressure on husbands and fathers in particular gave rise to violence in homes. In one three-week period, the Uganda Police Force reported 328 cases of domestic violence. Uganda’s Minister of State for Gender, Labour and Social Development, Peace Regis Mutuuzo, reports that Uganda has recorded over 10,000 cases of domestic violence in the past year, 1,000 of which were recorded between January and April. She said the number is higher as compared to 2019 statistics where only 3,000 cases were recorded in that year.

James Ssenkubuge, a Front Desk Officer at the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Kampala Campus, saw first-hand the impact of such stress.  When returning from work one evening, he witnessed battering of a wife by her husband after the woman complained about her spouse’s inability to get food for the family. Ssenkubuge ran to the neighbor’s house and separated the fight.

After listening to their plight, he went back to his house and returned with some food that saved the family from sleeping hungry that night. Despite his reduced salary and uncertainty of payment for the future and with his experience of working with less-than-peaceful students, he continued to counsel and help his neighbors in this time of need.

UCU’s Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, has in recent weeks notified staff like Ssenkubuge that their salaries are reduced by 75 percent for the month of May with no payment for June and possibly other months.  The university staff pay is curtained because UCU, supported largely through tuition, is unable to serve new or current students during the lockdown. The roughly 5% of essential UCU employees working on campus are completing tasks without pay.

Ayub tends to his tomatoes in the garden
Ayub tends to his tomatoes in the garden

While the lockdown threatens peace in families like those in Ssenkubuge’s neighbourhood, Mutaasa Mugereza Ayub, the UCU main campus/Mukono Students’ Affairs Administrator, is reaching out to share what he has with others to bring about food security and reduce on the chances of domestic violence.  He is using the lockdown period to inspire and mentor children at his neighborhood in practical agricultural skills that can translate into food security in Uganda in the long run.

At the time the lockdown was pronounced in Uganda in late March, Ayub had just transplanted his tomatoes and green pepper seedlings in a garden measuring about 15 x 20 meters (49.2 x 65.6 feet). He started spending more time in his plot, watering, weeding, prunning and spraying the crops.

Passersby of all ages stopped to ask Ayub questions. Without hesitation, he gladly answered and even encouraged them to give the project a try.

Tomatoes seedlings planted in used tires at Ayub's compound
Tomatoes seedlings planted in used tires at Ayub’s compound

“To me agriculture is one thing that gives people financial freedom and time, let alone the food security aspect,” Mutaasa said. “But the problem is that, because of the way some people were raised they look at agriculture as a backward and dirty practice.”

Among the people who asked him questions were five neighborhood children who started regular visits to the garden. As he encouraged the children to do what he was doing, they started looking for tomato seeds and seedlings for planting. Ayub gave them some seeds free of charge.

In early June, the five children were raising their own backyard gardens of not only tomatoes, but other vegetables like onions and green peppers.  In Ayub’s own home, children and other relatives are growing tomatoes, beans, among other crops in pots and used car tires.

Ayub says he enjoys imparting whatever skills he has to people and he feels fulfilled seeing the children he is mentoring practice the skills he taught them. He continues to visit the children’s gardens, to support them with chemical spray treatments and to advise them on what to do next.

As his tomatoes and green pepper hit the harvest period, Ayub’s garden has become the community food basket. People flock to the site to purchase products at fair prices – not the higher rates from markets.

Ayub is currently raising another garden of vegetables, hoping to get more fulfilled with his garden outputs and the learners’ skills while he and other people worry about possible job losses and struggle financially.

In mid-June, the possibility of the university re-opening and the staff getting back to work was hanging in balance because the Government of Uganda remained undecided on when schools and other learning institutions could resume. UCU staff like Ssenkubuge and Ayub can’t afford to wait.  While exploring options to support their own households, they seek to apply Christian principles to help others.

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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

Virus Lockdown: Foot journey in search of toothpaste

News, , , , , , , , ,


Central Uganda Namanve Train Station Market Day during COVID lockdown

By Douglas Olum

On a bright sunny Thursday afternoon in Mukono and on an aging, handcrafted papyrus couch under shade within our compound, I hear the cries and fight of playing children, including mine. They are just outside a wire fence, near a tomato garden and some buildings just a few meters from ours.

I wasn’t with them. It wasn’t because I didn’t care or because of concern regarding Ugandan social distance COVID-19 safety guidelines.  I listened to the voices of children without engaging because I was nursing joints, leg muscle and toe pains that would not allow me stretch out and walk easily. I was recovering from a six-hour on-foot journey to and from Mukono to Lugogo in Kampala to buy a tube of Colgate Pro Gum Health toothpaste.

Olum Douglas writing his story on phone at his home in Mukono

I walked the approximately 23km (14 miles) each way because the country’s pandemic orders have shut down public transportation.  No bodas.  No taxis. No private cars, which I don’t have anyway. Our first order was issued March 24.  It was extended twice – on April 22 and May 18.

Truth is, this was not the first I time walked that distance. Many times before the lockdown and with lack of funds – the 8,000 UGX for a boda ride and 3,000 UGX for a taxi – I have walked to Kampala for shopping and for study at the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Kampala Campus. I also remember one occasion when I walked a longer distance from Munyonyo in the Southern part of Kampala and back home after I had gone to interview an American source for a story.

This latest trip, the journey was more tiresome because my body had been in hibernation for close to two months during the lockdown, which had been ordered for a total of 63 days with the latest ending date of Monday, May 25.  Private cars were to be permitted and some shops opened on Tuesday, May 26, with public transport allowed on June 4, when the announcement about when schools will re-open is expected.

Foot travel during the lockdown is more stressful because of a 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. curfew.  Our President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni directed a ban on all forms of travel between those hours, except for trucks transporting food to the market. The week before, I narrowly escaped arrest because I was walking home at 7:17 p.m.

While my primary purpose of this trek was toothpaste, I also needed to meet with a journalist friend whom I had not seen for eight weeks. My friend and I had agreed to meet at the Lugogo branch of Café Javas to share experiences and brainstorm on post-lockdown story ideas. Besides, I was curious about how Ugandans outside my locality were treating the lockdown.

I had donned a sky-blue surgical mask. I was given two of them by a medical worker during the UCU Health Awareness week in February. But since then, I had only used one. And with its elastic strap coined around my ears and walking alone, I believed my health was protected.

During my long trek, here is some of what I saw:

  • Walking along a dusty road before I joined the tarmacked Jinja Road highway, I was puzzled at how boda-boda riders carried passengers when the Government banned them.
  • When I left the dusty road and took to the railway, I came across a Market Day at the Namanve Train Station. Traders in all tribes of items: clothes, shoes, jewelry, fresh cassava, maize, sweet potatoes, fish and so many others were crowded and not “social distancing” both along the walk-paths by the railway lines and the market area itself.
  • Youthful men were gathered under tree shades, conversing in loud voices without face masks on; women and girls without facial coverings were walking in groups, picking and trying on the items from one dealer to another. Occasionally, they would pull out a few notes or coins from their handbags and pay for the items they liked before moving on.
  • While locally made facemasks were visibly on sale everywhere, both the traders and their customers paid little attention to owning or wearing them. Those who had them either held the masks in their hands or wore them at their chins. That was, however, contrary to the practice at the supermarket where the workers remind those who put off their masks to put them on and properly.
  • Unlike the dusty road, the highway had several police and military checkpoints. Privately owned cars without the Ministry of Health stickers permitting them to drive during the lockdown, except for trucks, were stopped and impounded at those checkpoints. The Uganda Police Force has said that all impounded vehicles shall only be retrieved after the lockdown. Since the beginning of the lockdown, an unstated number of vehicles and motorcycles have been impounded, including those transporting sick persons and mothers in labor pain to the hospital.

I wondered how much Ugandans would be affected if COVID-19 ravaged our country like it has done in other parts of the world.

After shopping and my meeting, I set out to return to Mukono. Aware that security agencies start implementing curfew at 19:00 hours (7 p.m.), the return journey felt longer because the sun was going down fast. Thanks to my speed and resilience, and with the overpriced toothpaste in hand, I got home 3 minutes before the curfew time. Amidst the painful toes, muscles and joints, I know that my family’s oral health was sorted for a month or so before I may need a trip to Lugogo again. Maybe then I won’t need to walk to purchase it.

(Douglas Olum is a regular contributor for UCU Partners, which is sponsoring him for his master’s degree in strategic communications at the university.)

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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

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Christopher Mogal Muchwa narrates his story at Sts. Phillip and Andrew's Cathedral in Mukono

UCU Law student creates COVID-19 awareness application

COVID-19, Faculty of Engineering, Design & Technology, Students, UCU School of Law, , , , , , , ,


Christopher Mogal Muchwa narrates his story at Sts. Phillip and Andrew's Cathedral in Mukono
Christopher Mogal Muchwa narrates his story at Sts. Phillip and Andrew’s Cathedral in Mukono

(NOTE: On May 4, Uganda President Museveni announced a 14-day extension of the lockdown measures.  Adjustments from the previous order include that some businesses are allowed to operate and all persons must wear face coverings in public places. The ban on personal and public transport, as well as the curfew of 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. remain in effect at least through the middle of May. On May 7, there were 98 identified cases of the coronavirus in Uganda.)

By Douglas Olum

When Christopher Mogal Muchwa first heard about the COVID-19 outbreak in China from his Chinese friend, and the subsequent lockdown in Wuhan, the very city his friend lives in, he never thought the same would reach Uganda.  And he certainly never thought he would delve into technology related to the virus.

“My Chinese friend told me that they were not allowed to move out,” Muchwa recalled. “And if they wanted to take evening walks, they would only walk through the corridors and stairs of their apartment buildings, then return to their rooms.”

That, Muchwa thought months ago,“was impossible” for the country of Uganda.

But on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, when Uganda’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, directed the closure of schools and banned all forms of social gatherings including church and political rallies, Muchwa realized he was wrong.

A third-year student of Bachelor of Laws at Uganda Christian University (UCU), an orphan and only child to his late parents, Muchwa did not rush to his home in Lira, northern Uganda, like other students did when the university was officially closed on Friday, March 20. Instead, he went to live with a friend to his late mother, Mary Achoma, who resides in Mukono.

“I did not see the need to return to Lira because I would be all by myself, “ Muchwa said.

He started preparing for the UCU planned take-home examinations but the Government of Uganda stopped these. Muchwa found himself with time to think more about the world pandemic, particularly as it related to Uganda. In a traditional attorney/lawyer way of thinking, he wondered what was true and what was false; he wondered if others could use some help in sorting out the facts.

That’s when he got the idea for developing a free access mobile application to help share authentic information about COVID-19 among Ugandans.

“I knew that all the [Government] Ministries had websites, but most people do not visit those,” Muchwa said. “And many times they rely on social media information which may not be true. Someone can screen shoot a tweet by a Government official and edit the information, causing unnecessary panic among the public.”

