By Caroline Nakanwagi
In 2011, at just 17 years old, I watched my dream of education collapse. I grew up with a single parent in a low-income family in the Kampala slums, where my father struggled daily to provide even the basics. School fees were always uncertain, but education was my only hope for a better future.
After excelling in my O-Level examinations with a first grade, I joined Senior Five, believing hard work would carry me forward. But I only studied for one term. My father could not afford the fees. I still remember the humiliation: the school confiscated my personal belongings—my books, suitcase, even my mattress.
I packed what little dignity I had left and walked away. While my classmates returned to class, I returned home, feeling my life had stopped.
School fees were 300,000 Uganda shillings per term, yet I earned only 30,000 shillings a month selling vegetables at a friend’s stall. Poverty was cruel. No matter how hard I worked, it never seemed enough. But I refused to let this be the end of my story.
I worked every day, Monday to Sunday, saving every coin. Later, I started my own small banana stall to raise more money after school hours. Some days I went hungry.
Some nights I slept at friends’ homes because I had nowhere else to go. Yet something inside me whispered: Don’t give up.
My life began to change because of small acts of kindness. A Muslim woman who often bought vegetables asked why I was not in school. After hearing my story, she revealed she was a school director and offered me a place at subsidized fees. Later, another customer paid my school fees entirely. Strangers became angels in my life.
At Faiha High School in Mpererwe, my headteacher offered me a boarding place and trusted me to pay later. That opportunity gave me stability for the first time in years. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. daily to study, determined not to waste my second chance.
My hard work paid off. I scored 19 out of 20 points, becoming the best student in my class and earning a government scholarship to Makerere University. There, I pursued a bachelor’s degree in social work and social administration, graduating with a First-Class Degree in 2019.
My struggles shaped my purpose: I wanted to serve children and young people facing the same hardships I had known.
I joined Uganda Youth Development Link (UYDEL) and later Trailblazers Mentoring Foundation, working with vulnerable youth, survivors of violence and trafficking, teenage parents, and street-connected children.
Over the years, I have mentored and supported more than 2,000 young people, encouraging them to return to school, stay in school, and complete their education. My work has taken me across Uganda—from Kampala to Karamoja, West Nile, and northern regions—bringing hope and life skills to communities that often feel forgotten.
Still, I dreamed of doing more. Concerned by the growing refugee crisis affecting women and children in Uganda, I applied to pursue a master’s degree in international relations through the Commonwealth Scholarship.
Then, in 2025, while conducting life-skills training for teenage parents in Gulu District, I received an email from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. I opened it once.
Then again. Then a third time. I could not believe what I was reading. I had been selected. Right there in Gulu, I broke down in tears of relief, gratitude, and disbelief—a once school dropout was going to the United Kingdom.
Today, I am pursuing a master’s degree in international relations in the UK as a Commonwealth Scholar, determined to use my education to advocate for vulnerable women, children, and refugees. But my story is not just mine.
It belongs to every child sent home for school fees and every young person who believes poverty has decided their future. Your circumstances are not your destiny.
Do not give up on your education. Seek help. Work hard. Keep going, even when the road feels impossible. If a girl who once sold bananas to survive can study in the UK, your dream is valid too.
I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, the Ministry of Education and Sports, the leadership of Faiha High School Mpererwe, my employers at UYDEL and Trailblazers Mentoring Foundation, my family, friends, and the kind strangers who believed in me when I could barely believe in myself.
From the margins to the Commonwealth stage, my journey proves one simple truth: resilience can carry you further than you ever imagined. And this is only the beginning.