Brick by brick, Edith Tumuheirwe has walked the journey of construction and parents have trusted her with their children. PHOTO/EDGAR R. BATTE
Edith Tumuheirwe Murungi, a teacher by profession and Engineer Emmanuel Tumuheirwe got married in 1983 and were blessed with a baby boy the following year, a daughter in 1985 and another son in 1989.
At four months, the third born, Harold Christian Katwesigye, was taken for immunisation after which he constantly cried for four days, became sick and lost his normalcy as the sickness persisted leading him to become blind and disabled.
Murungi was sad and quite frustrated on what to do to help her child.
“After seeing how I struggled, my sister-in-law in Canada, Alice Mutungi, advised me to look for a way to look after this child by finding a day care centre to look after him as I worked. I am a teacher by profession, but I had left teaching and started doing business,” she recollects.
The day care centres she visited were hesitant to take her son in so she decided to start a day care with her children plus one from a neighbour. The children spoke good English and were confident so out of admiration, observant neighbours trusted Murungi with their children.
She narrates, “We had no structures so we started in a guest wing in Luzira. It was very small and each room had the capacity to accommodate only 10 children. I opted for a wooden structure and my baby class filled it to 80.I had nowhere to put the middle class so we turned the boys’ quarters into middle class. I had a small room where I kept my son Harold.”
The real intention was for her to have close contact with her son as he also attained elementary education. Unfortunately, he passed on a week to his fifth birthday. Nonetheless, the idea of the school was sustained, and she went to formally register it with the Ministry of Education and Sports as Dade Nursery School.
The pupil population grew and the educationist rented space to accommodate the school. She identified land on which to build a school. It cost Shs20m.
The school needed a financial boost so she reached out to Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB) where the bank manager at the time, Grace Bakunda invited Tumuheirwe to her office the next day and told her she (Tumuheirwe) had seen the land for Shs20m but had no money to acquire it.
UCB’s bank manager told her to apply for a loan and eventually qualified for Shs8m. She negotiated to buy the land at Shs16m, paid Shs14m and paid the remaining Shs2m over an agreed time with the seller.
She got another loan of Shs10m which enabled her to start building. It was enough to build up to the wall plate of the structure. The nursery school parents were happy to support her in putting up a permanent school.
Concert to the Rescue
“I organised a concert and invited parents and children at the new premises and told them that the next term children were welcome. Parents were very happy to see a development from a rented wooden structure to a permanent building but with no windows and road; it was just a path,” she recounts.
The Local Council (LC) 5 chairperson, Polotosio Kintu supported her with 10 bags of cement, a parent donated to her two tippers of sand which she used to plaster the first building.
When Bakunda retired from UCB which had been under management of Stanbic Bank, she introduced Tumuheirwe to Uganda Development Bank (UDB) where she got a loan to proceed with construction of more structures at the school.
Brick by brick, she walked the journey of construction and parents trusted her with pupils. The school has classes up to Primary Seven (P7). It has a population of about 400 pupils who blossom in a spacious space to learn and play.
Her husband was inspired by her and decided also to build a school, Emma Secondary School. Tumuheirwe has outlined the vision for the school.
She says, “We ensure that each learner participates, and our teachers are encouraged to make them participate, not teachers dominating the process. We have holistic teaching because it helps get skills like home economics, weaving, knitting, craftwork like mats, baskets, soft brooms among others.”
She emphasises: “Being versatile is very important. It's good for someone to be in Primary Five (P.5) and can make a mat. Not all learners can be good academically, so this is an opportunity for everyone to excel at something. We also develop them spiritually and morally.”
Studies by the American Public University indicate that children with well-developed social and emotional abilities during their early years tend to achieve greater academic success as they grow older. Similarly, these young people tend to experience fewer mental health concerns.
Social and emotional skills allow young students to maintain healthy relationships with each other and their families, manage stress, cope with challenges, and make responsible decisions.
Tumuheirwe is hands-on to ensure that learners, teachers and other staff members are happy at all times and are involved in decision-making.
“If you have a head teacher, give him responsibility but don't sit back. Ensure that you do your part by managing through supervision. In this business, your presence and cleanliness are very important. How children behave matters, the involvement of parents in the school is critical, children's space, teachers especially for the nursery have to be like mothers,” the educationist observes.
She doesn’t believe in pupils attending the boarding section. She says, “Parents are requesting us to put in a boarding section but I want to believe that parents should stay with their children and teach them what they want rather than matrons.
The story of Tumuheirwe is one of determination and resilience in times or situations that could have broken her spirit and deterred her from pushing forward to achieve her dream of owning a school where learners can come alive.
Like it is said, “Resilience is your armour against hardship and failure. In the face of adversity, be a willow tree. Bend, but don't break. If you find yourself in the dark, look for the sliver of light and keep moving toward it.”
