Bonita's Story
When Bonita Ayebare was added to the MCM program in 2013 she was six years old, in Primary One and the oldest of three children. Both her parents were alive but her father was sickly and the family had little land to farm. Bonita was sponsored in February 2014 by Jim and Linda Oddo who have faithfully stood beside both Bonita and another boy, SO supportive and always giving extra.
Since then Bonita experienced one hardship after another. In 2015 her Mum abandoned her Dad for another man and moved away leaving the three children under 8 years old with their sickly father. In 2016 Bonita’s father died. All three children were taken in by their Auntie Ann who already had three other children she cared for. Scholastically Bonita ranked in the bottom 20% of her class and had to repeat Primary One and Primary Four.
In 2019 Bonita became the oldest child in Auntie Ann’s home as the older children left. This increased her responsibilities for fetching water, washing clothes, gathering wood for fires, cooking, cleaning and watching the younger children. Then Auntie Ann, in her 60’s, suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. Ivan took action at that point and MCM hired a neighbor to help take the burden off Bonita who was looking very thin and stressed at age 12.
Then in January 2020, when MCM was blessed with the extra resources required for boarding tuition, both Bonita and her brother were enrolled at Child Africa, a wonderful new school MCM had received tuition discounts from. Unfortunately after only 6 weeks of Primary Six, the COVID pandemic locked down all Ugandan schools and Bonita was sent home for two years to continue running the home.
In 2022 Bonita should have been returned to Primary Six however the Ugandan Ministry of Education required all students to skip to the next class so Bonita entered her hardest, most challenging “Candidate Year,” Primary Seven. Candidate students are driven hard all year to prepare for a national exam which ranks them for high school placement. By the grace of God, with a full year of Child Africa Teachers helping her, regular daily meals and good sleep, without time lost on chores, Bonita scored a FIRST Grade on her exam!! Everyone was THRILLED for her! Honestly, she was the talk of the village!
In January of 2023 Bonita began boarding at a top ranked secondary school, Solberg College, where she is studying to be a Nurse. Bonita’s goal to be a Nurse has been her heart’s desire every single year since she was seven years old. We hope she will someday attain it with the blessing of boarding!
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