Prior to the lockdown, Uganda already suffered from COVID-19 fake news. In late February, there emerged an allegation that two Chinese factory workers living in Seeta (Mukono) had tested positive with the Coronavirus, and that they had been put into isolation by the Ministry of Health. The Ministry denied that claim. Other rumors persisted.

Muchwa saw African IT specialists with his idea, but seeking funds to develop a more accessible, honest information tool.  While they waited, Muchwa moved ahead with his “COVID Guide.”

Screenshot of the COVID Guide application
Screenshot of the COVID Guide application

The application uses specific words, or “commands,” to derive and give replies to the user. Some of the command key words include: Ministry of Health (MoH), World Health Organization (WHO) and the names of all 134 districts of Uganda. It contains incorporated links to the Uganda’s Ministry of Health and World Health Organization websites which help one easily get up-to-date information about new cases, total number of infections in the country, quarantine centres, recoveries, risk groups, among other relevant information.

Other features of the COVID Guide are emergency helplines for the ministry and district COVID-19 taskforce.  Typing in the name of a district, even without Internet connection, brings the contact of the Resident District Commission of that district and his/her deputy. One can also use the same app to order a product from the market, especially Kampala markets, direct the dealer to put in on a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) and receive it from home.

Muchwa admits that in addition to his passion for law, he is an “IT geek.”  He is self taught, learning  a little from a cousin who is an IT specialist but also from YouTube videos.

Prior to building this app, Muchwa built the Law Library app sui-genris, through which law students access learning materials, including some books. He also built a hostel-booking app through which UCU students can check hostels around the university and book them even from a far. He built a website for the UCU Law Society and Bobics app, for a fast food business outside the university.

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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

Paul Mukhana, left, is a member of Mary’s “family,” helping others in time of need

‘COVID is bringing me a new way to minister’

COVID-19, Faculty, , , , , , , , , ,


Paul Mukhana, left, is a member of Mary’s “family,” helping others in time of need
Paul Mukhana, left, is a member of Mary’s “family,” helping others in time of need

By Mary Chowenhill

On a typical, sunny Ugandan day and in front of what most call the Thelma building but is soon to become the Uganda Christian University (UCU) business incubator on the Mukono campus, seven students and I got the news. They were telling me about their incubators – also known as business startups – related to piggeries, organic fertilizer, crocheted baby clothing and more. As their economics and entrepreneurship lecturer, I offered advice.

Then, we got the news of the lockdown, and everything changed.

Mary Chowenhill, left, before Ugandan distancing and lockdown guidelines
Mary Chowenhill, left, before Ugandan distancing and lockdown guidelines

I think that day was March 30.  But like most people living in the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, the exact date then and even the day of the week now escape me. I knew the coronavirus was spreading, including in my state of Florida in the USA.  Yet, I didn’t see it coming to Uganda or my small apartment where I have lived on the UCU campus for the past four years.

Within days, I watched thousands of university students, including mine, as well as half of the Americans living and working at UCU, pack up and leave.  Having recently sold my house in Florida and suffering from asthma, I felt it healthier for me to stay out of airplanes and remain here.

UCU offices are less than half full as Ugandan employees were ordered home and into isolation.

To the best of my knowledge while writing this on April 30, 2020, the deadly virus still isn’t here on the mile-long campus and in our houses, in my garden or on my patio. In fact, as I write, only 89 cases have been identified out of 39,000 tests administered in this country. It’s hardly in Uganda at all.

But the threat and precautionary measures are. And in Uganda, there are penalties for disobedience of such government regulations on social distancing, curfews, and taking public transportation. In addition to consequences of no income for people unable to go to work, there are government fines and imprisonment for disobedience.

In preparation for the inability to leave the campus, I immediately purchased 1.5 million shillings ($395 American) of food – something that the average Ugandan is not able to do. I divided beans, rice, posha, and sugar into various portions. My friend and gardener, Paul Mukhana, delivered these to many in greater need than me – a family with new twin babies, an elderly woman walking with a cane, among others.

Food purchased to help neighbors
Food purchased to help neighbors

When this ran out – and it did – I sent Paul to the market to get more.  He went to buy posha and other items for me and another customer.  Under Ugandan COVID guidelines, Paul was permitted to use his boda-boda (motorcycle) to pick up food.  But due to some misunderstanding and while he was inside the market, the local police confiscated his transportation.  Like many others who had their vehicles taken, he was required to pay 700,000 schillings ($184) to get it back legally or 200,000 shillings ($52) under the table.

It took two weeks, including prayer and a lesson about what Jesus thinks regarding bribery, to get Paul’s boda back.

The Christian love and human kindness of Ugandans, woven with the acceptance of a country fraught with bribes, is ever present in the COVID environment.

What has changed most is that my frenetic schedule of teaching economics and entrepreneurship and children’s Sunday school has ceased.  It has been replaced with solitude and church on my patio and from the computer with six children and eight adults. After our most recent “service,” we moved and sat six feet apart under a tree, discussing the meaning of loving each other as depicted in 1 John 4:7-12.

A neighbor named Ebenezer, age two and a half, wraps his arms around my knees. He doesn’t understand why he can’t cuddle on my lap.

While the campus is quiet, there are places we can’t walk because a few international students still living here violated the distancing rule.

Depression from change and isolation contributes to the lack of motivation to accomplish tasks I was never quite able to get around to but could now. Yet, COVID is bringing me to a new way to minister.

I have always had people who are not students as part of my Ugandan family.  But recently with students sent home, I am seeing more and more staff coming to my door. Some want to harvest greens from my garden. Some want a prayer. Most need a listener. Many need money for children’s school fees when that education returns.

It is an opportune time to teach people to fish.  Not a hand out but a hand up. It’s what I’m trained to do.

One worker cleans out bat feces – 7 sacks full – from between the ceiling and roof of three apartments, including mine.  I hire a man to fix my patio.  Grateful for the work, he writes “Hebrews 13” in one section and ”Praise God, Jesus Lives” on the cement in another.

God is allowing my brain to be relaxed while I see deeper how people are hurting.  Yesterday, I read Job 19. I know my redeemer lives. Is this easy?  No.  But it’s necessary. He will see us through.

Mary Chowenhill, a teacher in South Sudan until the war caused her evacuation, is a sponsored educator and missionary with the Society of Anglican of Missionaries and Senders (SAMS) and sponsors a student through UCU Partners. She hails from Jacksonville, Florida.

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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.

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Sarah Lagot Odwong, UCU graduate and USAID employee

COVID-19: Panic buying, added work from home, trusting God

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Sarah Lagot Odwong, UCU graduate and USAID employee
Sarah Lagot Odwong, UCU graduate and USAID employee

By Sarah Lagot Odwong

March 21st, 2020. 11:32 p.m. Uganda had its first identified case of COVID-19.

My mind buzzed with a thousand thoughts. Only weeks earlier, my siblings and I – with our own bills to pay – had emptied our savings to complete a large part of the construction work for my mother’s house. Because her life had been wrought with difficulty, it was always our dream to give her a place of rest.

There is no good time to be dirt poor, but having a bank account blinking red when a government shutdown is inevitable is the worst of times. Sleep eluded me.

I arose early on March 22. On my way to work, I noticed the unusual flurry of activity on the Kampala roads. The traffic was horrendous. Pedestrians trudged in silence on the pavements with swift gaits and downcast faces. The boda-bodas (motorcyclists) rode dangerously, swerving and wedging through the small crevices within the disorganized flow of traffic. It was a dystopian sight. I got into work in a pensive mood. I did not have much time to settle at my desk as a staff meeting was hurriedly called.

We sat hunched on white rickety plastic chairs in the parking yard. The chairs were spaced out from each other. Some staff wore masks. Others nervously tinkered with their phones.

Our boss announced, in part:

“As you all know, the first positive case of COVID-19 was confirmed last night. The grapevine alleges that the country will be in some sort of lock down. It will probably be announced later tonight when the President makes his address. I suggest that we share work plans with line managers and get all the resources we need to work from home…You will have your salaries in your bank accounts by this afternoon…”

At least some positive news. I got a notification from my bank at 1 p.m. that my account had been credited.

I picked up my bag, scampered to the car and drove to the nearest supermarket. I passed by the bank ATM at the premises, withdrew some cash and sauntered into the store. Inside, the panic buying had already ensued. There was a mad dash by shoppers. The queues stretched for miles. Shoppers’ trolleys were loaded with toilet paper, kitchen towels, soap, wipes and other hygiene products. Others heaped vegetables, milk, bread, cartons of beer, meat and liquor.

Only one big bag of rice remained. I grabbed it. I proceeded to pick up other dry rations, hygiene products and joined the snaking lines to pay prices that had increased tremendously in a matter of hours. Little bottles of sanitizer that were affordable a week earlier now cost almost ten times more. I bought just one.

Like anticipated, President Yoweri Museveni announced a lockdown of the country for an initial 14 days. After the two weeks lapsed, 21 additional days were added.

While fortunate to still have a job, my workload increased with hours extending from early morning to late at night. Not only do I have a full-time job, I also support the crisis communications for the epidemic response.

Before the outbreak, I was living out of suitcases, on the road for days and sometimes weeks at a time, working long hours. Now at home, my workload has ramped up even more. I jealously read texts in group chats from my girlfriends who suddenly find themselves with bursts of free time. They are learning new languages on Duolingo, learning to sew and evidently having an extended holiday off work.

Not me. I spend my days hunched at a desk in the living room with my pajamas on and my hair tied in a headscarf. I am writing, attending endless Zoom and Skype meetings, and tending to incessant phone calls.

What I have found hardest is the physical distance and inability to see family – both in Uganda and elsewhere. No travel on roads or in the air. We created a family chat group on WhatsApp, which helps my coping. Seeing videos of my nieces and nephews doing hilarious things, the new baby attempting to walk and other family milestones, I am reminded that there is hope after this plague blows over. And it will.

What precious time I have away from my computer, I am reminded to prioritize the things that really matter. Family, faith, friendships, love and personal development.  We waste time chasing the wind, like the writer of Ecclesiastes opines. The “busy” job, the career growth, and monetary gain. All of it is meaningless.

What this pandemic has shown is that when it is stripped down, life makes meaning with just the simple things. Healthy thriving relationships with God, family, friends and the people who love and support you. They will always be a constant. All the other material contraptions we chase fade away. This epiphany has made me change gear.

In what I hope are the final days of this lockdown, I have a different attitude and mindset. Going forth, I aim to structure my work to fit within regular hours. I aim to find more time to check on the people I love.

I am determined to create extra time to pursue my passion projects. I wrote a book during my undergraduate studies that I need to publish this year. I have autobiography projects that I must complete. I have a consulting business to grow. I have a PhD proposal to write. There are friends and family to check on. I have series of sermons to watch.

I have seen the Lord’s handiwork amidst this chaos. He has been faithful. There is no day I have slept hungry. I have a roof over my head. My utility bills are paid. I still have a job. When I feel overwhelmed, I remember that the creator of the universe knew me before I was formed in my mother’s womb. He had the foresight that I would go through this calamity. And he promised to help me weather it.

