My Story

My Home Life:  I am the first-born in my family, living with my paternal grandmother, Mugabi Jessica, and other grandchildren (my cousins).

I help out at home by collecting firewood, fetching water from the borehole, washing utensils, and cleaning the house and compound.

My parents separated, and my mother’s whereabouts are unknown. My father left our village in search of work and is now a casual laborer, working as a porter at construction sites. He earns 8,000 shillings ($2.29) a day and occasionally sends us small amounts of money, which barely cover our basic needs. My grandmother is a peasant farmer who grows crops such as sweet potatoes, pinto beans, corn, cassava (a root tuber), and groundnuts, both for home consumption and for sale. She can harvest two bags of corn in a season (4-5 months), selling one bag for 50,000 shillings ($14.29). She also harvests one bag of pinto beans weighing 100 kilograms, selling 50 kilograms for 25,000 shillings and keeping the rest for home use.