Director’s Profile

GRATITUDE 

I salute my parents who looked beyond the traditional perceptions, who looked at me and saw within me a future professional, future leader and not merely a girl fit only for marriage. Yes, getting married is good and indeed at the age of 26 I got married and went on to have 4 wonderful children, but this was after I graduated as an Education Officer. I later on pursued political leadership first, at the Local Government level for 3 years and then I was elected to the National Parliament of Uganda where I served for 15 years. My passion for the girl-child was aroused by the experiences when I was growing as a younger girl in my community of Lulagala – the journey was lonely and odd as I didn’t have examples to look to or peers to relate with! Later in the years during my tour of duty as a leader the extent and context of the problem became clearer, larger and  more concerning to me! Wherever I worked I was exposed the more to the challenges that girl children face as they grow up. As a teacher, I experienced first-hand the inequality between girls and boys. There were few girls that made it up to secondary school; those that did, a good number couldn’t complete as they dropped out because of pregnancy or early marriage. I also witnessed girls dying in the process of trying to procure abortions. While serving as Secretary for Education in Mubende District, I faced first-hand the challenges of trying to promote girl-child education where child marriage was the order of the day in the pastoral communities of Kiganda, Kasambya, Kitenga and big parts of Mubende District. Working with Action Aid we embarked on a programme of mass mobilization of communities through local radios to keep girls in school. One such impactful examples was the education programmes we ran on Voice of Toro Radio in Fortportal. I remember the weekly journeys of over 120 Km on a then murram road which I made weekly to go and talk to parents over the Radio. When I joined the National Assembly, I gained a bigger platform and more resources that I could use to extend my reach and impact. I fought passionately for the Girls’ Education, and Maternal & Adolescent Health. I chose to take my children to elite schools because of the high benefits associated attending such schools. As a Leader, I reflected on the plight of the many children especially girls in my community who missed out on opportunities either because they are girls, or they have not attained the cut off points to qualify for government scholarships, or worse still, the parents had no money for their school fees.