Not even a heavy downpour or electronic thunder can shatter their dreams, nor floods can derail their determination and zeal to attain the basic education possible in Tororo, Eastern Uganda.
Eyes focused on the prize; nothing could stop the two young girls despite trekking close to 6 miles for years on daily basis to grab a slice of knowledge at Rock View Primary School in Tororo town.
Nandabi Zaituni 9, and Nangoma Fatuma 7, were the Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation (BSCSO) champions of the day for girl child education after their viral video of them enduring a heavy downpour surfaced on social media.
Upon seeing the video, the Bravo Team embarked on the search through an appeal on the social media organization’s social addresses, the vigilance of our followers in the east specifically in Tororo raised the dust high, and this motivated us as we stepped in for a casual reconnaissance mission though the chase did not come so easily.
One of our followers Musa Mandu an accountant with Wash & Wills Hotel in Tororo took the task to sacrifice some time off his desk work to identify the location in the video though he had no idea about the young girls in the video.
“I came to know about Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation activities on LinkedIn, as a humanitarian activist, the post touched me and I commented that if you’re you can help, am willing to help,” Mandu said.
The search for two Girl Children in Tororo
The Bravo Team drove straight away to Tororo to search for Nandabi and Nangoma, our clue was a school banner that appears adjacent to the roadside the two brave girls took, on the orange wall, read “Victory Junior School”.
The team reached the location and interacted with the people around the place just opposite Victory Junior School. Many of the people we talked could still remember the two young girls gracing the rain on the purpose that day.
“Remember these two children? We have arrived in Tororo to check on, and identify them. In the near future, we shall come back, pick them and add them to the list of our beneficiaries,” said Yesigye Brian Bravo the Team Lead.
On arrival at the scene on Maguriya, Mbale Rd.- Tororo district, we got in touch with a lady on the verandah on a sowing machine chatting with friends.
The ladies narrated that on that day it rained so heavily, they saw those kids coming from school but they later disappeared somewhere.
“They were coming from school going home. Mzee that day you were organizing the water tanks,” a lady said.
After seeing the video, another lady we asked said that she saw the girls and pitied them.
“I saw them, I asked them to come and take shelter here and they obliged. I said eeh….maama wabaana bano aliwa? (Where is the mother of these kids?… I was raining so heavily,” she wondered.
The lady remembered that in August 2022, the kids were coming from a place known as Mile 3, Maguriya, off Mbale Rd.
“It is not the first time seeing them here, one of them veils. I saw them the second day in dirty uniforms going to school,” she added.
The team later moved on to Tororo town where we got in touch with the Tororo Senior Community Development Officer Emmanuel Odongo who clearly identified by the look of their uniforms that they were learners at Rock View Primary School.
According to Odongo, the school is highly populated with over 1,000 learners, it serves villages like Aturukuku, Achilet, Agururu, Amagoro, Nyangole, Morukatipe, Maguria among others.
With the company of Odongo, the team pushed back about 5 miles away from the Tororo town, on the right side of the road, we locate kids fetching water on the bore hole, we suspect they could be in the know of the children in the video and our van packed.
Odongo interacted with the kids along with his ipad and one of the people he interacted with was a 16-year-old girl who was waiting for her jerrycan to fill before she lives.
“Yes I know them…..” the girl nods. She points at a certain direction to indicate where the two girls come from. Luckily, the young lady leads us without hesitating.
We walked quite a distance on zigzag short paths for about 50 minutes off the main road and we were in Lubonge Sub- County, Magulya Village A which is demarcated into small size plots with faster-rising development.
Our first attempt was not futile and here we found Fatuma Nangoma, the youngest in the video, her friends were able to identify her on video and she was right there.
“That is Fatuma, her sister is there…that’s where they stay,” pointing at the immediate neighborhood.
Upon reaching home, the two girls stood next to each other in dismay, they were wondering what has really happened to them before their mother came out of the house looking visibly terrified.
Their Mother Nerima Asina the 31-year-old mother of 6 looked so humble and speechless, her description does not qualify you to ask why she doesn’t apply a lotion on her face or do a hot comb to her hair. You could be asking too much if you wanted a touch of bar soap to wash your hands.
“They are my children in primary one, they came back soaked that day at around lunchtime from Rock View since there is no school nearby. They wake up at 6:00 am every day but sometimes one of my neighbors gives them a lift to school,” she said.
Nerima opened up that their father Watindi Juma lives and works as a driver in the Soroti district. He rarely returns homes and spends months without returning home and her mother helps sometimes because they don’t have enough land to till.
“He was poisoned in April and got sick, he used to drive a taxi but since Covid, he has been looking for a proper job. My husband got sick for some time and he was not working,” she added.
Asked if she would want her children to acquire better education, Nerima express happiness and can’t wait to inform the father of her children.