Umaru Jjemba

Umaru Jjemba

Umaru Jjemba, 19, lost both his parents to AIDS; his father, Ali Jjemba died in 2004, and the mother, Namakula, died in 2006. Since then Umaru has been staying at Namaligga with his grandmother, who has sponsored his education since Primary Five (P.5). Umaru’s grandmother gets her survival from selling Jackfruit and mats and as expected these fetch insufficient money to cater for Umaru’s tuition and lunch fees, paraffin, uniforms, books in addition to feeding him.

Going by his numerical age, Umaru would be joining University by Ugandan standards, but he attributes his delay to lack of school fees and related school requirements. Umaru explained: “I missed several classes and ended up repeating classes due to lack of fees, but I’m determined to continue once I get a good Samaritan to sponsor my education.” Umaru confessed: “my beddings are in an appalling state but my first priority is education, other things can come later if I’m educated.”

Umaru’s favourite subjects are History, Geography, Commerce and Chemistry. Umaru is currently in senior two (S.2) at Vision High School-Nakifuma which is not a good school but he goes there because the school fees are relatively low. A critical analysis of Umaru’s previous report cards shows that he is a promising student and his ambition is to become a teacher. Umaru reassured FINIDP staff: “If I had somebody to sponsor my education, I can improve tremendously because there will be nothing interrupting my school attendance.” “And besides I know that money is not easy to make so I would try to value my sponsor’s money and dedicate all my time to books.” “I’m well aware that someone with education can survive better in this challenging world and let alone Uganda where education means a lot.”