Taking a dead year opened doors for me

All had been going on well until one afternoon, when Vincent Ooko’s father told him he would not be able to pay his tuition anymore. “I had travelled back home to collect tuition for my university studies at Makerere. I was pursuing a Bachelors in Library and Information Science degree. It was during the first semester of my second year.

My father had been bedridden for close to six months. But when he called me to his room, I thought he wanted to give me his last words of wisdom in the presence of my uncle. Because my father had once told me he trusted me more than my other siblings.

Hitting the dead end
“My son I love you so much, you have made my family proud by your determination to pursue higher education. However, due to my condition, I will not be able to pay your tuition anymore.

I had promised to sell every property in my possession to see you through your degree course, but it seems God has not allowed it to happen.” As if that was not enough, he asked me not complain at all.

I simply walked out and went to my room but with a million thoughts running across my mind as I pondered my next course of action. That was the longest night of my life.

I could not imagine dropping all the ambitions I had. I saw all the promises I had made to the family of eradicating illiteracy.
The following morning, I went back to my father and asked if he could give me transport to travel to Kampala and collect my belongings. He gave me the money two days later.

While in Kampala, I confined myself in my hostel room for two days. But I later gathered courage and approached the school director with whom I shared the bad news. He advised me to apply for a dead year instead of dropping out which I did.
Applying for a dead year opened my eyes to the challenging world. It is then that I hit Kampala streets to fight for survival and also look for money for tuition. I vowed never to go back home until I had accomplished my studies.

But because I had not shared the situation with my coursemates, many of them, after failing to see me sit for end of semester exams nor appear at the university, presumed I had squandered tuition.

Ray of hope
But I was determined to do anything to finish school. God guided me to Nasser Road where I was employed by a printing company as a paper collector. Here, I would sort and arrange printed material such as textbooks and put them in order for binding.

Having acquired some minimal computer skills during my first year at work, I requested to be equipped with some graphics designing skills. By then we had limited desktop publishing programmes such as Adobe Page-maker 5.0 which was very basic but later came with Adobe Illustrator and Corel draw.

The graphics designing breakthrough came with the introduction of Adobe In-design 1.0. I was among the first people to learn how to use it. By then I had even become one of the best creative designers on Nasser Road.

I specialised in magazines, newsletters and brochures and it’s from this that I managed to save money to go back to school. After a year, I resumed my studies. To maintain my job, I had to request the school administrator to allow me attend evening lectures and not day as it was before. Going back to school gave me a new life.

I was, however, left with a challenge of balancing studies and work. I eventually completed my studies but all this while, I never returned home.

My father who had by now recovered cried out of excitement when I called to inform him about my graduation. Almost the whole clan came to Kampala to witness the mercy of God.
Not giving up has been the driver of my life. Currently, I am the co-director of Media for Science Uganda, an organisation that is dedicated to linking scientists and researchers with the media to help improve the quality of science communication and journalism in the country.

I had a big dream that God has helped me to achieve. I live by a principle: “Never give up no matter the challenges”.

[email protected]