Married at 15, chasing her education dream at 37

A mother of eight, who include a set of twins, Mellon Nyamwiza Rwancumangi Nalongo, mixes freely with children fit to be her own. With short kinky hair, she is clad in a white short-sleeved blouse bearing a school badge, teamed with a black skirt and black leather sandals.

Occasionally, she breaks into wild laughter, jumps and cheers on the athletes at Rukoni Primary School playground in Ntungamo District on their school sports day.

She is the head of cheerleaders of Makerere House which comprises the most cheerful students but does not perform well in sports activities. At 37, she is a Senior Four student to whom children seem endeared while teachers treat her as their equal much as she has to obey the school rules.

Recently elected local councillor for Kyamwasha Parish in Rukoni Sub-county, Nyamwiza braves 24km to and from Rukoni Secondary School daily to attain her dream education. She has done this for the past four years to better her literacy skills she missed when her parents passed on when she was a teenager.

She wears a bright smile as she welcomes guests to the sports ground and follows the teachers’ instructions to the dot. I could not start a conversation with her before seeking permission from the school head lest she faces disciplinary action.

Back then
In 1991, Nyamwiza had joined Primary Six, when she lost both her parents to HIV/Aids. She dropped out of school, two years later. Her relatives married her off to a 71 –year-old widower. He convinced them that she would be taking care of his three children from his previous marriage. His wife had died in 1992.

At 15 , she could not understand what her role in the home would be.

“I had not come to get married to Mzee (her husband). My family members told me I had to take care of the children who had been left by his other wife who had died a year earlier. Being an orphan with no care, I grabbed the opportunity.

Afterall if I rejected, I would be disowned by my family. This doubled as a chance of survival,” Nyamwiza recollects.
Her husband Eliasaph Rwancumangi was 71 when the two got married. Rwancumangi at the time had many cows and a vast piece of land.

Sailing the murky waters
Nyamwiza’s parents left her with eight siblings to take care of as she is the first born.

A year after she had been married off, Nyamwiza fell pregnant. The couple had a girl who is currently in Senior Four at Nyakyera Secondary School. She played her housewifery roles and had seven more children.

Meanwhile, the three children she had been brought to care for are now married with children. “I decided to go back to school because I wanted to resurrect my dream of the education I lost during my childhood,” she explains. Her husband pays her fees and that of their children.

Active community member
Nyamwiza is sociable and active member of the leadership in her community. When she considered going back to school, Nyamwiza at the time was the LCI vice chairperson for Kigando village, head of village health teams in Kyamwasha parish, the mission coordinator for her local church, Kyamwasha Church of Uganda.

In her village, she ranked among the highly educated females having attained primary school education.
In her earlier school days, Nyamwiza was always the top pupil from Primary Two to Primary Five. One day, while doing house chores, Nyamwiza says she felt she had spent more time having babies than adding any other value to her profile.
“I was given many responsibilities in my village and in 2010, I was asked to lead women, children caregivers in three sub-counties of Rubaare, Kayonza and Rukoni which I undertook.

This enabled me to move to different places. While I was a good leader, I met people who spoke good English yet mine was very basic. With my leadership skills, I felt the need to go back to school and improve my English as well as enhance my leadership skills,” Nyamwiza recollects.

In 2011, Nyamwiza enrolled for Primary Six at Kyamwasha Primary School , a kilometre away from her home. She sat PLE in 2012 passing in Grade IV. She was admitted to Rukoni Secondary School. “I wake up with our children at 5am and do morning chores after which we pack our books and go to school. We meet at home in the evening and prepare supper and do our homework,” she says of her typical day.

She cannot forget her most challenging time in Primary Seven when she became pregnant with their last born. She delivered in her vacation. Nyamwiza would strap her child to the back and ride a bicycle to school as some locals thought she had run mad.

“I would carry my child to class. Some people asked what I was up to. Children rebuked me and women talked behind my back. Many advised me to drop the idea of going to school but I resisted because I knew what I wanted,” she explains resolutely, adding, “after weaning our son, I would leave him with my husband).

She still faces criticism from the old village women.
“They say I’m neglecting my husband because he is elderly and using going to school as an excuse to hunt for younger men, but what can I do? This is the only chance I can make up for my childhood dreams. I think I my first achievement will be sitting my exams (UCE). I still hope to even achieve bigger things,” Nyamwiza’s eyes glint.

Humanitarian bone
Back at home in Kigando village, Kyamwasha parish in Ruhaama, Ntungamo District, Nyamwiza is a commendable woman. She takes care of her husband, apportions work to the children and she also takes care of the family gardens, cows and goats. She has established an orphans centre at their home which she hopes to develop into a school in future. With this on her plate, Nyamwiza finds time to read her books.

Her dream
As councillor, she says she wants to fight until her sub-county, Rukoni East gets a government- aided secondary school, gets electricity national grid extension (power), clean water, a government aided health centre III and all government aided primary schools in the most marginalised sub-county in Ntungamo district get better service.

“Our sub county is the most marginalised may be it is because we have the highest illiteracy rates, but I want to fight as a councillor to see that we can also effectively share the district cake, and I hope to achieve this through our council,” Nyamwiza says. She therefore has to take care of the family, study, and lead the people who elected her. Her other dream is to become a teacher.