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| Mugisha Namwanga from rural village struggles to a young social entrepreneur. |
Young champion empowers fellow refugees with educationBy Takesure Matewa
As we continue giving you more stories from the Nakivale Refugee Settlement.
Nakivale is the oldest refugee settlement in Africa, Located in Isingiro District near the Tanzania Border near Southwest Uganda and covering an area of 185 km2 (71 sq mi)
In this second series we have a story of another young and focused gentleman who went through a very tough childhood but managed to push through against all odds.
Also read:https://envirosocafrica.blogspot.com/2022/02/refugees-cry-for-humanitarian-aid.html?m=1
Mugisha Namwanga was born and raised in the rural DRC in 1997 by his parents.
"My father was unemployed and lived on the little he earned as a blacksmith". Said Mugisha.
Despite not having enough money to send Mugisha to a better school his dad still believed in the power of good quality education, Something that most African kids don't have ready access to.
It is at that point when his dad made a tough decision to send him from the rural area to study in town.
Life wasn't a bed of roses in town as young Mugisha's brother only had a job that paid him a mere US$50 per month which they had to make sure it's enough for all their expenses.
In 2015 when Mugisha was doing his last year in high school, a war broke out in the town he was living. One morning he woke up to the most terrifying news!! His neighbor had been killed for absolutely no clear reason.
What followed was a period of uncertainty as everyone was trying to flee to safety as many people got killed.
Fortunately Mugisha and his brother had a rural home to run to where they found some temporary safety whilst figuring out on where they can flee to.
A good friend told them to flee to neighbouring Uganda where the two brothers were subsequently registered as war refugees in May 2015.
As a high school dropout it was not easy for Mugisha to resume his classes in Uganda as he was met with yet another challenge.
The two neighbouring African countries are not only divided by borders but there is also a language barrier as Uganda is Anglophone and DRC Francophone.
Mugisha had one option which was to go and start at a lower primary school grade in order to get used to the Ugandan education curriculum, As a French speaker he had to learn English quickly.
At this point he joined an English Training Center and the training program was not free which caused him to quit his English classes as couldn't afford the fees.
Help came two weeks later as Mugisha met a guy who was very passionate about teaching English.This new helper had no proper classroom to teach his students from but he had a piece of land to build a classroom so he asked if Mugisha could help with making bricks in exchange of English classes.
" I went out and organised fellow marginalised youths who wanted to learn but lacked the opportunity like me"said Mugisha
'We agreed to make the bricks and we made 2000 bricks in total "Mugisha told this publication.
As a quick learner Mugisha managed to speak, read and write English with fluency in a short space of time and begin to teach other learners at a lower level.
The leadership in him saw him establishing his own English training centre in 2016.
The centre trained youths and supported them to catch up with Ugandan education system earlier than expected whilst others got job opportunities through the skills gained from his training centre.
Transforming the English Training centre into a Community Nursery and Primary school.
In 2017 after he saw the need for a community nursery and primary school Mugisha decided to transform his training centre into a school which named (WAKE UP)
This project was supported by SIMPLE ARCHITECTURE a company that helped with the construction of the school and continues to support them in different possible ways up to this day.
This school managed to bring together 400 learners under the able leadership of Mugisha and other teachers who teaches in different African and European languages.All these learners are from different countries including the DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan
All of them are from Nakivale refugee community.The English classes continue at the School but this time for adults only and they are backed by character and business development classes, coaching, and mentorship.
In 2019 Mugisha and his team of educators decided to ask parents to pay at least a small fee for their children's education, The fee was meant to contribute towards the development and day-to-day running of the school.
Parents told Mugisha and his team that they couldn't afford to pay that small fee prompting Mugisha and his team to hold consultation meetings to find out what was the main reason why parents couldn't afford to pay a small fee towards their kids education
It is in these consultation meetings where Mugisha learned that parents were even struggling to raise enough money for food, clothing let alone school fees.
He also found out that their failure to generate enough income was due to a lack of business and entrepreneurial skills and that was the birth of the personal development, social entrepreneurship coaching, and business skills program which he imparted to his team and they started teaching those skills to parents to improve their business skills and subsequently their income.
Mugisha said the hardships he has gone through in his life have made him focus more on Sustainable Development Goal 4 targets (1) and (4) which aims to see education made available for every child and empower communities with entrepreneurial skills and business skills to equip them with self-reliance.
Mugisha is a young fearless, dedicated and passionate change maker and his contribution to the Nikavale community and the world at large will continue to inspire more people.
To support this young man and know more about his journey and work please follow him on the following links
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/101773007862445/posts/690968875609519/?d=n
Website:https://run4communityrescue.wordpress.com/
YouTube:https://youtu.be/vtXbMcgwR_s