(Sarah Lagot Odwong is a graduate of Mass Communication from Uganda Christian University and received her Master’s degree in Humanitarianism and Conflict Response from The University of Manchester, England. She currently works for USAID’s Better Outcomes for Children and Youth Activity as the Communications Director.)

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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.

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Madonna waiting for her dad to come home from work

‘I can’t hug her the minute I get home’

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Madonna waiting for her dad to come home from work
Madonna waiting for her dad to come home from work

By Constantine Odongo
Emmanuella Madonna is three years old. Every weekday, after taking her after-school nap, the kindergarten pupil engages her friends in the neighbourhood in games, such as dodge ball and hide-and-seek.

That was before mid-March 2020 and COVID-19.

On March 18, she got an abrupt, indefinite school holiday after the Ugandan government announced a closure of schools and a ban on work, unless it was an essential service. The ban was to enforce the health guideline of social distancing and staying home to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has become a pandemic. Madonna now spends more time with her mother at home and keeps wondering why I, her father, cannot stay home with them.

Emmanuella Madonna studying from home
Emmanuella Madonna studying from home

As an employee of Uganda’s New Vision newspaper (i.e. news jobs are considered essential), it means I’m gone much of the day and conceivably more exposed to the potentially deadly virus.

Madonna doesn’t get that. She doesn’t understand why I can’t hug her the minute I get home between 6:45 and 7 p.m.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni on March 30, 2020, announced a two-week stay-home order and capped it with a 11.5-hour curfew from 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. The order and the curfew were then extended by another three weeks.

Since, most times, the normal working hours at my office are not enough for me to accomplish my tasks, I often work up to the 11th hour.  My workplace, being a media house, is open 24 hours. But, nowadays, the newsroom is almost empty, save for security personnel, especially past 6 p.m. People abandon office early, in order to get home and beat the curfew time of 7 p.m.

It usually takes me up to 25 minutes to cover the 14km (8.5 miles) distance from my office located in the capital of Uganda, Kampala, to home in Kawempe, a city suburb. I spend close to half of that time at roadblocks, trying to explain to security why my media movement permit sticker is on the dashboard and not on the car screen.  Some motorists had lost their outside car stickers to thieves, who would pluck them off cars and sell them in the black market in Kampala, sometimes as high as one million shillings (about $280).

As I arrive home after work and oftentimes after the routine security interrogation, I see Madonna run to arms she can’t yet embrace – until I am cleansed of possible contamination to her and others in my family. I watch a fight brewing between Madonna and her nanny, who is seven times her age, but understands her job to keep a daughter from her dad in the world of COVID fear. I always ensure I bathe as soon as I arrive home, before getting into contact with anything or anyone, so that I do not become a conduit for the coronavirus.

Every morning, if Madonnna wakes up before I set off for work, she tries her luck in convincing me not to go to work that day. When President Museveni banned public and private cars from the roads on March 30, I carried my computer home and set up myself to work there. However, an unstable Internet network, an unfavorable work station and distractions by children hindered my ability to work.

Madonna’s sibling, Morgan, will be making one year on May 5. Throughout the day, I arbitrated disputes between her and Morgan. April 1 was day two of my full operation from home. We were both at our workstations, Madonna’s about two metres (6 feet) away from mine. When I stepped away from the room to receive a phone call, Madonna removed a keyboard key.

Madonna’s grandmother, a lady she was named after, lives and teaches in a primary school in Tororo district, located 220 kilometers (136.5 miles), east of Kampala. One-and-a-half weeks before the lockdown, schools were closed. Initially, teachers saw joy in the holiday. But it was short lived as they experienced more than one negative aspect of the lockdown.

Constantine Odongo
Constantine Odongo

The weekend after schools had been closed, as one example, Madonna’s grandmother attended a funeral in Tororo, without knowing that she and some friends were going against the guidelines of the Ministry of Health – that only close family members bury the dead due to social distancing. There were water points for the mourners to wash their hands before getting to the funeral, but not many even understood why the water and soap had been provided.

Such stories justify why the Government enlisted the services of the security forces to enforce the observance of the lockdown guidelines. I remind myself of this each time I am stopped. Life as we know it has changed for Madonna and me. With God’s guidance and understanding, we will appreciate the fruits of the difference and get through it.

(Constantine Odongo is a deputy chief sub-editor for New Vision. He received an MA degree in Journalism and Media Studies from Uganda Christian University.)

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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.

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Journalists Paddy Nsobya of Bukedde newspaper, Samuel Sanya of New Vision and John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University in an April 20 meeting to strategize for the post COVID-19 period in Mukono District, Uganda. (Courtesy photo from Samuel Sanya)

Coronavirus pandemic has reshaped me into a better person

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Journalists Paddy Nsobya of Bukedde newspaper, Samuel Sanya of New Vision and John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University in an April 20 meeting to strategize for the post COVID-19 period in Mukono District, Uganda. (Courtesy photo from Samuel Sanya)
Journalists Paddy Nsobya of Bukedde newspaper, Samuel Sanya of New Vision and John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University in an April 20 meeting to strategize for the post COVID-19 period in Mukono District, Uganda. (Courtesy photo from Samuel Sanya)

By John Semakula

When governments in Europe and the United States came up with altruistic measures to help their citizens during the Coronavirus lockdown, in Uganda, we were left to fend for ourselves.

Despite the fact that the majority of Ugandans live hand to mouth and expected help from government during the lockdown, a selected few received food items. Many communities, including mine, were forced to mobilise ourselves to help the most vulnerable like the elderly, the poor and children in child-headed families. This experience has reshaped my personality and worldview.

For a video showing food distribution in Uganda, click here

Before the lockdown, I did not care much about community. If I had food on my table, I was mindless about the needy in the community; someone always did that job anyway.

John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University
John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University

However, the lockdown has molded me into a better person. I have learned to share with others and be keen about what goes on in my community. When the government of Uganda declared a partial lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 17, I plunged into thoughts about how my family would go through it. I stay with seven relatives in Mukono town, central Uganda.

Although I am a salaried employee at Uganda Christian University, the lockdown was abrupt and yet the situation required that I should help close family members whose incomes were affected by the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. Some of them operated casual businesses that had to close.

However, as I was still lost in thought, wondering what to do, I received a call from my father in the village offering us food from his garden. This has turned out to be our lifeline. Whenever we run out of food, I send a motorist to collect from my dad.

This kindness from my father has helped not only my siblings and me but also some of my neighbors. My siblings and I had to share the little we get from dad and the meager monetary resources I had saved up before the lockdown. My father has taught me an invaluable lesson in adulthood and I had to reciprocate his kindness.

I have also seen hundreds of other Ugandans donate food, cash and other critical items to the coronavirus national taskforce that was set up by the government to receive financial and food aid from members of the public for distribution to the most vulnerable. This was uncommon before the outbreak of the pandemic. I have discovered that Ugandans are a good people and that if we had been helping one another before, we would have been a better society.

I have also had to help several of my neighbors who need small cash handouts to feed and support their families in other ways during the lockdown.

On Tuesday April 14, a father of six including a pair of twins came to me at 8 p.m. to ask for a loan of $6. He said, “…if you do not help me out today, my family will go without food for the next three days…” I was forced to surrender part of my week’s small budget to him.

Within less than a week, on April 19, another neighbor, who had a patient at a nearby hospital, also asked me for a favor of sh40, 000 ($12) to transfer him for specialised treatment to another facility. I gave it to him out of sympathy. Before the Coronavirus pandemic, he worked in Kame Valley Market in Mukono town and like other traders, the lockdown has rendered him helpless.

Although markets are allowed to operate, only those trading in food items are allowed to work, the rest of traders like my neighbor, have to close.  That is how my life has changed during the lockdown. But I thank God who has been merciful to my family because we are still alive when thousands of others around the world have succumbed to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, since the University where I work shut down on March 17, I have been operating from home, preparing for the reopening and the next semester. I am also going through students’ research proposals and internship reports. In addition, I am taking this time to come up with and bounce off different COVID-19 related research ideas with colleagues; hopefully we will have a research paper at the end of the year.

I see light at the end of the tunnel.

But the Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown have taught me a lot of lessons in life that will remain fresh on my memory until death. I have never seen people the world-over suffer and die at this rate. I also have learned that in Africa we survive by the mercy of God. I will continue to exalt Him as the most supreme.

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John Semakula is the supervisor of The Standard newspaper under the Faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication at Uganda Christian University (UCU).  He is a UCU graduate of Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and Masters of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies.  

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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.

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Frank Obonyo holds Keren, his daughter, who he features in the article. Other family members are the writer’s wife, Cathryn, and children, Adonai and Ezekiel.

COVID-19: Ugandan father makes good out of the season

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Frank Obonyo holds Keren, his daughter, who he features in the article. Other family members are the writer’s wife, Cathryn, and children, Adonai and Ezekiel.
Frank Obonyo holds Keren, his daughter, who he features in the article. Other family members are the writer’s wife, Cathryn, and children, Adonai and Ezekiel.

By Frank Obonyo

Keren: Daddy, why does Coronavirus have many names?

Me: Which ones?

Keren: Corona, COVID-19, Coronavirus…

Keren, age 3, is my youngest of three children. We – my wife, Cathryn, and our children Adonai, age 9, Ezekiel, 6, and Keren – live in Kirowoza, Mukono, Uganda.  As I write this on Easter in April 2020, the deadly virus has not reached our village. But word about it has, including to a three-year-old.

Children ask questions. Lots of awesome questions. If deeply thought about, their intricate inquiries make a lot of sense. They wonder why things are the way they are.

Our three-year-old is excessively talkative and inquisitive. I recall one such time when she asked: “Does Jesus have a house in my stomach?” We previously told her that Jesus lives in us. Instead of figuratively about the spirit of Christ, our youngest took this literally.

It was during an evening walk with Keren that the COVID questions came. When I later went to bed and recollected what happened in the day, Keren’s question made actual sense. To think about it, COVID-19 is like a maze.

Multiple names are part of the maze as we weave through additional questions related to isolation, lifestyle changes, overall confusion and then how what is taking place now relates to other experiences that we have had.

Africans are connected to nature. It feeds us and shelters us but we also link it to natural occurrences. Locusts –those swarming, tropical grasshoppers – eat up vegetation including crops, leaving people in terrible famine. A child born during a locust invasion is called “Obonyo,”which is part of my name and my identity. The naming of this child, or me, is symbolic. It reminds the community about the dreadful disaster.

The Northern Uganda Luo speaking group refers to the insect invasion as “bonyo.” The Luo are one of East Africa’s largest ethnic groups.

