Her vulnerable daughter Gains Secondary School Bursary  

Birungi Fatuma, of Teens 2 Teens project sang her way to a full secondary school bursary and is inching her way closer to achieving her dream of being a doctor.   

Birungi is a teen from Kirume public primary school, a child of a single mother, Hasifa Nabatanzi, a 41 years old single mother of 5 who resides in Bukomansimbi village, Nangabo LCI in Kiyita parish, Nabingoola Sub-county in Mubende district.  

Attaining the bursary was a great achievement because her mother, Nabatanzi had been struggling to support her family since 2014.  As the family’s sole bread winner, she works all kind of jobs including daily farming labor, food vending, hawking and she also rents land to grow food for sale. 

Nabatanzi’s commitment that sees her push very hard to provide food and meet all the academic needs of her 5 children is driven by a desire to ensure her children get a bright future and also to one day to prove to the husband who abandoned her that her determination and hard work was not in vain.     

Nabatanzi admits that taking care of her children’s basic needs is a daunting task, and that her family can hardly afford to eat more than one meal a day.  Despite all the hardships she faces she still found time to be a spectator when the Teens 2 Teens project came to Nabingoola sub-county in 2018 and her daughter, Birungi Fatuma was one of the competing teens from Kirume public primary school.   

When children presented songs, poem and drama play with messages on the benefits of education especially for girl child and children with disability she was driven to tears.  Nabatanzi says ; 

“Seeing my daughter (Birungi Fatuma) on stage making wonderful performance was like a dream, tears fell from my eyes with the message she was portraying and the actions she was doing, …from that day I saw a new talent I had never seen in her.”  

That day Nabatanzi went home with so many beautiful memories of her daughter and her school (Kirume Public school) winning the sub-county and district based participatory theatre competitions which signaled a new beginning for her daughter to experience new things in her life. 

Nabatanzi got motivated to seek members for her daughter in another youth led – drama group –Nankasa drama group where her daughter Birungi was accepted based on the ability she had demonstrated at the Teens 2 teens competitions. 

Birungi and her school presented the same song they presented during the competitions at a function in Kiyita and later Birungi got a chance for a second presentation with Nankasa drama group and she managed to catch the eye of the master of ceremonies who happened to be the Director of Kibuli Modern High School.  So impressed was he by Birungi’s musical talent that he inquired after her schooling.  Birungi had just finished her primary leaving examinations and the Director promised her a full bursary if she performed well in her examination.   

When results came back Birungi had passed with flying colours and had secured a second grade.  The promise of the full bursary was fulfilled and Birungi joined the school where she continues to demonstrate the musical talent unearthed by Teens2teens.  With Birungi on a full scholarship her mother’s burden got lighter since she now only needs to support the four remaining siblings. 

Nabatanzi’s excitement brought about by the changed fortunes that her daughter’s musical talent had brought to her daughter says,   

“Seeing my daughter studying from Kampala it is like a dream. The SORAK music competition made me realize that my daughter has a unique talent that I never knew about. In fact, I called her and she told me that she was selected to record a song for the school they are about to release” … 

“Yes I may be poor but I see a bright future for my daughter, she wants to be a doctor and I believe she will be…..nothing in this world is impossible as long as you keep faith and courage”