2019 - Hope Alive! Alumna Overcame Adversity to Achieve Engineering Dream

With many children to take care of and no employment, Sandra’s mother was weighed down by the troubles of life and petrified about the future of her children.

Sensing the financial stress in the family, Sandra’s elder siblings decided to take matters into their own hands.

“One time we were thrown out of the house and we slept outside the home for some time.  This affected us so much that my elder siblings had to look for small jobs where they worked day and night to rent a room and support mum,” recalls Sandra. "Another sibling gave up school to work as a potter at a building site so that the rest of us could go to school, and this has affected him up to now."

Amid these challenges, Hope Alive! was started in Kampala, Uganda’s capital and the slum where Sandra’s family lived was chosen as one of the areas to enroll children for sponsorship.  Consequently, Sandra was one of the children chosen for sponsorship. This opened up a new world of opportunities for Sandra.

Sandra says she began to experience transformation while at Hope Alive!. One of the areas was in mentoring. Sandra was given a godly mentor at Hope Alive!.

“They gave us mentors who monitored us, and through them, our situations were made known to Hope Alive!. We also had Saturday Club where we would attend Bible Studies, learn new skills and make friends. We also had Bible study on Wednesdays with special people,” says Sandra.

Through sponsorship at Hope Alive! Sandra was able to stay in school and later study a professional course. Mindful of her adversity and determined to realize her dreams, she set her eyes on becoming an electrical engineer.

In 2018, Sandra graduated with a national diploma in electrical engineering from Uganda Technical College. She says that what motivated her to study hard was the love she received from her sponsors.

Speaking of her sponsors, she says, “I knew some family out there loved me even if some of our relatives had called us useless kids.”

Six months ago she began living her dream when a top electrical company, called Eskom, recruited her as a graduate trainee.  She was stationed in the operations section which controls, monitors and operates the turbines of the Nalubaale and Kiira Power Plants in Uganda. Going forward Sandra hopes to study for a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and set up a shop that deals with electrical supplies.