My graduation party money got me a knitting machine

Some graduates receive money and presents during their graduation parties.

A majority spend this money lavishly and forget that they have a future ahead of them. Irene Nalemba collected that money and purchased a knitting machine which she used for her first job.

When I graduated from Makerere University with a degree in business administration in 2012, my relatives organised a party for me. I got many presents and some money as well. Though I thought of spending that money on buying fancy clothes and shoes, I later purchased a knitting machine.

I had learnt how to knit sweaters at secondary school, so instead of moving from office to office searching for jobs, I decided to put my skills to use. I went to different schools asking them to give me opportunities to knit sweaters for their students. A few schools trusted me, even though I was not working under a registered company.

Later, I got in touch with a lady who had a company that was knitting school sweaters. She had several contracts with different schools and was in need of a knitter. She used to give me a Shs5000 commission on every sweater I knitted, and I would knit more than 100 sweaters in a month.

This lady introduced me to some schools which gave me direct contracts. This job kept me engaged and it used to sustain me well until I was informed about a job opportunity of working as an education instructor in Muscat, Oman.

Though I was skeptical about the offer, I later began processing my documents. Since 2015, I have been teaching English in Oman. I did not study teaching so I make use of the internet to get tutorials. I am enjoying the job.

As told to Dorcus Murungi