The Wheel Comes Full Circle: Gloria's Journey from Scholarship Recipient to Social Worker

The Wheel Comes Full Circle

If you recall, in our first blog post from this series featuring the Action in Africa scholarship program, we discussed the need to create a sustainable humanitarian effort. Our mission is to empower people within the community to be self-sustaining. One of the best ways to do that is to inspire the students in the scholarship program to understand the importance of social work. This story represents the full circle of the AIA scholarship program.

Nabulime Gloria is one of the recently graduated students from the Action in Africa University Scholarship Program; we caught up with her over a call from a remote place in Uganda where she traveled for work. She is a social worker with an organization, that rehabilitates young children on the streets of Kampala by taking them back to the village and enrolling them in school.

“I graduated this year in June from Kampala International University with a degree in social works,” said Gloria with utmost pride and excitement. “I always loved working with women and children and I was very sure that this is what I wanted to do,” she added. 

When asked about the support from Action in Africa, she said, “they give us tuition fees, a Laptop, and a monthly stipend to help us get through the days at campus.” She was one of the first University program students and she was also affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, during which institutions of learning in Uganda were closed. As learning moved online, AIA’s laptop contributions became even more critical in accommodating students like Gloria.

We talked a bit about her experience doing the internship program with AIA because she was one of the first students to be a part of the program, “the internship program was very good for me because I liked working with women and children and the internship program gave me that experience.” “In my mind, I wanted to either be a lawyer or a social worker, but after the internship, I was sure about my desire to study and do social work,” she added. 

When asked what she was doing since graduation, Gloria had this to say “I work with an organization called Hope for Justice, we help rehabilitate children on the streets of Kampala by taking them back to their communities and helping them enroll back into school.” Gloria and I had this conversation while she was in a hotel in Kabale; a remote area in Uganda where she had gone with Hope for Justice to rehabilitate children that had dropped out of school and were on the streets in the city.

“I am hardworking personally. I did my best because I knew what I wanted. My message to students that wish to be part of the University Scholarship Program, in general, is that they should do their best, they should work hard and never let AIA down, give back to the community because that is the only way they could ever repay the efforts of AIA.” 

That was Gloria’s message to fellow students in the scholarship program and those that intend to apply to join. We are very proud of the breed of professionals in the university program - young doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Furthermore, it is equally as exciting to see the humanitarian spirit sparked in our students, as it was with Gloria. 

Asante Sana (Thank you very much) to everyone that has read our Scholarship Series blog posts these last few weeks, we hope we have given you a richer perspective on the education initiatives that AIA offers students in Uganda.

Until next time,
Kalinda Jamada