Bukoyo’s Tenywa proves disability is not inability
Abdu Tenwya speaks to journalists at Bukoyo SS in Iganga where he had gone to pick his results on Saturday. Photo b Yazid Yolisigira
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Though he managed to start school at the age of six, Ms Nangobi had to carry him to the nearby St Michael Primary School for the entire lower primary education.
IGANGA- Among the Basoga, it is believed that when hard times hit a disadvantaged or vulnerable person, they are like torrential rains that never cease.
The saying strikes a chord with 19-year-old Abdu Tenywa, the young man with a disability who scored 18 points in History, Economics, Islamic Studies and two subsidiary passes in ICT and General Paper to emerge one of the best students who sat for UACE at Bukoyo Secondary School in 2014.
Born to Mr Hussein Isabirye and Ms Fauza Nangobi, the first in a family of eight children was according to his mother born with very weak bones, which made it impossible for him to develop proper legs and arms.
Though he managed to start school at the age of six, Ms Nangobi had to carry him to the nearby St Michael Primary School for the entire lower primary education.
With time, he developed the ability to move on his own, but the legs never developed like normal ones. He walks like a person who is squatting.
At the age of 9, an acute onslaught of diabetes saw his father bedridden, a state in which he has stayed for the last 10 years.
With the bread winner down, the mother was forced to settle for selling pan cakes and farm produce to raise money for the children’s school fees and other needs.
“As you see my husband is down and I have been selling pan cakes and farm produce mainly maize and beans to get for him fees,” Ms Nangobi explains.
That Tenywa managed to study and sit for his UACE exams is testimony that she is putting up a great fight, but the leaking roof of the family’s house in Bulimira village in Busembatya Town Council is a stark reminder of the poverty in which the family still lives.
The family, which is largely dependent on agriculture to provide the bulk of its income, has a love-hate relationship with the rains.
Failure of the rains means diminished incomes, but it is at the same time with apprehension that they receive the rains because of the leaky roof over their heads. That will, however, not dampen the spirits of the family.
“I made it, I made it! Thanks be to Allah for His Mercies. Who am I to get 18 points?” he asks amid cheers from family members.
The headmaster of Bukoyo Secondary School, Mr Ali Kayuyu, attributes Tenywa’s success to hard work.
“We have a devoted staff who always try to give their all, but at the end of the day it is very important that the students work hard and in this case the student played his part,” he said.
Tenywa, whose life so far has been riddled with challenges, is keen on pursuing a law course, but uncertainty over the future still hovers over the family.
“My family is poor and now the remaining hopes are in government to give me a sponsorship at university. I need to do law such that I help vulnerable people like me to get justice,” he says.
