Former street child scores aggregate 6 in PLE

Brian Asimwe,16 a former street boy scored Agg. 6 at Kids care in Masaka. Photo Shamim J Nakawooya

What you need to know:

  • They picked him up after he had spent two years on the streets, took him to their rehabilitation home and to school as well. Their efforts have now paid off as Asiimwe has excelled in the national exams.

Brian Asiimwe 16, is very happy with the results he got in the Primary Leaving Exams. He scored aggregate 6. A former pupil of Kids Care Primary School in Masaka District, Asiimwe feels he has come a long way and is now on the right path. Two years ago, he was on the streets, living as a street kid, begging for money to make ends meet.

But Love and Care for all Uganda, a community based organisation that works with street kids in Nyendo, a Masaka’s suburb came to his rescue. They picked him up after he had spent two years on the streets, took him to their rehabilitation home and to school as well. Their efforts have now paid off as Asiimwe has excelled in the national exams.

“I attribute my success to God,” he said, when asked what helped him pass well.

19-year-old David Mukisa, also formerly a street kid scored aggregate 14. Mukisa had also spent four years living on the street before being rescued by an organisation called Ssuubi ly'Abato Voluntary Organisation in Nyendo which put him back in school (Kids Care Primary School) in 2016 to sit for PLE.

The two are grateful for the organisations that picked them up. As orphans, they found themselves on the street, living the hard life. The boys say they missed living in a home and going to school, and all the things any child would want to have. So when the organisations came to pick them up, they were only too willing to leave the streets and begin a new life.

Mr Peter Ssempa, the director of the school says the boys have been disciplined and is grateful for the organisations that have been paying the boys’ school fees.

Asked what helped them pass, Asiimwe says he read hard. “I revised enough and followed teachers’ advice and instructions,” he says, while Mukisa attributes his results to hard work, confidence and putting God first in everything.

The boys are now looking ahead. “I am excited beyond measure. I want to become a medical doctor in future,” Asiimwe says, adding that he wants to join St. Henry’s College Kitovu for his O’ level. Mukisa is looking at studying in Masaka Senior Secondary School and he later hopes to become a professional teacher in future.

Both of them have the same message for street children. Their message is that if the street children can find a way back home or receive help from organisations that want to rehabilitate them, they should grab the opportunity, because the rewards are worth it.