In this season, Coronavirus seems to have touched the climate as well. Our weather is either dry or wet, and April is a rainy month. However, the sun is now baking green leaves bone-dry, sprinkling our heads with grayish dust and we have no option but to survive this life indoors, behind closed shutters. It is the government’s “distancing” and “sheltering” orders (expanded for another three weeks from the two-week curfew that ended April 14).

What is more exceptional is that the desert locusts swarmed Uganda just a few months ago. The two tragedies seemed to have agreed to attack us one after another. These somewhat haphazard observations may give a fair idea of what our country is like.

Life, I must admit, is ugly for us as it must seem to others around the world in this COVID-19 pandemic environment. We are accustomed to routine. Wake up, get to work, come back home, sleep.

This has changed. It is now bedroom to living room, kitchen to compound; that is the cycle. We miss out on social life, working together and even as a community, mourning the death of someone. In Uganda, life is about meeting friends, extended family, workmates. Men, for example, reserve Saturday and Sunday to watch English premier league games, children have school assignments, and mothers go shopping. We go out to church together.

We now hear and live two words: Stay home.

I admire Keren and her two brothers for how they adapt.  They remind me of Jesus’ teachings about humility. He said that we should humble ourselves like little children if we are to enter the Kingdom of God. If we are to live happily, we ought to live like children. And not worry.

My children do not worry about the bills, the next meal. If they have parents around them, food and accommodation, they have it all. They go forward, no matter what. There is very little fear. Children do not worry about the virus or a lockdown. They are focused on being themselves; they have an insatiable curiosity. It is not about missing the old life. It is about onward and upward. Children adapt quickly, and perhaps that is why they live happier lives. My children wake up, play, eat, and are happy to see us around.

The truth is, for adults accustomed to routines outside of parenting, spending more time with children can get complicated and chaotic. Lots of laundry, playing the role of a judge, answering why COVID-19 has many names…

I am using this season break from work and post-graduate studies to help my children improve in their reading skills and understand who they are in God. I read with them the adventures of Mr. Hare. This folklore revolves around the cunning Mr. Hare, who, though in small stature, employs his wisdom and tricks to outmaneuver bigger opponents and always takes the prize home. The stories are packed with humor and life lessons. We also study the Bible; April is the month of the book of Ephesians.

I am making good out of the season, as there will be others.

Frank Obonyo is a Communications Officer at Uganda Christian University(UCU), an MA graduate in literature from UCU and an MA Digital Journalism fellow at the Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya.

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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.

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Teenager Jada Nicole Just engages in Uganda schooling remotely from her South Carolina, USA, home

BEFORE COVID-19: African American teen experiences Uganda

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Teenager Jada Nicole Just engages in Uganda schooling remotely from her South Carolina, USA, home
Teenager Jada Nicole Just engages in Uganda schooling remotely from her South Carolina, USA, home

(This is the second of two stories UCU Partners is featuring about American teens living in Uganda.)

By Douglas Olum and Patty Huston-Holm

At 1 a.m. on a Tuesday, 14-year-old Jada Nicole Just climbs out of her Charleston, S.C., bed to begin school – on-line and facilitated from Uganda, Africa, where it’s seven hours later. From her laptop, she takes her first class focused on the Bible and beamed out from Heritage International School, Kampala, where the time is 8 a.m.  Except for COVID-19, Jada would be there with new friends from around the world.

“We literally had days to pack up and get back to the States,” her mom, Ladavia, said of the coronavirus exit she did with Jada and two younger daughters in March 2020.

South Carolina 14-year-old Jada in Uganda
South Carolina 14-year-old Jada in Uganda

The night before the flight out from Entebbe was bittersweet as Jada had a goodbye sleepover with Heritage school friends from Finland, Kenya and Uganda. She was excited to return home to her life in South Carolina and to her friends, her dad and her dog there, but had grown to love much about Uganda. Experiences with African food, wildlife and even getting around chaotic streets are opportunities that few American teenagers receive or are even bold enough to try.

In the summer of 2019, Jada, then age 13, left South Carolina for her first trip to Africa. Her mom received a Fulbright opportunity to teach and lead pharmacy-related projects through Uganda Christian University’s School of Medicine. With anxious uncertainty, the girls went along. They made Uganda home and were comfortably settled in their school when they learned they needed to leave. With almost six months left, Ladavia’s Fulbright was suspended by a U.S. Embassy directive, forcing their exit from Uganda.

Jada is still processing her time in Uganda. She recalls her first long trip – nearly 7,500 miles over two days – to East Africa.  She had never before been overseas.

There was a stop in Brussels, which was her first time in Europe. Next, there was a landing in the dark at the Entebbe airport, followed by a car trip with a flat tire and two hours to fix it in darkness before arriving at a small Ntinda apartment in northeastern Kampala with no water pressure for showers. While exhausted, sleep did not come easily as there was a first encounter with nighttime Uganda mosquitoes. The sometimes-malaria-carrying insects were surprisingly smaller but nevertheless more frightening than the ones in South Carolina.

Daylight revealed disorganized traffic jams with motorcycles over dusty roads, cars and taxis with seemingly no driver guidelines, women carrying bananas in baskets on their heads, cows and goats without enclosures, skinny wandering dogs and dirty pelicans eating from piles of trash.  While observing these stark contrasts to the landscape and more-orderly life in Charleston, Jada and her family discovered there also were American-like places such as Café Javas with cheeseburgers and salads and Acacia Mall with its ice cream, book stores and a movie theatre.

Trips to the zoo allowed an up-close look at ostriches and zebras. Game parks enabled the family to see lions, primates, giraffes and hippos in their natural habitat. There was a chase by Uganda’s national bird, the Crested Crane, and a frightening but unforgettable, nighttime trip across the Nile while hippos moved dangerously close by their tiny boat.  Monkeys of different species roamed the trees seemingly everywhere.

“Sometimes, we picked jack fruit from a tree in our compound,” Jada recalled.  “We didn’t need to ask permission. It was just there, very sweet and good.”  Other regular foods were beans, rice, samosas and an egg-like treat called rolex.

Despite the time difference, the teenager kept in touch with Charleston friends via social media when there was a connection and electricity.  Uganda power outages sometimes necessitated earlier bedtimes and subsequent earlier wake times to finish homework before school each day.

The weather in Kampala was surprisingly similar to that in South Carolina except that despite Uganda’s location on the equator, the air was cooler. The friendliness of the Uganda culture was another pleasant surprise.

“People here don’t take offense when you stare at them; they smile back a lot,” she said. “And for the first time as an African American, I was living in a culture where everybody looked like me.  They just didn’t speak like me.”

Uganda has many tribal languages with the most common around the capital city being Luganda.

After getting over the nervousness that comes with starting high school in another country, Jada feels very prepared as she approaches her sophomore year in the United States. She’s become particularly fond of French, a language that is taught at Heritage beginning in kindergarten. But her favorite subject there was Physics. She has also grown in appreciation of her home in the United States.

“Although we can’t travel much now because of virus restrictions, I value that we have roads with no pot holes, and I’m not so picky about what I eat here,” she said.

Will she go back to Uganda?

“Not soon,” Jada said.  “But, yes, I want to go back some day.”

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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.

COVID-19: What $40 a night in quarantine teaches you

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Alex Taremwa doing an on-line class via Zoom.

(During this unprecedented time of the COVID-19 pandemic, UCU Partners will be publishing stories about how UCU-connected Ugandans and Americans are coping.  This is the first of several accounts.)

By Alex Taremwa

In my shared apartment, Guma Jeremiah storms in from work. I call him the “diplomat extraordinaire” because he works for the Ugandan Foreign Service based in Nairobi. Panting is not Guma’s usual demeanour, and I can sense the haste and unease in this voice – evidently, he is scared.

“Have you watched the news yet?” he asks.

I send my hand for the remote and switch to NTV Kenya. The authorities are confirming what we feared the most – Kenya’s first Corona Virus Disease (COVID)-19 case – a 27-year-old female who had travelled in on March 5 from Chicago in the United States with a connect flight that went through London in the United Kingdom.  Both the USA and the UK were flagged high risk by my country, Uganda.

What followed was silence, then a unanimous decision that shopping essential supplies was paramount. The supermarket in our affluent neighbourhood of Kileleshwa, Kasuku Centre, is often less congested but this particular afternoon, it was as if people went out at the same time to shop. The place was filled to the brim – forcing some prices to shoot up.

At the counter was a Chinese man whose tray was mostly occupied by bathroom tissue paper – enough to cover him for two months or more. I can’t tell if it was the four-metre (up to 13 feet) social distancing recommendation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or his nationality that is associated with the genesis of the novel Coronavirus, but other panic shoppers gave him more than the deserved distance accompanied with a rare stare. I shopped for beef, bread, soap and groceries. Philip, my other housemate, sent for some alcohol.

“If I have to die, I don’t want to meet God sober,” he joked. He is terrified by face-to-face interactions.

Kenya’s announcement on March 13, 2020, was a wakeup call for Uganda. The virus that supposedly didn’t affected “blacks” or “Africans” as previously assumed had touched base in the region. When I first posted the update on my social media, the first responses I received were asking if the victim was White or Black. Around the East African region, Rwanda, the DR Congo and South Sudan announced cases. Uganda, in the middle, was now sandwiched with cases in all directions.

The next move for President Yoweri Museveni was simple, at least according to the opinion of most Ugandans I interacted with: Close the borders and stop all flights. They didn’t care that out of those borders were other Ugandans like myself – students, expats, parents – who wanted to return to their families. It looked imminent that the President, being the populist that he is, would heed to this pressure. He didn’t.

Instead, the president announced mandatory quarantine for all returning citizens – especially those from “Category One” countries that had more than 1,000 cases confirmed. This was my window to come home. Folks on the “Ugandans in Nairobi” WhatsApp group that I created agreed that if we waited, we would be locked out.

And so, I packed ready for quarantine – normally a 14-day absence from the physical scene but present on social media. Living in Uganda though, where we pay tax for being on social media, it is possible to be absent on both scenes.

The journey home
At Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), I met a one Alex Kawalya. He had spent the night at the airport because he had run out of money to hop onto the next flight. He had just sold his phone to one of the airport staff to get a seat aboard Kenya Airways to Uganda where he wished for a miracle if he was to afford the $100 price per night in Entebbe Central Inn Hotel where government was quarantining returning citizens for 14 days.

Stories of returning Ugandans being herded like sheep by the army to the hotel were sickening. Women and children slept in lobbies and the government would have nothing of the “I am a student on scholarship in Kenya and I can’t afford $100 a night” talk.  Like Kawalya, I boarded KQ 412 at 11 a,m., not knowing what fate awaited me at Entebbe International Airport – but I boarded anyway.

It was the only one of the few flights heading to Kampala and from the look of things, one of the last ones as Jambo Jet, Fly Sax, and even Uganda Airlines were no longer plying the EBB-NAI route – a real catch 22 situation. You’re not wanted at home, but you cannot stay where you are.

