Right away from day one, being born from a peasant family in the early 1990’s, Fokushaba Emmanuel’s education started at stake as he was among the last borns in a family of 8. Luckily enough for him, he was able to finish his primary level in Rwampara District (1997-2006) at Rukandagye Primary School. He later joined secondary school and finished his “O” level at St. Peter’s SS Katukuru in Mbarara in 2010.
Now this is where his journey of struggle begun. He lost his father, and then had to look for money to support his mother who had remained with the sole responsibility of taking care of the orphans. His life became harder day by day and he could not manage to continue with studies, instead resorting to looking for jobs. After long periods of thought, he decided to move from his village in Rwampara to Mbarara town where he got a job in Biashara Supermarket, which was owned by one of the women entrepreneurs around Mbarara town.
He continued with the work hustle for about 2 years and in 2012, he got an opportunity of a half bursary at Exodus College School in Wakiso district. This was possible because by that time he was working and could manage the small fee that he was meant to pay. He was able to complete his A – level in 2013 but had no hope of joining any tertiary institution at that time.
“In 2014, I realized I could not not raise campus fees from the supermarket since I was only earning a monthly pay of Shs 90,000. I thought of what I could do with my little saving at that moment. In March, the same year, one of my A – level friends from Bunyoro told me about an opportunity to go for maize growing in Kibale district which I agreed to though the results were not as I had expected. I was affected by the low prices which were at a record low of 200/= per kg of maize at that time. It was mainly brought about by the South Sudanese political instability and this even decreased the hopes I had gotten to join university,” Fokushaba said.
From Kibale, he went to Kampala and and started working at a car washing bay in Nakawa and later in 2015, applied for Kyambogo University evening classes to resume his education. He was given a diploma in Micro Finance which he did for a single semester and it did not work out as he had expected.
After realizing that he might not make it to the top with little money, he immediately applied for a diploma at UICT (Uganda Institute for Communication and Technology) in Nakawa where he was instead given a diploma in Human Resource Management but all in vain due to limited funds.
This forced him to travel back to the village and have more meaningful discussion about the future of his education with his mother. The two agreed that his mother sells off a small portion of her small land to raise a startup amount of money which was the hardest decision that she had ever made, according to Fokushaba. She sold off the land on a condition that he provides for himself other requirements including accommodation and other related campus requirements which he had to accept.
In 2016, he enrolled at Makerere University Business School – Mbarara Regional Campus for a bachelors degree of Science in Procurement and Supply Chain Management. This was after getting some extra money from Zana Complex in Ruti where he had worked as a bar manager. Later, he decided to join Reach a Hand Uganda, a youth led organization advocating for sexual reproductive health and rights but the struggle remained on until 16th January, 2020, when he was awarded a degree at Makerere University.
Fokushaba said that having attended a graduation ceremony of one of the neighbors and missing on so many opportunities of highly paying jobs due to lack of academic papers, he was challenged to go back to school and attain a degree so as to brighten his future. He lost all his school friends who always saw him as a drop out that time. After his graduation, his dream is still on to invest all the time he spent in the classroom if any opportunities come across his way. He went ahead to thank his mother who did whatever she could to ensure that her children go to school plus the few friends who have been supportive to him
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