My outstanding abilities to take initiative, work well in teams, to identify and solve community problems have defined me to be a confident and hardworking leader. As a children's mentor at Hope Alive! (HA!) A relief organization that supports orphans and fragile families, I helped one of my mentored students to regain his sponsorship in 2014. This child had stopped attending school and had joined a local gang, he began smoking cigarettes and taking marijuana, he lost interest in education and become too disobedient to the mother, and a threat to the community.
The staff got to know about this child's behavior and decided to terminate the child's contract. when I got to know about this decision, I met with the program manager Mrs. Carolyn Acheng and the site manager Mrs. Jemimah Mwenge Kawesi we re-discussed the matter and I requested the child to be given a second chance to go back to school. As the child's mentor, I knew this family lived in absolute poverty in the slums of Naguru in Kampala district and the family could barely get what to eat for the day. My request was granted and I took the responsibility to follow up on the child's behavioral progress. I did this through frequent school visitations to make sure that he attended class and I made several home visitations to ensure the child got involved in house chaos and also I encouraged the family through counseling and praying together.
Today the child is in senior three and has picked interest in his studies and the mother is proud of him. Through this remarkable life-changing experience in the child's life and family, I was appointed as the assistant site manager in 2016. I continue to support and encourage the children to stay in school as a collaborative effort to achieve the sustainable development goals, and ensured what they need to stay in school is provided in time like paying school fees, I have encouraged parents during parent meetings to actively participate in the education of their children through school visitations and supporting them socially, emotionally and spiritually.
I have put much emphasis on training student leaders and I have created opportunity for them to serve at HA! And I teach the seven habits of highly effective teenager by Sean covey and others books to help the student leaders develop good characters, I have encouraged them to participate in their local church activities to surround themselves with the right friends. Recently in April 2019, I began a skills training program to help the children acquire basic skills like candle making, craft making, tailoring, and business communicating skills, among others and in September 2019 we had the first business expo in HA! And we posted an invitation on Facebook to the general public to come and support the children's initiatives.
With the Chevening Scholarship, I will widen my knowledge and improve my leadership ability to offer solutions to poverty and gender inequality in schools to my country Uganda.