Uganda confirmed her first case on Saturday, March 21, after I had been in the country for a few hours.  The victim, looking feverish, was a Ugandan coming from Dubai and had flown in at 2 a.m. aboard Ethiopian Airlines. Having just flown in and in the process had interacted with another Dubai returnee, the pressure mounted. Even when I wasn’t put in institutional quarantine, I felt sickish. I volunteered Kawalya’s name to the Ministry of Health for testing and he did well.

Life in Quarantine
On March 26 and from my self-quarantine hole at Kisubi Forest Cottages in Entebbe, where I am writing this, Uganda has 14 COVID-19 cases. President Museveni closed the airport and borders soon after and has since closed public transport, churches, markets (except for food stuffs). And as of today (March 26), all the 104 tested samples of suspected cases had turned up negative. From this hole, I keep my family updated about my health at all times. Occasionally, I go out, watch the stars and feed the mosquitoes – they are really hungry.

I have to cough up $40 a night to keep my family and country safe but with the stories of people bribing their way out of quarantine, others not staying home as required and thousands who have to be forced to wash their hands with soap – I am not sure if my sacrifice will make any difference.

One of the new cases is a father who travelled from Kisumi, Kenya, by bus and ended up infecting his 8-month-old baby. My conscience tells me that feeding mosquitoes is much safer that infecting innocent people. When I finally get out of this place on April 3, these mosquitoes will surely miss me.

Alex Taremwa is a graduate of Uganda Christian University, a journalist and Masters Fellow at the Graduate School of Media and Communications, Aga Khan University. 

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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.

UCU Nursing students Babirye Tamara Peace and Kakooza Abdul Wahabu practice a birth simulation with “Baby Nicole.”

Uganda Christian University launches master’s in midwifery program

Faculty, Faculty of Public Health, Nursing and Midwifery, News, UCU School of Medicine, , , , , , , ,


UCU Nursing students Babirye Tamara Peace and Kakooza Abdul Wahabu practice a birth simulation with “Baby Nicole.”
UCU Nursing students Babirye Tamara Peace and Kakooza Abdul Wahabu practice a birth simulation with “Baby Nicole.”

Uganda Christian University (UCU) is launching a new program – a master’s course in midwifery and women’s health – under its School of Medicine. At the request of UCU Partners, Ugandan writer Constantine Odongo had a chat with Elizabeth Namukombe Ekong, a lecturer in the medical school’s nursing department. What follows is some of this conversation related to the new program. 

What programs are under the department of nursing?
We have undergraduate and master’s programs in the department. In the Bachelor of Nursing Science, which began in 2006, we have two entry points – nurses with diploma, but want to get bachelors; and the direct entry right from S6 (high school graduation). The completion program takes three years for nurses already experienced, while the other entry takes four years. The master’s in nursing started in 2008. We are now introducing the master’s in midwifery and women’s health.

Students Kiribata Dorothy, Bagenda Isaac, and Mbulaka Remmy Allan with a practice plastic baby as part of their training in the UCU nursing program.
Students Kiribata Dorothy, Bagenda Isaac, and Mbulaka Remmy Allan with a practice plastic baby as part of their training in the UCU nursing program.

When does the new course start?
In 2017, the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) approved our curriculum, but we have not had the personnel the NCHE insisted on. They insisted on staff with master’s degrees in midwifery, yet most of us have masters in nursing. We have been looking around for personnel. The challenge we have had is that in Uganda, only one university has been offering this course, so not many people have the skill set that NCHE required. The other challenge is many people who opt to pursue master’s degree studies are already established somewhere else. So, it is not for us to uproot them from their already set systems. There are some people who have expressed interest, so the university actually put up advertisements in January, calling for people to apply for the position of lecturer in midwifery. As this year (2020) is the Year of the Nurse and Midwife (designated by the World Health Assembly under the World Health Organization in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale), it is appropriate that UCU starts the master’s in midwifery. 

Which people are you working with to ensure that the program kicks off?
We are trying to put up a team as NCHE recommended. The other thing is we have partners who are professors with PhDs in midwifery and are willing to come and teach and also offer online interactions, since the program design is a modular one. We have two professors from the United States – one from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and another from Bethel University in Minnesota. They are ready to start the teaching in May, if we have set our intake to start and we have finally got the required number of students, the personnel and the clearance from NCHE. We are making arrangements for the professors to come and make the physical preparations.  We expect the face-to-face teaching to happen three times a year. 

Elizabeth Namukombe Ekong, nursing lecturer
Elizabeth Namukombe Ekong, nursing lecturer

Who helped you design the curriculum for the midwifery master’s course?
We developed it from a prototype curriculum that was designed from a program by the East, Central and South African College of Nursing (ECSACON). The ECSACON prototype is the same that many universities in the region use to develop their curriculum. We undertook a study to review the status of midwifery in the region and established that there was a need to provide a platform for the existing midwifery cadres to upgrade their skills at master’s level. When developing the curriculum, some of the areas the study looked at is the number of midwives in the country, the mortality rates, etc. From the ECSACON prototype curriculum, we developed ours for the master’s course, with assistance from colleagues in the UK. When we were satisfied that it was ready, we passed it through the approval process up to the university Senate and the NCHE. With the approval in 2017, it meant that the moment we get the relevant personnel with a master’s degree in midwifery, we would be ready to start.

What achievements has the nursing department registered?
We have developed skilled competent and dependable nurses with the passion and faith to render services across the continent, but also offer leadership. Our graduates have been absorbed in different institutions, both state and non-state and the feedback we get about their conduct is encouraging. We have had collaborations with facilities where we send our students for placement, like Uganda-China Friendship Hospital Naguru, the hospitals of Nsambya, Mulago, Butabika, Jinja referral and many others.

Some of our students are Assistant District Health Officers, and some are in charge of medical facilities and in other leadership positions in hospitals. Others are working at the Ministry of Health.

What is in the curriculum for the midwifery master’s program that you are soon launching?
The curriculum is designed with two tracks: Education and Practice as the program prepares educators and practitioners We have areas of midwifery education, which involves teaching and learning, curriculum development, measurement and evaluation; we also have an area on research and statistics. We have another area of midwifery leadership courses and management, so our students are able to graduate with better management and leadership skills.

There are foundation science courses like pathophysiology, pharmacology, and advanced health assessment in maternal and infant care. Other profession-based foundation courses offer an opportunity for the students to learn theories in nursing/midwifery, together with advanced courses in normal and abnormal midwifery. With other partner universities both here in Uganda and beyond, we share courses to do with cultural diversity, trends and issues in midwifery, neonatal and women’s health. Students also go for an international module (internship) to strengthen their teaching approaches and clinical experiences.

The students also take selected courses in advanced clinical practice from areas of their desired specialty in maternal and child health. Health care systems is another course taught to enable students understand the major elements, dynamics, determinants and organizational themes in public health, policy issues and health financing.

How have you taken care of the developments in information and communications technology as far as your course is concerned?
We intend not to leave our graduates behind as far as information and communications technology is concerned. We have lined up a course in informatics, which involves the application of technology in what they learn. We expect to take the students through online healthcare packages, how they can remotely follow up on patients and network with the online medical ecosystem in order to know a patient’s medical history and other things.

Many women, especially those in rural areas, still opt for traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to deliver them, citing harassment from midwives. What is your department doing to reverse this phenomenon?
We always emphasize professional ethics and Christian values in our students and that is why we have faith-based and foundation courses to see how virtues of the respect for one’s work is instilled and how the students ought to relate with their clients. In the midwifery curriculum, for instance, we have integrated Christian worldview to help students relate and handle our clients from a Christian perspective.

Why should we separate nursing from midwifery? Would it be better to equip the students with both skills, so the medical field gets multi-skilled professionals?
At UCU, the Bachelor of Nursing Science teaches concepts of both nursing and midwifery, just like the undergraduate course, which teaches medicine and surgery. The specialization occurs only at post-graduate level. That said, there are universities that offer bachelor’s degrees in midwifery. It’s also important to note the difference between the work of a midwife and a nurse. A midwife’s work involves care for women and families whereas a nurse is involved with the general health of everyone. Midwives focus on women, children, pregnant women, reproductive health issues and educating the community about the same. 

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To support this Uganda Christian University program and others as well as students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.

Fulbright Professor David Hodge with wife and daughters on the Uganda Christian University, Mukono, campus

Arizona professor lives his research dream in Uganda

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Fulbright Professor David Hodge with wife and daughters on the Uganda Christian University, Mukono, campus
Fulbright Professor David Hodge with wife and daughters on the Uganda Christian University, Mukono, campus

By Benezeri Wanjala

Relaxing at his new home-away-from-home on the leafy, expansive Uganda Christian University (UCU) in Mukono, American Professor David Hodge talked about his life. He is a social worker, researcher and teacher. He is married to Crystal, and they have two daughters, Esther and Rachael, ages 15 and 12.

A lecturer of Social Work at Arizona State University in Phoenix, USA, he’s here for a year – through June 2020 – as a Fulbright Scholar, he says. His specialty is spirituality and religion.

As we chatted, Mrs. Hodge offered me a beverage. Their children were away at school.

David Hodge
David Hodge

Hodge outlined the process of obtaining the scholarship: “When you apply for a Fulbright, you have to come up with some sort of plan that you will execute. Then you go through an extensive review process, which is evaluated by external reviewers who decide whether it is a good fit or something they want to support.”

He teaches a Master’s in Social Work class at the UCU Kampala campus. The program classes are condensed into three days – Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This arrangement is typical for advanced degrees, he says, because it enables students to work during the rest of the days in a week. His particular class in religion and spirituality takes place on Thursday evenings.

However, teaching is one of two components of his yearlong Fulbright scholarship. The second is research. He is developing tools and approaches to help social workers tap into clients’ spiritual strengths. His research project involves making the tools “consistent and congruent with Ugandan culture.” The research tools are qualitative in nature, as opposed to quantitative.

“I will take the questions and approaches, and I’ll ask social workers how I can make them more consistent with cultural norms,” he says. His previous writings have evolved around Christianity, Islamism, Hinduism and some indigenous tribal religions.

“My career has been focused on helping social workers work with clients’ spiritual and religious strengths in an ethical and professional manner,” he continued. “My academic work pretty much all revolves around spirituality, religion and culture.”

He obtained his PhD from one of the most respected schools of Social Work in the United States, the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Thereafter, he did post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2005, he joined Arizona State University, one of America’s largest universities. Ten years later, he became a full professor. He also served as head of the PhD program for six years before stepping down to pursue the Fulbright scholarship opportunity. The Fulbright at UCU was attractive because of the East African reputation for spirituality.

“It is a faith-based school and its mission is to achieve excellence in the heart of Africa,” he says.  “When you look at the demographic data, Sub-Saharan Africa is the most spiritual and religious geographic area in the world. For my work, you can’t think of a better environment.”

Additionally, Hodge has found fascination in the food, wildlife and other cultural aspects of Uganda.

