Profiles of Successful Candidates (2011 INTAKE)

Doreen is a 21yr old orphan from Tororo District. She lost her father at an early age and shortly after his death her mother fell seriously sick and was not able to work and look after her and her 3 siblings anymore. The mother has since moved to Tororo where she does odd jobs to survive. Because of the mother’s difficulty in raising the children, Doreen and her siblings moved in with an aunt staying in Kireka. As it may be, the aunt is not in position to look after the 3 children and has therefore sought for funding for the younger siblings from organizations like Compassion International. She has slowly struggled to cater for Doreen but cannot manage anymore. On her part, during her free time and especially during her vacation, Doreen has been working in a supermarket in Tororo alongside helping her mother with working in the garden and doing other odd jobs. Part of the money she saved has been used to start a small chicken project of 10 birds and she has so far saved Ushs. 150,000/= from the holiday work. She is a lady of high integrity and she would not comprise anything for her integrity and moral standing and wants to pursue Industrial engineering to make a positive contribution to her community.

Felix hails from Napak District, Karamoja. He has received scholarships from various Catholic Church based charities to fund his primary and secondary school education. Felix has had difficulties in raising school fees because of being a total orphan. His uncles and aunties have had to sell land and sheep to take Felix through high school. His greatest achievement has been academic excellence, attributed to the fact that he has always been top of his class. Felix made a decision to pursue his academic studies and refused to shepherd goats and cattle despite pressure from his uncle and the other youth in his community. Felix believes that education is the key to life and that law can be used to fight corruption. He wants to instill general discipline, law and order in Napak after graduating. Felix has demonstrated vital leadership abilities having been a dorm captain, assistant Head Prefect and chairperson of the disciplinary committee in secondary school. During his vacation, Felix did part-timing as a teacher in a primary school in his community from January to July 2011. Felix is a courageous man. Even without hope, he went ahead and applied for private sponsorship at Makerere University.

Ismael hails from Kalangala District. He aspires to be a mechanical engineer, having been inspired, mentored and encouraged by an engineer at the BIDCO processing plant in Kalangala. During his vacation, Ismael refrained from fishing as is the trend with the youth in Kalangala District. He decided to stay focused on further studies. Ismael is an orphan that lost his father and is staying with the mother who supports her family solely on the cultivation and sell of produce like cassava, tomatoes and yams. To support his family, Ismael helps with the farming and participates in all other subsistence activities; he also works with the mother at her food stall. Ismail’s biggest challenge has been deciding to continue his academic studies as opposed to dropping out of school to join the fishing industry; this is because his education has put a big strain on the mother who can barely feed her family from the sell of her produce. This scholarship is a dream come true for Ismael to realize his ambition of studying mechanical engineering and giving back to his family and community

Deriano is a young man from Sheema District. He was born, raised and studied in the village under very tough conditions. His father works as a porter in the community doing several odd jobs to enable him support the family. Deriano is an enterprising young man, despite his disadvantaged background, he has organized a youth group that currently owns 35 beehives and harvests at least 2 Jerry cans of honey per season. Despite his ambition of becoming an engineer, Deriano’s family could not to afford his school fees. As a result, he was chased from school many times due to lack of school fees. A new dawn emerged for Deriano when he obtained a scholarship from Prof. Mushanga who sponsored him from S2 to S4 at Itendero SS. At Itendero SS, Deriano displayed his leadership skills by taking on the position of deputy head boy. Deriano plans to study Civil Engineering at Uganda Christian University, Mukono and aspires to spear head infrastructure development in his community after graduation

Matthias is a young ambitious boy hailing from Gomba District. He is a total orphan having lost both his parents. He is currently staying with his aunt who is only providing him with a home and food. She is a housewife and has been unable to pay his school fees. Mathias was fortunate enough, his excellence at primary school enabled him to get a place and be put on bursary at St. Leonard S.S. for his O-level.  One of his teachers at St. Leonard S.S. took interest in him and got him sponsorship to study for his A-level at Royal Giant College where he managed to finish A-level and scored 19 points. Mathias has always aspired to be a medical doctor since his childhood. His biggest achievement has been his academic excellence, in P.7 he scored 8 points and was the best student in the District.  Still at his O-level, Matthias was the best in the district with an aggregate of 16 in 8 and was published in the papers and as a result he easily obtained a bursary for his A-level. He wants to work hard to become a doctor because he wants to uplift his family and to improve health service delivery in his community. During his vacation, Mathias has been teaching Biology and Chemistry at Royal Giant College. Matthias has demonstrated leadership skills having been the chairperson school council in high school

