“It’s because of my faith that I am sympathetic to disadvantages…faith can always bring acceptance.”
—Headmistress Hajjat Lukia Wamala
Busika Muslim Secondary School
A private high school with a mission to care for the most vulnerable students
Meet the caregiver
As a teenager, Lukia Wamala greatly admired the teachers at her Muslim secondary school. They were women of substance and faith, smart and purposeful. She followed them into the profession, first teaching and then leading an elite school in Wakiso district. After ten years there, she sold a piece of land at a major profit, and decided to start a new adventure: her own school, in her home area of Luwero. The school would combine high quality education, attractive to wealthier families, with a system of counseling, financial aid, and positive peer support for needy students in the area.
An interfaith community
On my first visit to the Busika Muslim campus, it is Sunday morning. I can hear singing coming from a building that looks like a chapel, at the other end of the school courtyard. I learn from Hajjat Lukia that the Christian students are having a worship gathering in their interfaith chapel. She explains that although it is a school run by Muslims, their reputation for community and moral discipline has attracted Ugandans of all faiths.
Along with mixing faiths, they also mix social classes among the students at Busika Muslim. There are a number of boarding students who pay the full tuition, from families across the country—and even neighboring countries—who can afford it. These tuitions then subsidize fees for “day scholars,” who are young adults from poor families in the local community.
A new challenge
In March 2020 Uganda closed all schools, businesses, and places of worship to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This “lockdown” was effective in keeping COVID-19 cases down, but it put added strain on many families, communities, and organizations. Lukia had to send her students home, and lost the regular income from her boarders. Yet many of her expenses remained: she still needed to tend the campus and care for her staff. Together they used the school lands to produce fruits and dairy products for sale, which kept the community going. She also kept in touch with her students via WhatsApp, sharing info about the situation and encouraging them to stay focused on their goals, in spite of the setback.
During this time, I received a worried message from Lukia. As the lockdown wore on, she was seeing many of her former students going hungry and suffering abuse. Four of her female students got pregnant; and many more were forced into subsistence work to feed their families, even resorting to theft our of desperation. The widespread issues that lead to youth vulnerability in Uganda were made much worse during this lockdown year.
Listen to Lukia describe the situation in September 2020.
As Uganda continues to wait for vaccines into the year 2021, and the poorest families and communities continue to suffer from the disruption, Lukia has decided to branch out further, to start an office for counseling youth and children in the area through the distinct issues they face:
Being a mother, I like talking and counseling, naturally. And once I counsel another, I have that chance of being heard, they normally take my words, and my voice. So, I feel that if I can open up an organization which can help those people, remind them that this is not the end of the world, maybe it can work for some, mostly the teenagers.
Lukia is thus continuing to expand her vision of providing care to the vulnerable, as the crisis deepens.
To find out more and support Busika Muslim Secondary School, visit their website.