On October 26, Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) had their 26th graduation where a total of 1031 students graduated in different courses. Faith Loyce Nangiro was among these and was awarded a Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery but despite being among a sea of graduates, her story is unique. It is a story of resilience and courage.
She was born in a polygamous family and her chances at education were very slim until she took herself to primary one at Namalu Primary School. Her father had more than 35 children from eight women.
“From Primary Two to Primary Seven I went to St Mary’s Girls Primary School in Nakapiripirit District. I took myself to school because my father wanted me to be serving meals to his workers whenever they returned home,” Nangiro said.
Nangiro was among best students in the district at both primary level and junior secondary. After that, she had no hope of advancing and all her relatives were only giving her advice of getting married but she decided to look for other relatives and politicians who could help her realize her dream of becoming a medical doctor.
She went for her A Level where good hearted people promised to pay for her. After form six, her aunties colluded with a man in the village to arrange her marriage before she joined university even without her father’s knowledge. She refused to get married because she wanted to study much as she did not know where the tuition would come from.
An uncle offered to pay her tuition for one semester as she looked for other sponsors for the subsequent semesters. She joined MUST in 2014 to study Pharmacy. After joining, one of her friends helped her secure a State House scholarship as well as get admission to Medicine.
“Upon hearing my frustrations, Mungan opened up to David Pulkol, who offered to help me. He got in touch with Juliana Amar who was working with USAID and she connected me to Dr Violah Nyakato at MUST. Dr Nyakato approached the former vice chancellor, Prof Ian Kayanja Bantubano, who after hearing my story, accepted to re-admit me for Medicine,” she said.
On graduation day, a dream that started in 1999 had finally come true. The helpless girl from Karamoja was now Dr Nangiro!
