Column – by Eva Nakato: Doing the unexpected

Doing the Unexpected BREAKING BARRIERS!

By 2022, the GDP per Guess what, she’s now a graduate of Journalism and Mass capita income of the Communication and she has also been able to build a house East African country of for herself and her family! Uganda is projected to be at Having acknowledged that making it to university is an uphill USD938. task for the girl child, making it out of university is even more This might look exciting but challenging. There are lots of temptations awaiting them. It it is nonetheless an evidential is even worse for young women from poor backgrounds as proof of the prevailing povtheir counterparts from well to do families live luxurious lives erty at household level in the while making them feel ashamed of their backgrounds. Rich developing country. men are also present around the university waiting to take adConsequently, access to qualvantage of these poor girls’ vulnerability. ity education is a challenge to ChristineTuramuh are got admitted to Makerere University most households in the ruBusiness School to pursue a degree in International Business By Eva Nakato ral areas and for the urban poor due to liberalization Studies as a privately sponsored student. This was a dream come true for her. of the economy. Unfortunately, her family could only afford to cater for her For the girl child, there are even more challenges. From being tuition fees. Giving up was one of the options available to expected to carry out domestic work such as house chores beChristine. She however chose to do the unthinkable; she refore heading to school, there are hundreds of other obstacles sorted to moping rich people’s houses as well as doing launthat stand in their way. In fact, out of every 10 young girls of dry for them at a fee. She used the money raised to pay for school going age, only 6 of them are able to make it beyond her accommodation, feeding and other necessities. Through high school as compared to their male counterparts. social media and friends she has been able to scout for more Bill Gates, one of the richclients and has even started up her own est people in the world company. As of now, she’s yet to get done once opined that it is nevwith her undergraduate degree but she’s er one’s fault to be born steadily on her way to financial freedom poor. He went on to state and stability! Right from university hopes that if one should die poor, are always high for the fresh graduates. The and then the blame should reality is that things are very tricky in the be attributed to that perjob market. As per the World Bank report, son. What he meant was there are 13million Ugandans that are withthat life has a lot to offer in the working age population. Another rein between birth and death cent World Bank report titled ‘Uganda Jobs of an individual and that it Strategy Inclusive Growth’ also shows that is incumbent upon every an average 661,129 new Ugandans enter the individual to make his or Sharon Mbabazi alias ‘Sharon the Brick girl’ job market every year. This high number her life better. coupled with the limited job slots available Some young women in Uganda have by coincidence followed is responsible for the alarming unemployment rates among Bill Gate’s approach and made news headlines for their outfresh graduates. standing attitude towards life. They have refused to give in to After university, Sandra Muhindo was unemployed for a couself-pity or even allow themselves to drown in poverty. Shaple of years. She had to figure out a way of bringing food to ron Mbabazi alias ‘Sharon the Brick girl’ is one of such young the table. She began cleaning people’s compounds then later women. Tears form in her eyes as she remembers an incident diversified to cleaning roof tiles to earn a living. She faced where she had to lay bricks just to raise 1000 Ugandan shilcriticism and mockery from both men and women due to the lings (less than half a Euro) to buy a knicker because she nature of her job. She didn’t give up and she’s now proud of didn’t have any. Little did she know that she would end up being able to contribute greatly to the sustenance of her familaying bricks to push her through elementary school. ly alongside her husband. Look no further fellow women, the Time came when Sharon had made it to High School. Still, secret lies in thinking outside the box there was nothing much her family could offer financially to support her. She continued laying bricks and selling them Eva Nakato is a Ugandan based writer and she wants to amidst ridicule and backlash from her peers as it was considread from you so write her through ered weird for a girl child to lay bricks. Surprisingly, she even info@thevoicenewsmagazine.com sponsored her university education through the same activity.