Journey to University: Mugisha

My name is Harison Mugisha, and in August this year, I will be starting my university journey as a law student at Kampala International University courtesy of the generosity of the Action in Africa community.

My academic journey started at Saviour Junior School in Nakuwadde, where I started school in the pre-primary section until primary four. At that point, we lost support from my father which made it difficult for my mother to pay my school fees and support my siblings in the family, so I was forced to go to a public school that cost less. 

I must admit that life wasn’t easy for me at that school because I had to walk 4 kilometers when returning from school every day. The government school I attended was called Bbira C/U Primary School, where I completed my primary education in 2016. During my vacation, I enjoyed tutoring other kids in primary maths because I was quite good at mathematics and also loved dancing. I had a neighbor of mine, Emmanuel Ssembera who was once a scholarship student at Action in Africa who told me about AIA. He told me that because I loved studying and even had good talents, I may find it fun to visit Action in Africa for both their academics and other programs.

I became excited after hearing this and I immediately told my mother about it, and she told me that I could go and revise senior one work from The Action in Africa Center library. After getting permission from my mother, I started coming to The Center and I had the best experience in my primary seven vacation while at Action in Africa. I got to know new people, made new friends, got free coaching lessons from qualified teachers, free access to the library that helped me in my revision, free meals (mama Sheila's porridge) and a chance to enjoy my hobby of dancing with free training classes from professional dancers in Uganda like Valentino, a famous salsa dancer.

In 2017, I joined Light Secondary School Bulenga but the school fees were too high for my family to afford, and I was always asked by the school to go back home due to unpaid fees. This made it difficult for me to perform well in class due to over-missing classes. I used to go to The Center during school time whenever I was sent back home from school and used the library books to catch up with the rest of my school work. The scholarship manager noticed and asked me why I was coming to The Center during school time, and I told her the whole story. 

My mother took out a loan and managed to pay some money that enabled me to do the end-of-year examinations for senior one and the next year, I applied for the AIA scholarship and was lucky enough to be awarded. From then till now the scholarship has helped me with my academic journey from senior two up to this point when I will be joining university to study law.

I have enjoyed the AIA internship and I have gained many skills professionally, ethically, socially, and academically. One of the most interesting programs I have enjoyed in the internship session is public speaking where we read books and presented them to the staff members. It was amazing and educative that it helped us to improve our public speaking skills and confidence and even explore an exciting life of literature. I am very grateful and honored to have joined Action in Africa and I am so happy that it has been there for me, offering a hand to my mother and me to pursue my dream career and also become a better version of myself.