Every third Sunday of the month of June, Father’s Day is celebrated worldwide. The day calls on young people to appreciate the great work of their fathers in producing, upbringing them and caring about them.

It calls on them where possible to prepare their fathers good gifts in appreciation of their role in various aspects of life.

Before you start worrying about what to get your father for his day, you can take your time to make sure that you plan a Father’s Day brunch or even put your crafty side to work with a DIY gift idea for a dad.

This year, Father’s Day is on Sunday, June 20, 2021.

Here below are some people expressing their appreciation to their fathers.

Our Father is very special to us-Moses Mwesigwa Senior Internal Auditor and Richard Mugisha Deputy City Town Clerk

Our father Mr.Thomas Bamuhayira stays in Rwemikunyu cell, Nyakinengo Parish of former Biharwe Division, Mbarara City.

Born in 1938 by the late Rubiire and Marita Katandimu of Mizi, Buhanama Rwampara in Ankole District now Itojo, Ruhama, Ntungamo district.

He was the second-born child of an ageing father with other elder siblings. He started his basic education at Buhanama Church school in 1940s with the help of his elder brother one Kibehe. He attained both formal and religious education from Ndeija, Nyakika, Rwera and Kagamba Ntungamo and completed Primary education at Nyamitanga in the late 1950s. He was later employed as a Royal guard of the late Ankole King Charles Godfrey Gasyonga II in the Ankole Police after a series of manual and casual engagements in his home and Mbarara town.

 Married his wife Joviah Kasaasa from Kyempitsi, Shuuku, Sheema in 1963 and settled together in the current location with whom they produced eight children, five boys and three girls all living to date. After serving the Kingship to its end in 1967 and later the District Administration as an askari in the turmoil period of the Iddi Amin regime, he resigned in 1975 and settled back to the village where he embarked on cultivation in order to work for the family and raising us his children.

Through toiling and hardwork, our father managed to feed and educate all his children to their highest levels with many of them now working as Senior officers in civil, public and private settings.

Having come out from this far and got exposed to such situation, background and conditions, our father became an active and inspirational figure not only to we his biological children but also to other people including members of his community where he is a political leader, church leader and farmer, mobiliser, lead citizen, grandfather and advisor among others.

 It is through this that our father has depicted himself as model to his community in leadership, farming, education, parenting and advisory expert skills among others.

His association with the above characters even when he was just an askari built in him a desire to work hard, respect for authority, law abiding, value education, retire early, empower and give liberty to his wife, appreciate politics and participation in civic matters, value of land and cattle, defend and protect life and human life in general, to be independent minded, encourage his children to walk in the footsteps of those he served under as a way of compensation and to be mindful of the past and background in general.

It is through the above description that we regard our father as a hello and an inspiration model to our carrier and that of our siblings, growth, destiny on which our strength to our success is hinged. “He has made me believe that once one prepares and set him/herself for something, with God’s blessings everything is possible.” Mwesigwa says.

 We cherish your greatness and wish you a Happy Father’s Day our Daddy.

Father’s Day- a Genuine Personality: Fr.Didas Tumwine Chaplain Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital and Kakiika Government Prison.

On this day of Fathers International Day, I wish to extend my gratefulness to my father Omushomesa (Catechist) Gabriel Bamugyeya aged 89 of Ishaka, St.Kaggwa Parish, Bushenyi.

In a family of ten children, together with his wife managed to bring his family from a simple background to make us what we are today. I learnt from him a weavering faith, hardwork and farsightedness. A believer in destiny.

As a family we wish him and other good fathers a blessed Father’s Day. Live more many years as we pray for God’s intervention in these threatening days of COVID-19.

Long live our dear father.

I say I love my father: Mercy Nuwamanya Secretary

My father is Mr.Naabe Naboth born from Kankara cell, Bitsya Sub-county, in Buhweju District. He was born on 11^th May, 1961 to the late Zephania Rukyari and Violet Bahingire. He was born with ten siblings and I am his first born.

I love my father very much because to me he is not only a father but my friend. Living a peasantry life, he struggled to raise us his eight children, four boys and four girls using the meager resources he could manage to raise. He used to get money from local waragi and tonto to pay school fees for us.

What inspires me to treasure my parents most is because of their hardworking by cultivating millet, beans and banana plantations which costed them a lot of energy and which was not an easy thing.

Both my father and mother on top of giving us education encouraged us by teaching how to dig and doing other house chores something that has made us what we are.

