My father tells my siblings to be like me

By Andrew Masinde

Brenda Mukisa Mugaga has beaten all odds to survive in a field people think is reserved for the rich. She is one busy lady.

In the little time I spent at her beauty parlour, her phone was ringing off the hook, with clients booking for facial treatment as others asked for directions to her beauty parlour.

With a pleasant grin on her face, she directs her girls on how to massage, as others give pedicures and manicures in the next room.

“I wake up at 4:00am daily to prepare for work. Due to the high demand for my services, I hardly get any time to rest. I work until 6:00pm in the evening.

“As my clientele grew, I trained workers to match the demand. I make sure they do a good job, so the customers always come back with a friend. I enjoy working on a customer, knowing they will look good and healthy,” Mukisa says.

Mukisa, 30, is the first born of three children and has set an example for her siblings. “My father is always telling them to work hard and be like me. One of the reasons I work hard is so that I can continue to be a good example to them,” Mukisa says.

Mukisa says she was raised in the humble family of Prophet Samuel Kakande. There, they were always told to be hardworking.

“My father always told us never to despise jobs and to be job makers rather than job seekers, if we wanted to be independent in the working world,” she says.

Mukisa went to Molly and Paul and Kasengejje Primary Schools. She attended Kasengejje Secondary, but her parents could not raise money for her university, so she opted to join a vocational school.

She joined joined a beauty school in Kansanga, where she graduated as a beautician, specialising in body treatment (body massage, body waxing, body wrapping and nails treatment).

HOW SHE STARTED

After completing her course, Mugaga got a job at Pamper Zone, Kanjokya Street in Kamwokya, where she worked for two months as a beautician.

However, she was not contented, since her dream was to become selfemployed. In 2009, she decided to put what she studied into practice. With the experience she had gained from Pamper Zone and the savings she had from her previous job, she set out to start her own beauty parlour.

Mukisa says the beginning was not easy because the parlour needed more money, yet what she had saved could not cover even a quarter of the things she needed.

She decided to sub-let at her friends shop, but even then, things did not go well. She would pay more in rent than she was earning. So she decided to borrow money that she used to rent a room at Mabirizi Complex on Kampala Road.

“A friend had told me that I would get money there, since the place is in the city centre. This turned out to be true. In a short period, I managed to pay back the debt. Today, I even manage to pay my employees,” Mukisa says.

She also sought the intervention of her father, who bought her one facial machine for the start. From the one machine, she has managed to acquire three more facial machines and plans to get more because the number of customers increases by the day.

On a good day, Mukisa works on over 50 to 60 customers. She charges between sh20,000 to sh50,000 per person, depending on the treatment.

INSPIRATION

Mukisa says she was inspired by her father who taught her to be independent. “I was also inspired by a show I went to in Dubai when I was still at school. I was surprised to see people who had pimples get cured. Some who had wrinkles were also treated and this inspired me to come and try it in Uganda and it has worked,” she says.

ACHIEVEMENTS

“Setting up this beauty parlour is an achievement in itself. Working on different classes of people despite my humble beginnings gives me satisfaction,” Mukisa says. She adds that she has managed to provide school fees for her siblings.

She is also happy that now she is an employer and a trainer, which was her dream. “It is a dream come true. I want to continue training and employing more youth,” she says.

CHALLENGES

Mukisa says the biggest challenge is rent because of the location. She says almost half of what she earns goes into rent.

FUTURE PLANS

Mukisa wants to open up an orphanage. “I feel bad when I see children on the streets begging, yet they are also supposed to have a home where they belong,” she says. Mukisa also wants to start doing counselling sessions, where she will invite girls and talk to them about how to survive without having to depend on parents and men.

“I think some of my fellow girls like free things and in the end this leads them into danger,” she notes. She also wants to be an example to mostly the youth who like to sit and wait for free things and then blame the Government for causing unemployment and poverty, yet God has given them hands and brains to work on their own.

ADVICE

Muksia advises the youth start with the little they have because one by one makes a bundle. She calls upon the Government to start up projects where the youth can borrow money to start with, since many come from homes wherethey cannot afford to raise start-up capital.