Educating Children & Building Futures, One Child at a Time

May 22, 2024

Standing by the chalkboard, white chalk in hand, Mercy stays focused.  Peering at her are 28 little faces seated on the floor, looking up with wide eyes. Some attentive. Some distracted. Some quiet. Some skittish. Children. What more can you expect from a roomful of 3-year olds?

The classroom is bare except a single bench and table. Children’s drawings cover the wall like 1920s wallpaper. A few pencils are stashed together on the bench.  

Mercy stands at the chalkboard, determined to impart the day’s lesson, regardless of the level of attentiveness. The lesson: how to write the letter f. Mercy draws a horizontal line on the blackboard. “Sleeping stick” she instructs as she draws from end to end. Then the vertical line, “standing stick.” To complete the curve, she instructs them to draw half a ball. Trying to maintain the attention of 28 little ones is a challenge. Mercy is clearly up for it. Why? Because she enjoys teaching and it’s fun for her.

Although she completed her certificate in early childhood development, she’s not confident her future is teaching. When contemplating her future, she confided in her uncle, “What if I get tired of shouting with the young children?” The uncle replied, “Then shout with the big ones.” But for Mercy, her truth is greater. Ultimately, her goal is to have her own business. Congruent with her intensity, eagerness to learn, and high energy level, she doesn’t have a plan in place. 

In her third year of teaching, she’s aware of the expectations of parents. If her students cannot properly transcribe from blackboard to notebook by the second or third term, she knows she will be rebuked. Fortunately, the head teacher routinely gives favorable reports about Mercy to the school’s director.

At just 24 years old, she’s eager to live life, learn more, and slowly, but determined to find her way. During school breaks when others might rest, Mercy eagerly pursues learning. Initially, she envisioned building a catering company, after all, her mother earns a living selling prepared food nightly from a stall in the Acholi Quarter. 

Back to the classroom

Teaching has become her passion. Perhaps it’s because Mercy is a big kid at heart. Energetic. Prone to boredom. Her self-disclosed favorite part of the job is shouting with the children. As full of energy and rambunctiousness as any 3-year old, Mercy thrives on the physical energy of singing (aka shouting) and dancing with the children. And the children respond. Unbeknownst to them, learning the alphabet with each shout.

Mercy dedicates her teaching time to both group and individual work. After the group instruction of how to intersect sleeping and standing sticks to form the letter f, Mercy sits down with each child. She pulls out their designated exercise book and together she makes sure they can mimic her writing until the letter f emerges. They must conquer this written feat twice before she moves onto the next child. 

Among her 28 pupils, the fewest she’s had yet, the challenges are great. In her first year, there were 48 children. Last year’s class was nearly 60. Among the students, she faces ones with developmental challenges who don’t speak and ones who don’t speak English or Luganda, but, instead Kiswahili. She’s found a translating app on her phone to communicate with one Kiswahili speaker. His face lights up when she says “fimbo” meaning stick in Kiswahili.

Always learning 

Several years ago, Mercy took a job with a catering company even though she didn’t know how to cook. The owner was impressed by her candid demeanor and willingness to learn. And learn, she did. She learned how to make posho and matooke, staples in Ugandan cuisine.

During another stint, Mercy worked in a factory making handmade sandals. She approaches each job as an opportunity to master new skills. She’s there to train, not necessarily how to make posho or sandals, but how to build a successful business.

Full of unbridled energy and an insatiable desire to learn, a willingness to disclose her lack of knowledge and her eptitude to learn quickly, Mercy is equally a force and forceful. Fearless and full of adventure, Mercy is paving a future in which she is both authentic and successful. Unsure of what her next adventure will be during the upcoming school break, she’s certain that she will pursue something totally different so she can explore a new quest.

“Patience hurts,” Mercy proclaims. She first issued that belief while waiting in the hospital for treatment. But even when not in physical pain, with boundless enthusiasm and untamed energy, patience and the act of being still, is painful to her. A self-proclaimed hard worker, she credits her ambition to boredom. “I’d rather work hard than be bored.” She’d often find herself at home with no friends around and nothing to do, so working hard has been a way to fill the void.

Growing up

As the oldest of four, Mercy confesses that her younger siblings did most of the housework, leaving her to sleep. “My mom had to over put me in her daily prayers,” Mercy laughs when she recalls her younger self.  This seems at odds with the hard worker she has become. 

Only able to attend school until primary two, her mother, Margaret, has been determined to make sure all of her children receive an education.  Raising her children alone, without any financial support from their father, has been challenging.  “It’s my privilege to see all of my children going to school,” Margaret says with maternal pride.  “My children are not following in the shoes I wore.  They’re like all other children.”

The salary Mercy earns from teaching is nearly inconsequential in her mind. As the oldest of five, her salary is split evenly between giving to her mother, helping with her younger siblings’ education and putting some into her savings account. Not driven by financial gain, Mercy is driven by a desire to learn and have fun. After all, she confesses, “Teaching is fun.”

Pursuing Dreams

Mercy often reflects on what her life would have been like if Project Have Hope hadn’t made it possible for her to attend school and receive a certificate for early childhood development.  “If I had not had an education, I’d be married with kids now,” she says, dismayed by the thought of that path which she has seen many others take.  “I see the life of my friends who are married with kids, it scares me,” she confesses. 

Young mothers in Uganda have very limited options.  Leaving the home to find work is challenging which makes them dependent on their husbands. Too often, these husbands take second wives or in other ways stop supporting their families, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and lack of education for the next generation. 

“Being married would mean I’d be pregnant or have kids now,” Mercy woefully considers that prospect.  “That means I couldn’t pursue my own dreams.”  With an education, Mercy now has the power to build a secure future that will enable her to pursue a path of financial independence, and her current success is enabling her four younger siblings to continue their studies, insuring they, too, can pursue their own dreams.

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