More than the cute, inspiring, and astonishing story of the baby tour guide popularly known as ‘Nicholas’ from Mirambi, Kichamba Subcounty Rubirizi District, Western Uganda.
Nicholas is the gateway to the famous Queen Elizabeth National Game Park.
These are part of the generous services Nicholas serves his clients to entice them about the beauty that is hosted at the Queen Elizabeth.
The 6-year-old prodigy always stands at the strategic cliff of view near Park View Safari Lodge Kyambura where the signpost was posted.
Tourists from home and those across the world should look out for Nicholas, a confident, smart, passionate, and intelligent boy who has mastered the art of hospitality.
He speaks with gestures and a good command of his cramped English for his clients, though he is yet able to traverse through with them inside the gigantic national park.
Nicholas’ expression and knowledge about the tourism subject left the public and social media world guessing which breed of tourist guide he has become and how best can he maintain his God-given talent and skill.
He is an interesting boy, and at the age of 6, one would not believe that he has a passion for what he does. It’s through this job that he can feed his siblings and his ailing 46-year-old mother of 3, Peninah Kyomuhendo, who is sleeping in the old dilapidated single room near the Rubirizi – Kasese main road.
Said Kyomuhendo, a single mother born in the Kihihi district, in Western Uganda.
Kyomuhendo’s life was never the same, and she kept moving from one region to another in the last few years until she found shelter from a good Samaritan in Rubirizi. Apparently, she does casual work and is mainly hired to do digging, and given food as a token.
Scovia Mukundane, a visual artist stationed near Nicholas’ surviving spot, told us that she sees the young boy, Nicholas every evening he comes there.
Mbonye Mark Levis, the Rubirizi District Community Development Officer (DCDO), applauded Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation’s (BSCO) visit to the district as a blessing and timely.
He said that despite having Universal Primary Education (UPE), one of the Government of Uganda’s policy tools for achieving poverty reduction and human development, some of the children have not yet benefited from it due to different factors.
A district of School Dropouts
However, they also have challenges with their UPE schools, they are required to have 25 teachers, but they can only afford 8. They are forced to hire private teachers taken care of by the Parents Teacher’s Association (PTA), but the parents can’t raise even a small fee,
He said that as a district, they have a challenge of school dropouts mainly from UPE who usually stop after primary seven.
“We end up having a big number of dropouts after P.7, and most boys join boda bodas, and girls turn out as housemaids and barmaids, and this is a big challenge because this number is increasing day by day. A few go for skilling in Mbarara, and the intervention by the government is minimal,” Mbonye added.
According to Mbonye, parents struggle to take care of their children due to constrained incomes, and casual labor is paid sh5,000 to work from morning to afternoon.
He called out NGOs and Civil Society organizations (CSOs) to intervene because cases of juvenile cases at Police are improving day in and day out.
Rubirizi district’s key economic activities include semi-intensive agriculture, fishing, trade and commerce, transport, stone quarrying, sand mining, mineral mining, construction industry, tourism, and lumbering, which is mainly dominated by men.
From this point, we appeal to all our followers to come out and support Nicholas and other activities Bravo Shoes Community Support Organization does….reach out to our website for more.
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