My father’s words like “My girl, I will teach you to enable you read a sign post or read yourself a letter” encouraged me to read hard to the level where I am and ended successful.

I have learnt from my father to have a sense of loving and caring my own family, be self-supportive, hardworking and God fearing.

Nothing much I can give you Daddy to express how much I love you apart from praying for you.

Happy Father’s Day my dear Taata. I love you.

 My Father, My Hero: Tibihika Theo Mbarara City Town Clerk

My father Mr Bwimbiza Boniface, the last son of the late Tabura Bernard Kabugombe and Regina Batutu, was born in 1946. He is a father of twelve, five girls and seven boys. He lives in Nyakasa, Kiyoora, Nyakyera sub - county in Ntungamo District.

He attended formal education up to P.2 and dropped out of school. His father did not bother to provide for his further education as he didn’t see the benefits of it since he didn’t have formal education himself but knew the traditional roles of a man - his son which in his view didn’t require education at school.

He however, managed to get a skill of tailoring which he did for some time. He started from scratch, built a home, married a wife and had children. As a second born of the twelve, I noted how he started his adult life with a banana plantation of about four acres donated to him by his father as a traditional share a parent would give his son to start off a new family.

His first daunting task was to acquire more land, cultivate enough to ensure food security for his family members. As the family grew he abandoned tailoring and worked on his gardens. From the sales of his produce, he saved his earnings and was able to buy more land and a few animals for rearing. He had great foresight and kept on acquiring small pieces of land. In all seasons we had enough to eat up to the present day.

 Even when the family grew in numbers, he had enough to feed it. He saved his earnings with our mother and he was able to pay for our education.

He made his priorities so well that he kept hard work, didn’t squander his earnings and avoided luxuries. He offered leadership of the family, enjoyed less for our sake, loved education even when he received little formal education himself. He made sure we got school fees amidst the difficulties of the time, pocket money and other requirements were secondary.

My Hero, he denied himself pleasures, sacrificed what he had and put it to our education. He had time for us, taught values of hard work, persistence, to be God fearing and ethical behavior and to live within our means.

Of the twelve, three have completed university studies, seven have tertiary education, one is a mechanic and one with O level. With that important mark on our lives, he is the greatest hero in my life. As we mark fathers’ day, I cannot but declare him my hero. May the Lord grant us the heart to love him, care for him and payback especially in the evening of his life. I owe all the positions I have held, the earnings I have, the education I have to him. I cannot fathom how and what we would be if he hadn’t done what he did to us. We are eternally thankful Father.

My Father, my blessing: Angella Naturinda, a Journalist

On this occasion when the world is celebrating the Father’s Day, I want to thank God for my father Rev.Can.William Balaba for being a perfect father. He always has enough love to share amongst us all his children. He was so friendly with us, a character we have carried on to other people. He taught us to be kind and also to give people who are in need-the spirit of generosity.

Being a clergy man, he taught us religion, how to pray and read the Bible which has enabled me to grow in faith. With all his might, we never lacked. “I don’t remember ever going to school with any fees balance.

Today I want to express my humble appreciation bambe, for making us who we are by taking us to the best schools regardless of not being so rich in order to acquire the best education.

I am still his last girl and last born and still shares with me some upkeep. These are things that I have never got to tell him.

Today being Father’s Day, I want to say that I am so proud of you Dad. I love you so much and pray that God gives you long life to see us prosper and manifest what you have always wanted us to be.

I am so proud of you Dad, today and forever. We have enough love, kindness and respect to share with others because of the great man who raised us. Congratulations Dad and wish you a happy Father’s Day.

 Our Father is an inspiration to us:  Ambrose Musinguzi Manzi, Businessman

Happy Father’s Day Mzee Apollo Muhumuza popularly known as Balya aged 65.

It is a great pleasure to know a man who loves and cares for his children and family beyond imagination. A man who works hard and tirelessly, to give his children nothing but the best.

Our father Muhumuza Balya is a man who has made himself a name not in Mbarara City but the whole of Ankole and Uganda as a whole. He owns most of the icon of Balya Plaza and Balya Stint Hardware and others in Mbarara City.

Your legacy can’t be underestimated and will remain forever.

We applaud and appreciate your love for us and your efforts to make us what we are and we owe you a big debt of love. Most of us your children are business oriented something we inherit from you.

We pray that God showers on you His endless blessings.

Happy Father’s Day Mzee.