“There are all kinds of monkeys that jump around in the compound and on the roof,” he remarks with a smile. “We don’t have that in America. The monkeys there are in zoos. Here they are out swinging in trees. So I took some pictures and sent them to my parents, and they found it interesting.”

He has enjoyed all the Ugandan food he has tasted so far.

“I haven’t had rolex yet, though,” he admits. Rolex is a Ugandan street delicacy, composed of eggs wrapped into a bread called chapatti.  He says he likes the vegetables in particular and he buys them from the local market.

He also likes the weather. “You can have your windows open all the time. That’s a real luxury. In Arizona, it’s desert. It goes as high as 40 and 50 degrees Celsius during the summer. In the winter it goes down to close to zero.”

The transition to Uganda has not been without challenges. While they have made new friends, his daughters are finding it slightly harder to adapt, especially at school. They study at an International School, which is on the Northern Bypass of Kampala and involves a lengthy transport time from their home on the main UCU campus in Mukono.

“They had only been to one school their whole life before they came to Uganda,” he said. “They have to go to bed very early and wake up early as well. I am lucky because I only need to go to Kampala once a week.”

Land transportation in Uganda is a challenge for the entire family. Hodge and is wife do not have international driver’s licenses. Traffic jams are commonplace while traffic lights and drivers with licenses for the cars, taxis and motorcycles are not.

He has found the difference in the standards of time interesting. While Americans are extremely time conscious, Ugandans are not.

“My Ugandan friend says, ‘People from the West check their watches for the time, but Ugandans have the time’.”

He continued: “The way I look at it is different. People prioritize values differently. For example, Americans tend to prioritize efficiency over relationships. Ugandans prioritize relationships over efficiency. Societies are structured differently. And that’s one of the things I like about Ugandans. They are warm and friendly, but that means when you’re talking to someone, you might not be able to make it for your next meeting. It’s hard to optimize all your values simultaneously.”

Prof. Hodge is looking forward to the rest of his time in Uganda, both professionally and personally.

“On the personal end, I am looking forward to learning more about the Ugandan culture,” he said. “And I’d like to see some of the wonderful sites in the country like Lake Victoria and the source of the River Nile.”

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For more of these stories and experiences surrounding Uganda Christian University, visit https://www.ugandapartners.org. If you would like to support UCU, contact Mark Bartels, Executive Director, UCU Partners, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org or go to https://www.ugandapartners.org/donate/

Also follow and like our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.

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The Just family – Jason and Ladavia; Jada, 14; twins Jamie and Jael, who recently turned 9.

God nudges South Carolina pharmacist to UCU medical school service

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The Just family – Jason and Ladavia; Jada, 14; twins Jamie and Jael, who recently turned 9.
The Just family – Jason and Ladavia; Jada, 14; twins Jamie and Jael, who recently turned 9.

(The Fulbright Program is designed to improve intercultural relations, diplomacy and competence between people in the United States and other countries. This is the first of three stories about American Fulbright Scholars serving with Uganda Christian University.)

By Patty Huston-Holm

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

Uprooting from a developed to developing country shouldn’t be an overnight decision.  For Dr. Ladavia Just of North Charleston, South Carolina, it wasn’t.

Sitting barefooted in her Kampala, Uganda, home while her three children were in their new school and juggling phone messages about her husband’s American-to-Uganda air travel snafus, she reflected on her path across the ocean to serve with Uganda Christian University (UCU).  The three-year discernment journey started in February 2016 with UCU’s Vice Chancellor, the Rev. Canon Dr. John. Senyonyi, visiting South Carolina. This connection was followed by Ladavia’s two exploratory trips to Uganda before a Fulbright Scholarship award to do nine months of work related to Dr. Ladavia’s expertise in pharmacy.

Ladavia Just
Ladavia Just

Dr. Just is teaching pharmacology courses for second-year students at the UCU School of Medicine that is located within Kampala’s Mengo Hospital. She also has been tasked with helping to lay the foundation for a new pharmacy program at UCU’s School of Medicine. In addition, she will conduct research assessing the feasibility of increasing access to heath care using telemedicine in refugee settlements.

“When I look at the needs of Ugandans, the list is overwhelming,” she said. “I wondered how I could possibly have made a ripple of an impact. Now as I consider the fact that I have been practicing as a clinical pharmacist for the past decade, coupled with my background in postsecondary education and health administration, I realize there is a ripple that has my name on it.”

That ripple became a wave with “first God nudging me very subtly” before the giant push with her husband, Jason, agreeing to hold down the fort with his work at the Medical University of South Carolina while his wife and three daughters took up a year’s residency in Uganda.  The couple agreed that having their twins, Jamie and Jael, age 9, and Jada, 14, engaged in the international experience, including school in Uganda, would be a plus.

Here’s some of what Dr. Ladavia Just knows as it relates to the need she might fill in Uganda:

  • In the United States, the career path to become a pharmacist involves at least two years of undergraduate study, four years of graduate-level study, and two exams. There are 144 accredited programs with the more than 300,000 pharmacy graduates (2016) making more than $100,000 a year. These American pharmacists give advice on wellness, educate on drug benefits and side affects and administer certain vaccinations. Throughout the country, citizens can access a licensed pharmacist about every two miles (3.2 kilometers).
  • In Uganda, which is about the size of the state of Oregon, you can become a pharmacist following a four-year program, followed by a one-year internship, in four locations – one in the north, one in the west and two centrally located. While institutions offer lower levels (certificate, diploma) of programs related to pharmacy work in Uganda, the best comparable solution to supplementing health care in this country is the licensed pharmacist, making 4 million shillings ($1,085) a month. Except for the injection role, they operate much the same as those in the Western world. But there are are not enough of them.

As quoted in May 2019 by Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper, 20 percent of the just over 1,000 Ugandan licensed pharmacists are working or getting further education out of the country. And 90 percent of the rest are working in private pharmacies that the most economically vulnerable, particularly the rural poor that make up 80 percent of Uganda’s population, cannot access.

According to Samuel Opio, the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda secretary, Uganda needs five times more than the 150 pharmacists who graduate each year.

“If you look at Uganda’s 42 million population as a while, the number of ‘in country’ pharmacist ratio is roughly 1 per 60,000 people,” Dr. Ladavia said. “The Ministry of Health has indicated a goal of 1 per 20,000 over the next decade.”

The pharmaceutical issue in third-world countries goes beyond access data. It’s also about substandard drugs.  In June of 2019, the Ugandan National Drug Authority estimated that 10% of all medications provided in the country are counterfeit.  Ineffective ingredients (sugar, powder, chalk, etc.) in these fake drugs can be deadly.  In July of 2019, the Ugandan government was exploring a relationship with MediConnect block chain technology to alleviate the problem.

While considering assistance to start a UCU School of Medicine pharmaceutical school at some point, providing this information to the university’s medical students will assist in not only added knowledge but also with reinforcing ethical and Christian practices in Ugandan health care, according to Dr. Ladavia.

Dr. Edward Kanyesigye, Dean of the UCU Faculty of Health Sciences (including the medical school) cites Dr. Ladavia’s practical and teaching experience as an asset to UCU as well as her highly relational personality.  In Uganda’s community-based culture, the American pharmacist had the added advantage of being able to build sustainable relationships.

An added uniqueness with Dr. Ladavia is her African-American heritage. Most Westerners working in Uganda are Caucasian. This ethnic unfamiliarity results in many locals mistaking her for Ugandan until she starts to speak. She recalled one restaurant experience in Kampala with white-skinned Americans.

“My friends, Amy and Jayne, were given menus, and I was not with the assumption that being Ugandan, I would get my food from the local buffet, “ Dr. Ladavia recalled, smiling.  “When hearing my American accent, the wait staff quickly apologized and brought me a menu. But the rest of the lunch was spent with curious stares of other (Ugandan) diners.”

Heritage, Dr. Ladavia believes, will be another asset to her teaching in East Africa. While teaching basic principles of pharmacology, the nervous system, chemotherapy and other drug-related topics, students and staff will expand their cultural, racial and ethnic awareness by learning who she is and what she believes.  If the subject of slavery comes up, she welcomes the conversation.

“I want them to understand and learn from me, ” Dr. Ladavia remarked from her home in Kampala, shortly after moving in. ““Already, I have learned so much from them.”

She has learned how to go to the market, to enroll her children into an international school with children from 35 countries, to find a place where her children can see a movie, to drive a car on rugged streets and around bodabodas (motorcycles) that don’t follow traffic rules, and to buy and keep four rabbits for her girls to have as pets.

“Ugandans are wonderful, friendly people,” she said. “I know that God is using me for His Glory and placing His children from here in my path.”

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To support Uganda Christian University’s School of Medicine and other programs, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.

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Sheila, center, is shown with some faculty at Bishop Barham University, Kabale, where she assisted in her role as an intern with the fifth annual dissertation writing and research clinic in 2019. (UCU Partners photo)

Sheila Ainembabazi, 2019 UCU Literacy Project Intern: ‘God will make a way’

Scholarship, UCU Alumni, , , , , , ,


Sheila, center, is shown with some faculty at Bishop Barham University, Kabale, where she assisted in her role as an intern with the fifth annual dissertation writing and research clinic in 2019. (UCU Partners photo)
Sheila, center, is shown with some faculty at Bishop Barham University, Kabale, where she assisted in her role as an intern with the fifth annual dissertation writing and research clinic in 2019. (UCU Partners photo)

(LAST OF FOUR PARTS: This article features one of 10 interns hired to assist with the five-year-old Uganda Christian University dissertation research and writing training. She was selected from among 200 applicants. In addition to serving post-graduate students through the clinic, interns build their own resumes and obtain jobs or further education opportunities. Parts I, II and III can be accessed at those links. A video is here.)

By Patty Huston-Holm

When Sheila was born in 1996, she was given the Ugandan name Ainembabazi, which in her Runyankole mother tongue language means “God has grace.”  She was the first born of Frank Kamukama, a vocational agricultural teacher, and Grace Kiconco, a housewife and part-time shop owner who sells basic household items in their Western Uganda Mbarara District.

Her younger sister, Franklin, got the name Ainomugisha, which means “God has blessings.”  Her two brothers, Kelvin Ainamaani and Alvin Ainebyoona, have Ugandan names translated to “God has power” and “God is everything,” respectively.

God, obviously, is central to the family.

Sheila Ainembazi, intern
Sheila Ainembazi, intern

Thus, on the September 2, 2019, morning of this interview, Sheila praised the Lord for placing her in the next phase of her studies to be an attorney.  While disappointed that she would be in a nine-month Law Development Centre (LDC) program in Mbarara and not alongside her best friend, Ruth, chosen to study in Kampala (269 kilometers or 167 miles away), she was grateful. Sheila and Ruth, who graduated in July 2019 with Bachelors of Law degrees from Uganda Christian University, received entry into the country’s LDC program with classes starting September 23. Due to some Ministry of Justice disagreement, this cohort of students was not required to take the usual pre-entry exam to qualify for this phase.

