From Uniform to Cap and Gown, Brenda is Going Places

Brenda Nambuubi was born on July 20th, 1991 in Kyengerere Village in the Rakai District of Uganda. She is the 3rd eldest of 8 children. Her father, Mr. Verino Lujjaganya, was a brick layer and he was able to send his daughter to school until he lost his job in 1999. With the family unable to pay Brenda’s school fees, an aunt who worked as a teacher at Sabina Primary School stepped in to help.

In 2000, Brenda went to live with her aunt, began attending Sabina and later that year she was enrolled in Children of Uganda’s sponsorship program. She remembers being amazed by how modern and different everything was at Sabina. Students were speaking English, everyone had school uniforms and many had shoes. “At Kyengerere, only a few students had shoes and school uniforms. I always wanted to know what it felt like to put on a school uniform. I also used to imagine that if I put on shoes I could walk longer distances than I walked without them,” Brenda recalls.

At the time, Brenda only knew a few greetings in English. With the help of teachers and friends, she learned to speak English in a short time and graduated P7 (6th grade) with top honors.

In 2006, Brenda joined Christ the King Senior Secondary School and later joined Blessed Sacrament Senior Secondary School Kimaanya. In S3, she become an academic prefect. In S4 she earned 1st grade marks which qualified her for advanced level at the same school. She focused her studies in History, Divinity, Entrepreneurship and Economics. During her S6 vacation in 2012, she worked as a volunteer in Sabina’s Resource Center, as well as Children of Uganda’s office in Rakai.

She went on to attend Nkumba University where she faced some health challenges – namely ulcers. “Attending lectures with stomach aches and completing my final semester examinations while on medication was quite challenging,” she said, “but looking back on how far I have come and knowing that my parents and siblings will look to me for help in different areas kept me going. I had to do all it takes to ensure that I meet my goals.”

On October 28th, 2016, Brenda graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and Administration. She was filled with excitement that day and shared, “I never expected to be who I am today. I always admired friends who graduated and wished to be in their shoes. Now that I am here, I feel so happy and out of words to explain my real feeling about this.”

After graduating, Brenda interned for 6 months as the Finance and Administration Assistant at Children of Uganda’s central office in Kampala. She just recently obtained full-time employment as an accountant at St. Bernard’s Manya Health Center where she is excelling at work.