Janet hails from Mubende District. She lost her father who was the bread winner as a young girl and is currently living with a sick mother. It is very challenging for the mother to look after Janet because she is a house wife and also has to spend money on her medication. Janet has received support from different people through her education. In O-level she got a bursary thanks to her academic excellence. She also obtained a scholarship from Paula Moller foundation that enabled her to complete her A-level at Mengo SS. Her ambition is to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Geoscience and Production at Makerere University having excelled in her A-level Examinations. During her vacation, Janet has been selling airtime in Entebbe, the savings from which she was able to apply for private admission at Makerere University. She wants to study Petroleum Geoscience because of lack of trained specialists in Uganda. Janet aspires to start a small scale factory producing and marketing petroleum products such as Vaseline in Uganda. Janet’s leadership abilities are impressive, having been an assistant Head Prefect and an assistant Treasurer in her school’s health club. After graduation, Janet wants to support the other needy students especially the orphans

Justine is a young ambitious lady hailing from Masaka district. She is an orphan who lost her father and unfortunately the mother is bed ridden and has not been able to work making it difficult for her to look after Justine. Justine is currently living with her brother who was working with the army until late last year.  The brother is currently unemployed and cannot afford to support her studies anymore. Because of her academic excellence, Justine secured sponsorship for her O and A level with St. Mary Kevin Orphanage. Justine has a big dream of becoming a professional accountant and aspires to make changes in the country through managing big NGOs and community development projects. During her vacation, Justine was cooking food and supplying to brick makers to earn only UShs. 800/= per day. Justine has demonstrated leadership potential, having been a sanitary prefect and chairperson of the catholic religious group at her school. Justine’s role model is her mother who has done all she could to ensure that Justine’s future is bright. Justine has a passion for assisting orphans and disadvantaged children. Justine’s mother is sick, the brother is unemployed and the orphanage is not in position to sponsor her anymore it’s based on this that Justine applied for B.Com External hoping that she could get a part time job to support her education. Getting the scholarship was a dream come true for her and she is committed to giving back to other disadvantaged children once she graduates

Paul hails from Buikwe District. He lost both his parents and is therefore a total orphan. He has lived a difficult life having to fend for himself and his brother for most of his life. He currently stays alone with the brother in a one roomed rented house in Lugazi. Despite this, Paul has managed to attend school up to A-Level thanks to the financial support from Lugazi Child Development Centre and Compassion International. During the vacation, Paul has been doing casual work at construction sites to earn a living and has also been helping students at Nkoyoyo School to do mathematics revision. His greatest achievement has been completing his A-level studies despite the challenges of paying school fees. Paul loves to read and he developed the passion for reading having read the book “Think Big” by Ben Carson. Paul aspires to start up a home for orphaned children called “God knows us”. Paul’s role model is Ben Carson, a US neurosurgeon with the John Hopkins hospital

Christopher comes from Sironko District. His father and mother passed away when he was young. Christopher has received support for his education from his uncle and also through bursaries he has received thanks to his academic excellence. Christopher stays with his Aunt and Uncle who are peasants living in Sironko District. They have tried to support him in any way they can, but looking after him and their own children has been very challenging and they are therefore not in position to sponsor him anymore. His uncle was able to pay for his fees through O-level and at A-level he got a bursary at St. Barnabas College. Christopher wants to do civil engineering because of lack of professionals in his home district. During his vacation, he worked with Kakira Sugar and managed to make savings that he used for his transport and university entry application. Christopher is a needy but brilliant student and believes that METL will surely open up doors to his future

Keneth hails from Kitgum District. He lives with his Auntie who supported the family after his dad passed away. The auntie is struggling to look after keneth and his siblings alongside her other children. Keneth has had to struggle with a physical disability on his left shoulder which has resulted to stigmatization on his part. Despite such hardships, Keneth aspires to study Software Engineering so that he can in future work with organizations that serve people with basic necessities such as water, telecom and electricity. He also aspires to open an education scholarship to help other needy students like him.