Coming from humble beginnings, Sheila has been able to find blessings and patience wherever she has been placed.

At UCU, she was a work study student who rose early each morning to clean offices, dust library books, prepare tea and make deliveries before her classes as part of her tuition reimbursement. She learned the value of being “the least of these” and appreciation to those who noticed and thanked her for her work, including Dr. Joseph Owor in the School of Research and Post-Graduate Studies (SRPGS).

While studying law on the UCU Mukono campus, she became especially concerned with Ugandans who were mistreated due largely to their literacy levels.  Her final research paper focused in the inequalities and legal violations related to land ownership and transfer rights, especially as it pertains to women.

“Most Ugandans are illiterate,” the 23-year-old said. “They go in and buy a two-page book and write sale agreements and think they are done until they save money and go further to register their land.  Then a richer, more literate person comes in and agrees to pay more and gets a title. For women, a husband dies or leaves, and the clan pushes her and the children out even though she legally has ownership.  These are some of the issues I want to help with.”

Noticing injustices, Sheila reflected, has been part of her life for quite some time.  A leader in her high school, she often noticed student issues and brought them to the attention of administrators.

“I remember we were being served old food at the canteen,” she said.  “The mandazi (fried doughnuts) were molded.  We broke them open and saw it.  I brought that to the attention of our school leaders, and it was resolved.”

Sheila understands being shunned and humbled.  Not all around her at UCU understood or valued her janitorial work.

“One student (in Law) told me that doing a maid’s work was not good for my career,” she recalled.  “He said people don’t trust a cleaner.”

But one such person who did trust her was the Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, UCU’s vice chancellor.  He observed her diligence and hard work and, along with his wife, Ruth, decided to provide Sheila with lodging at their house as part of their support of her scholarship in her final two years. Being able to work and live on campus and have her housing and some food provided enabled Sheila to focus more and excel higher in her studies.

For this, she is grateful, along with being chosen as a 2019 intern for the UCU Partners and SRPGS co-sponsored clinic to help post-graduate students. She learned a lot about technology, organization, time lines and service.

Today, she is concerned about paying fees for her next nine-month law study program.  Some of her payment of $400 for three months work in the internship will help. She is praying for more support.

“God will make a way,” she said.  “God has made a way.”

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, including the post-graduate literacy program, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.

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Americans Patty Huston-Holm (right) and Linda Knicely – volunteer lecturers and coaches for Uganda Christian University post-graduate students (UCU Partners photo)

Third World people investment – USA visitor to UCU offers insights

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Americans Patty Huston-Holm (right) and Linda Knicely – volunteer lecturers and coaches for Uganda Christian University post-graduate students (UCU Partners photo)
Americans Patty Huston-Holm (right) and Linda Knicely – volunteer lecturers and coaches for Uganda Christian University post-graduate students (UCU Partners photo)

(SECOND OF FOUR-PART SERIES:  This is the second of four stories about a five-year-old, American-led writing and research workshop at Uganda Christian University. The first article contained reflections of the Ohio woman who founded and leads the training.  This second article reflects thoughts of an American volunteer in 2017 and 2019. The final two articles  feature UCU graduates who helped with the workshop. Parts I, III and IV can be accessed at those links. A video is here.)

By Linda Knicely

“It’s not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?” So said American essayist and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau.

Ugandans are busy. During the four weeks that I and three other American lecturers spent on the Uganda Christian University (UCU) campuses in four different locations, presenting to graduate students and faculty members during the dissertation clinic and trainings and individually coaching the students in  2019, this was apparent.

Sometimes they’re busy earning a living, taking care of children, and handling other tasks needed to survive. Other times, they’re busy relaxing and enjoying fellowship with one another. On campus, they’re learning. Both formally from their instructors and peers in the classroom sand informally during pick-up basketball games, at the canteens or as they walk and talk with each other. They’re learning how to grow into young adults of integrity, guided by Christian principles in the nurturing environment of UCU.

They’re also teaching.

Linda Knicely, left, with one of her students from 2019 (UCU Partners photo)
Linda Knicely, left, with one of her students from 2019 (UCU Partners photo)

They teach by example – the genuine and warm “You are welcome” that greets us at every turn brings smiles to our faces and is not as common in other parts of the world as one might think (or wish). They teach by sharing their stories with us and sometimes their language and their culture. They teach by risking vulnerability as they reveal their fears, their hopes and their dreams for themselves, their families, and their country of Uganda.

Americans are busy. Sometimes we’re coping with what, as I explained to one of my UCU students, David, we call “first world problems.” Very minor issues, in the scheme of things. We work hard, both on the job and even at play. We can find it hard to relax and just “be.”  Sometimes, unfortunately, we consider ourselves more often as “teachers” for the rest of the world, than learners. What a loss, for those that have that perspective, for there is so much to learn in Uganda.

I’ve been busy. When I first came to Uganda for six weeks two years ago (2017), I had no plans of making a return trip. It wasn’t a personal judgment about Uganda, but more about my craving to explore and experience as many different places in the world as possible.But because of what I learned that year from the people of Uganda, mostly in the UCU graduate school program, and the piece of my heart that I left here, I surprised myself by deciding to return.

In very typical American fashion, as our students (and interns) in 2019 have learned, we (our American team here) like to “keep time” and schedule ourselves tightly in order to be as productive as possible. I came back to teach, of course, and to support the graduate students with whom I interacted, to successful completion and defense of their dissertations.

But I also came back to learn more, and to re-imprint the lessons of two years ago on my memory and in my heart. My time spent here at UCU during this visit has felt even busier. Self-reflection will be a process that may wait until I return to the USA and my life there. But I hope that some of the lessons that I learn in Uganda prompt me to always question: “What am I busy about?”

And then there’s Patty Huston-Holm, the queen of “busy.” Patty was in Uganda for her eleventh visit in 2019 with many of the visits lasting months at a time; she led the student and faculty dissertation training for the fifth consecutive year on behalf of UCU Partners and the UCU School of Research and Post-Graduate Studies. While we (me, Tracy and David Harrison) were along this year, other years she has “flown solo.”Patty is never satisfied with what’s she’s done before, but constantly strives to improve the presentations or extend the program’s reach.

This year, she added coaching sessions at the UCU Kampala campus and faculty and student presentations on both Kabale and Mbale campuses. And the work that we’re directly involved with only represents one of the many roles that Patty has personally embraced in her support of Uganda Christian University’s mission.

I think that even those staff who know her on campus would be surprised at the time that she invests when she is home – continuing to arrange logistics and remain in communication to plan next steps, etc. She commits her tremendous talents and experience to this work out of Christian love for her Ugandan brothers and sisters, both those she knows already and those who will be impacted in the future through the vision and efforts of today’s students and staff at the university.

Patty’s clear sense of what she should “be busy about,” inspires me, and many others whose lives she has touched.

Two years ago, during one of our first conversations about Uganda, she told me that she believed in “investing in people.” I can’t think of a better way to be busy.

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Ohioan Linda Knicely volunteered with Patty Huston-Holm in 2017 and 2019. To learn more about how to become part of this literacy work at UCU, email Patty at hustonpat@gmail.com. For more information about UCU Partners and how to contribute financially to students, programs and facilities at UCU , contact Mark Bartels, UCU Partners executive director, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

Also follow and like our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.

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American Patty Huston-Holm (standing) with UCU graduate school leadership, Kukunda Elizabeth Bacwayo and Joseph Owor (UCU Partners photo)

‘He was my student. But I also was his’

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American Patty Huston-Holm (standing) with UCU graduate school leadership, Kukunda Elizabeth Bacwayo and Joseph Owor (UCU Partners photo)
American Patty Huston-Holm (standing) with UCU graduate school leadership, Kukunda Elizabeth Bacwayo and Joseph Owor (UCU Partners photo)

(FIRST OF FOUR PARTS:  This is the first of four stories about a five-year-old, American-led writing and research clinic at Uganda Christian University. The author is the founder and lead facilitator of the training. The second article reflects an experience of one USA citizen who assisted with the clinic in two different years.  The final two articles feature UCU alumni who served as interns with the clinic. Parts II, III and IV can be accessed at those links. A video is here.)

By Patty Huston-Holm

I don’t think much about gold. I’m not a wealthy person, so the only gold I’ve ever had is in the wedding band I’ve worn for 27 years. And the only reference I had to this precious metal was during a junior high school history class when I learned it was discovered in some kind of “rush” and then used in coins in the United States in the 1800s.

Until Monday, August 13, 2018…

Sometime around 4 p.m. and at a desk in a room shared with two other people at Uganda Christian University and in a country I had associated with tea, tilapia and bananas, a young student named Christopher Mwandha expanded my knowledge about gold.  The mining of it around Lake Victoria, he said emphatically, was destroying the wildlife in this second largest body of fresh water in the world.  Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, is home to hippos and fish and more.

That afternoon and in a room filled with East African tropical heat moved around by a fan, Christopher talked about his water pollution research connected to gold mining.  In particular, his focus was on the small village of Nakudi near the Kenyan border. It was here in an area previously known for farming and fishing that a group of some farmers and fishermen struck gold when digging a hole to bury a friend. They buried the friend elsewhere and became miners.

Christopher’s dissertation research surrounding this is a requirement for his master’s degree in Science and Water Sanitation. He is one of 150 UCU students I coached and one of more than 300 I’ve taught in five years of leading a writing and research training through the university’s School of Research and Post-Graduate Studies (SRPGS).

He was my student.  But I also was his.

I am an education missionary.

Yes, I’m a volunteer – starting when coming to Uganda with a Reynoldsburg, Ohio, church in 2009. Yes, I contribute financially to Uganda’s needy.  Yes, I’m a believer in Jesus Christ. Yes, coming from the Mid-West that gets brutally cold in the winter, I sweat and work hard. But I don’t build buildings, preach the gospel or give up my American home so that others can have one in Africa.

A lifelong writer and teacher and an Ohio State University Buckeye with journalism and communication degrees, I invest in minds. I build people.  And they build me.

One avenue for this building is an annual, free workshop to help post-graduate students and their supervisors with dissertations and thesis projects to improve the master’s degree graduation rate and to expand global awareness of their research. The workshop includes large-group lectures and one-on-one coaching.  The individualized assistance is where the magic occurs – both for coaches and students.

I tell students that writing a research paper can be lonely.  Having a coach who believes in you helps fill that void; it’s half the battle towards completion. Coaching them to produce a paper with credible, original, well-written and compelling information is the other half. Good coaches listen – and learn – while nudging students to see what they have to offer their country, continent and world.

With the first clinic in 2015, my husband, Mike Holm, and I began supplementing what university faculty members were already doing with their heavy workloads. Under the guidance of SRPGS leaders, Dr. Kukunda Elizabeth Bacwayo and Dr. Joseph Owor, we implemented a learning model that keeps getting better.  Two interns that we hire each year make us better; likewise for them as they receive resume-building experience and get jobs or further education shortly after working with us.

