Vision reader buys leg for girl

Dec 29, 2009

SHE wore a broad smile as I approached the offices of Pastor John Michael Mugerwa of Katwe Saints Gate. Indeed, the smile was justified. For instead of walking with the support of a staff, Margaret Nakiguli could now walk normally. Only a keen observer co

By Gladys Kalibbala

SHE wore a broad smile as I approached the offices of Pastor John Michael Mugerwa of Katwe Saints Gate. Indeed, the smile was justified. For instead of walking with the support of a staff, Margaret Nakiguli could now walk normally. Only a keen observer could notice that the 12-year-old has an artificial leg.

“I can now walk to school without the support of a staff. I am so grateful to Pastor Mugerwa for coming to my rescue,” Nakiguli says while hoping around to prove that she had mastered walking with the artificial leg.

Pastor Mugerwa helped Nakiguli after reading her story in The New Vision. She lost her leg in an accident in Mukono market, where she had gone to sell fried potatoes. A driver lost control, knocking Nakiguli and her customer. The customer died instantly, while Nakiguli survived with a shattered leg, which was later amputated at Mulago Hospital.

An orphan, Nakiguli could not make it to school after being discharged from hospital.

Nakiguli and her three siblings lost their mother, Margaret Nagujja, two years ago. Their paternal aunt, Immaculate Nanyonjo, a widow, took them on in her rented one-room house.

Nanyonjo used all her capital to care for Nakiguli when she was hospitalised. The driver and the owner of the vehicle which knocked her did not give them any assistance.

When Pastor Mugerwa read her story in The New Vision, he was touched. “I have helped many children acquire education, but Nakiguli’s case was different. Apart from having one leg, she had no school fees. I decided to give her both,” he says.

Mugerwa paid sh460,000 for Nakiguli’s artificial leg at Mulago Hospital and also offered her a place at Destiny Boarding Primary School in Kizinda village near Katende town on Masaka Road.

Mugerwa is the director of the school located on 22 acres of land. The school was started in 2003 and currently has over 1,000 pupils, 870 of them needy.

“We mainly get children from Katwe slums. Many of them lost their parents due to HIV/AIDS,” Mugerwa says.

Parents of the needy pupils only buy soap and books for their children, leaving the school to provide other needs.

Very soon, Mugerwa says, they will open up a secondary school — Destiny Eagles Secondary School — in the same area.

“This will help our pupils from the primary section to continue with their studies through secondary school,” he says.

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