More Than Grades: Kimera's Journey from Scholarship Student to Medical Worker
The Action in Africa scholarship program, which supports individuals from their first day of school through university graduation, considers more than just a student's grades. Why? Because young people in Nakuwadde are a lot more than just their grades. They are strong-willed and ambitious young men and women who have had to endure many challenges to realize dreams that not many people in their lives have ever dared to dream. Kimera Mohammed is one such person. Now a medical worker at Mityana District Hospital, about 44 miles from the Action in Africa community center in Nakuwadde, Kimera has had to go through financial and academic challenges to fulfill his dream of being a medical worker. This dream was birthed as early as his high school days when he saw medical workers provide life-saving services at the Action in Africa Medical Outreach, a healthcare program hosted twice a year.
In 2016, Kimera Mohammad was selected for the Action in Africa scholarship and was supported to complete his last two years of high school at Central College school in Nakuwadde. He had previously witnessed and participated in the Action in Africa medical outreaches and his dream was to become a medical doctor. But to his misfortune, Kimera was not able to get the grades that would enable him to get university admission to study medicine. He was devastated but chose to look at this as a mere stumbling block.
Kimera decided to enroll himself in a nursing school where he could study to become a nurse, which is one way he would be in a position to enroll in a medical school despite his high school grades. He was admitted and enrolled in Mityana Nursing School at his own cost but this was later too high for him to manage. He immediately found it very difficult to pay his school fees and meet all the other requirements for a three-year course, he was only able to pay for one year and failed to meet all his other tuition fees. He had tried to do it by himself but it became impossible for him to continue on his own.
Kimera decided to try and apply for the Action in Africa University Scholarship program to finance his nursing school so that he could sustain his dream of becoming a medical worker. At his first attempt, he was told that the applications had already closed and he could not be awarded the scholarship, but after several attempts, this decision was reconsidered and Kimera was asked to join the application process which required him to volunteer at Action in Africa as part of his assessment. He could not stay in school because he could not afford to, so he paused his education in the nursing school while he awaited the scholarship decision.
Fortunately, at the end of his internship at The Center, Kimera was awarded a University Scholarship to complete his nursing school course, and in June this year, landed employment as a nurse in Mityana District Hospital. He now practices general medicine, supporting doctors from the operation theater to the pediatric ward, handling emergencies, counseling sessions, and everything in between. From a simple medical outreach camp volunteer in Nakuwadde, Kimera is now working in a public hospital that provides health service to a population of over 105,000 people in Mityana District.
Kimera hopes to become a medical doctor one day, and he plans to enroll in a medical school and study medicine. But for now, Kimera is helping his community access health services, he has continued to volunteer at the AIA medical outreaches. In addition to that, his rotary club has organized medical outreaches in the Mityana District and provided services similar to those provided in Nakuwadde at the Action in Africa medical outreach.