Columbus State Community College President, David Harrison, with a USU post-graduate student he coached in 2019 (UCU Partners photo)
Columbus State Community College President, David Harrison, with a USU post-graduate student he coached in 2019 (UCU Partners photo)

Americans Linda Knicely and Larry Hickman, career development specialists; Sheila Hosner, an international health specialist; Tom Wanyama, an engineer and professor; Tracy Harrison, a reading specialist; and Dave Harrison, president, Columbus State Community College; helped with improvements by their on-site assistance and expertise at various times over the five years. They came from Ohio, Washington State and Canada – all as volunteers.

Now, semi-retired, I donate my knowledge and skills in Uganda for four to six months a year.  Approximately half of that time is with graduate students. The other half involves working with young journalists, public relations employees and other university staff on various literacy initiatives.  Occasionally, like now, I write.

As I reflect on what I’ve learned from UCU’s post-graduate students, I recall how they have educated me on such topics as disparities of health care in higher poverty areas, injustices for women when it comes to property and child “ownership,” truthful news reporting in South Sudan war zones, Islamic to Christian conversion, prevalence of counterfeit drugs, differences in preaching and teaching of the gospel and terminology such as “waiting homes” to help economically disadvantaged women prior to delivery of a baby. Interest in their research often finds me digging into their topics after the coaching sessions and late into the night.

Beyond the academic, the young people I meet in Uganda stretch my appreciation and thankfulness.

One such master’s level student in 2016 sobbed from a simple gesture of giving her half of my granola bar during a lunchtime meeting. Through tears, she shared her childhood story devoid of love and compassion. She was abused by a stepmother who denied her food and water to drink or bath, forced to sleep outside in the dirt and required her to walk alone and vulnerable in the dark to get alcoholic beverages for her father’s new wife. She was grateful, she said, for a simple gift of food from me that day. That afternoon, in addition to working on research in the university library, we held hands, prayed and forgave.

God’s work is good.  And it’s not lonely.

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Patty Huston-Holm has been volunteering through UCU Partners for half of her decade of service in Uganda. To learn more about how to become part of her work, email her at hustonpat@gmail.com. For more information about UCU Partners and how to contribute financially to students, programs and facilities at UCU , contact Mark Bartels, UCU Partners executive director, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

Also follow and like our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.

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A roller compacts soil on Agape Rise Road, below the Bishop Tucker Building.

UCU works to say goodbye to dust, mud on main campus

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A roller compacts soil on Agape Rise Road, below the Bishop Tucker Building.
A roller compacts soil on Agape Rise Road, below the Bishop Tucker Building.

By Douglas Olum

It is a rainy Monday morning in central Uganda’s Mukono district. Resident and non-resident students are making their way to sit for end-of-semester exams at Uganda Christian University. At one of the gates, an off-campus student carries her shoes in her hand as she tiptoes through the mud. Others walk in mud-soaked shoes, sliding and leaping off the road to a safer haven on the grass leading to a gate.

Ivan Tsebeni, a second-year Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication student and member of the Guild Parliament representing the Faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication, says some of his peers missed classes in the previous weeks because of the mud.

“The problem is that you dress smartly from your room, but when you get to campus, one may think you are from the garden because of the mud,” Tsebeni said. “Some students cannot stand that.”

Mukono has a tropical climate with significant rainfall even during the driest month. In December 2019, Mukono was experiencing an unusually high amount of rainfall. According to climate-data.org, this area experiences roughly 50 inches a year.

UCU’s Kids Care Centre Road in the campus “tech park” area is freshly tarmacked.
UCU’s Kids Care Centre Road in the campus “tech park” area is freshly tarmacked.

To better serve students and faculty in both dry and dusty and wet and muddy weather, UCU is doing what it can inside its gates. The university is in the second phase of tarmacking of roads within the Mukono campus. The roads under construction are: Agape Road, Bethany Rise, Words of Hope Road, Kids Care Centre Road, and the Bishop Tucker Parking Yard.

The other areas being upgraded include the new Commercial Area, near the Janani Luwum Dining Hall, which is being excavated and the Words of Hope Parking Yard, which is set for tarmacking.

This phase two, 1.5-kilometer (just under 1 mile) road construction, which is estimated to cost shillings 1.7 billion shillings (about $460,000), is being done by Stirling Civil Engineering Ltd, a Uganda-based company, the same company which constructed the first phase.

In a recent interview, the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration who is also the Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Development and External Relations, David Mugawe, said the project was being subsidized by the development fund collections from students every semester. Students pay a sum of shillings 50,000 (about $13.5) per student, per semester as a development fee, alongside other functional fees.

Remmy Allan Mbulaka, the Guild Minister of Health who is also a member of Parliament representing the UCU School of Medicine, commended the university for acting against the dust and mud.

“I am happy that the university is doing this,” he said. “It should cover the entire campus so that dusts are reduced.”

In April 2017, the first phase of the roads construction covered 1.5 kilometers out of an estimated 3 kilometers (1.8 miles). The Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, said that the project had been delayed due to the prohibitive cost of road construction.

“There is dust when it is sunny and dry as well as mud when it is raining,” the Vice Chancellor said. “But once we start [the construction], it will give us the commitment to continue working on the roads and ensure that UCU stands up to its quality as a university.”

The roads upgrade is part of the 2012-2018 UCU Strategic Plan, which also formed part of the University Master Plan. The second phase is planned for completion over four months – by February 2020.

Even with the muddy and dusty roads, Uganda Christian University has over the years, been ranked among the most beautiful universities in Africa because of its compound dotted with trees, modern architectural classroom blocks, library, halls of residence, lush green areas and the historical Bishop Tucker building.

A 2017 ranking by Christianuniversitiesonline.org placed UCU as the most beautiful Christian University in Africa. Another ranking by www.timeshighereducation.com in 2018 also placed UCU in the 9th position among top 10 most beautiful universities in Africa.

It is hoped among many staff and students that the completion of the roads construction will not only save them from the dust and mud, but also enhance the image of the university internationally.

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To support Uganda Christian University students, programs and facilities, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.

Also follow and like our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.

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Aisha Nabukeera, left, with burns shortly after her abuse at age 13; and, at right, wearing her UCU graduation cap and gown.

UCU graduate uses personal scars to reinforce war against child abuse

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Aisha Nabukeera (upper left), a survivor of child abuse, is shown in the field educating children and others about abuse and their rights as part of her foundation’s work. The 26-year-old USU graduate was purposely burned over 80% of her body at age 13.
Aisha Nabukeera (upper left), a survivor of child abuse, is shown in the field educating children and others about abuse and their rights as part of her foundation’s work. The 26-year-old UCU graduate was purposely burned over 80% of her body at age 13.

By Joseph Ssemutooke

In 2006, Aisha Nabukeera drew national attention after suffering child abuse that nearly claimed her life. Age 13 and in Primary Six at Nyendo Primary School in the southern Uganda town of Masaka, Nabukeera suffered third-degree burns on 80% of her body after her step-mother forced the young girl to wear a petro-soaked dress while lighting a kerosene lamp. A neighbor who came with a bucket of water saved her life but not the physical scars she still wears.

Today, the 26-year-old Nabukeera is one of Africa’s foremost youth champions of the fight against child abuse and, despite the scars and horrific memory, was a finalist and named Miss Popularity in the 2015-2016 Miss Uganda beauty pageant.

Aisha Nabukeera poses with her foster father, Frank Gashumba, on her graduation day at UCU.
Aisha Nabukeera poses with her foster father, Frank Gashumba, on her graduation day at UCU.

A 2018 Uganda Christian University (UCU) graduate with a Bachelor of Social Works and Social Administrative degree, she is the founder and director of a fast-growing, anti-child-abuse initiative, the Aisha Nabukeera Foundation (ANF), which was started in 2017. In 2019, Nabukeera was named one of Africa’s 12 beneficiaries of the Generation Africa programme.
The ANF advocates for children’s rights and assists abuse survivors. Representatives of the foundation visit schools to promote awareness and prevention about child abuse. The Generation Africa programme, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks “to help young Africans whose personal experiences have shaped their determination to help others facing challenges across the continent through telling their stories globally.” The dozen selected each year receive training in global development skills to further inspire change.

Aisha Nabukeera, left, with burns shortly after her abuse at age 13; and, at right, wearing her UCU graduation cap and gown.
Aisha Nabukeera, left, with burns shortly after her abuse at age 13; and, at right, wearing her UCU graduation cap and gown.

“When you tell someone your story, they get hopeful about life,” said Nabukeera, who received the Generation Africa training in Johannesburg, South Africa, in mid-2019. “For many children facing tough conditions that have seen them go through abuse, seeing me and hearing my story gives them hope.”

Nabukeera uses her experience of excruciating agony and pain from her abuse as well as the pain still with her today in her passionate fight against child abuse.
“My mother told me many years after the incident that she even thought of poisoning me and killing herself because she couldn’t bear to see me in pain and having no money to fund the treatment,” Nabukeera said, pointing out the added psychological damage of bullying because of her bodily scars. “At school some called me things like ‘roast chicken.’ When I contested in Miss Uganda, some said I wasn’t beautiful enough to be there.”

When Nabukeera’s biological mother reported the case to the local authorities to try and get justice for her daughter, the step-mother insisted that Nabukeera had simply tried to self-immolate herself. Her biological father sided with the step-mother.

As part of her child abuse battle today, Nabukeera urges the government to strengthen penalties on persons who hurt children. She says oftentimes when children’s rights are abused, responsible authorities don’t take serious action, which widens the door for other perpetrators.

“Stop telling abused children that their pain is not a big deal and that there are people worse off than they are,” she said. “No one should ever belittle someone else’s suffering, instead people should work to heal those who are suffering by bettering their conditions and helping them get justice where they have been served injustice.”
She also advises children to speak out. She says that if one fails to get assistance from close relatives, the child should talk to neighbors or nearby authorities. To parents, she calls for equal attention to their children, whether they live in polygamous or monogamous families.

She credits several adults for her ability to pull away from her childhood incident. Among these is Ugandan socio-political commentator Frank Gashumba who pledged to unofficially adopt the “burnt girl” and become her “father.” He helped her through school. In 2009, the late founder and director of the St. Lawrence schools, Prof. Lawrence Mukiibi, gave her a six-year scholarship at St Lawrence School, Horizon campus. And after passing her UACE exams in 2014, she joined Uganda Christian University.

“Most of my (biological) family abandoned me,” Nabukeera reminisces. “Going to school was just out of question for me. I was treated as a hopeless case, and so I lost all hope. I thought it was the end of my life, which made me so bitter and angry at the world.”
Acts of kindness from Frank and Lawrence – two one-time strangers – turned that around. She has since found forgiveness and grace for her step-mother and others.
“Now, I believe her act of malice might have been the greatest gift of my life,” Nabukeera said. “I have moved on.”

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To support Uganda Christian University students, programs and facilities, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.

Also follow and like our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.