Nampijja Jane's family is from the village of Bukalasa which is located close to the Bwanda (Daughter's of Mary) convent. She has four children who live at home with her - one girl and three boys. Her daughter's name is Womukama Monica and she is thirteen years old. Her sons' names are Katabalwa Gift, Kimera Julius, and Tumwebaze Ronald who are nine, seven and five respectively. Nampijja's three older children attend substandard, government funded schools. Nampijja, well aware of the corruption in Uganda that results in the extremely poor quality of government schools, fears for her children's future and wishes she could afford to send them to a better school.
My name is Nampijja Jane and I work on my mother’s land as a peasant farmer. When I have some surplus food I sell it in the market place to obtain money for school fees and supplies, soap, etc. My husband is no longer living.
My first two children belong to one husband, who I divorced after experiencing some forms of domestic violence that almost put my life in danger. When I divorced my husband, I came back to my parent’s home with my two children. It was during that time that my mother became ill and died. Since I did not have enough support for the two children, I decided to look for another man who would support me and my children. After staying together for one year, my new husband proved to be more kind and loving. As a result, we decided to have children together. During the second year of our marriage, we had a baby boy. We were so happy to have this boy but the joy we had lasted for less than five months when my husband started mistreating me and my children. I decided to go back to my mother’s house and take care of the three children by myself.
As was the case before I married the second man, I lacked funds to send my children to school and so I decided to look for another husband who would help me with financial support. To cut the long story short, the experience was not different from the first two. It might have been even worse.
Since I came back home, I decided to look for some jobs so that I can support my children. However, since I have no high school certificate, I cannot find any high paying job. Sometimes I work on the Sister’s plantation and I also take my children to work with me. Sometimes they have to miss school if the work is so vigorous that I need them to help me finish it and get their fees on time.
My experience has been a great teacher for me. I have learned that people who are educated have the knowledge to solve problems and domestic violence issues in a better way than I did. I want my children both girls and boys to be educated on matters about treating each individual as human regardless of their sex and level of education.
If I get an opportunity to have a pigsty, I will work with my children to raise money to buy them school supplies. Thank you to our donors.
