Former street boy shines in Entebbe

Feb 01, 2009

A FORMER street boy who was supported by Entebbe Comprehensive Secondary School has not disappointed his sponsors.<br>Tonny Ssemakula, 20, scored aggregate 9 in last year’s O’level examinations.

By Agnes Kyotalengerire

A FORMER street boy who was supported by Entebbe Comprehensive Secondary School has not disappointed his sponsors.
Tonny Ssemakula, 20, scored aggregate 9 in last year’s O’level examinations.

Ssemakula dropped out of school in 1998 after his father died.
Having nobody to turn to, Ssemakula, who had also lost his mother during his childhood, sought refuge on the streets of Kampala, where he spent four years.

When children were being moved off the streets, Ssemakula relocated to Entebbe.

In 2003, he met Margret Balisanyuka, a born-again woman, who offered to look after him and enrolled him in P6. He completed P7 in 2004 and in 2005, he enrolled at Entebbe Comprehensive School, which sponsored him from S1 to S4.

Ssemakula, who hopes to join St Mary’s Kitende, has appealed to well-wishers to sponsor him.
He attributes his success to hard work and determination.

“I spent sleepless nights reading; I would sleep at midnight and wake up at 2:00am,” he said.

Ssemakula thanked Balisanyuka for taking him off the streets.
He was also grateful to Swaib Ahmad, the Entebbe Comprehensive School director of studies, for encouraging and sponsoring him.

He advised street children to trust in God and accept to be helped.
“I did not know that from the streets, I would become an academic star,” he said

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