26/04/2026
*She Still Dreams*
The first time Sarah was abandoned, she was only 6.
Her mother left her at the trading centre with a torn sweater and a promise: _âWait here, Iâll be back.â_ Night fell. Morning came. Then another night. Her father had left years before. No one came back for her.
Now Sarah is 17, in Senior Four. The walls of her grandmotherâs one-room mud house shake when the men outside drink and fight. The air smells like cheap waragi and smoked o***m. She studies by candlelight, covering her books when the bottles break too close to the door.
She is the only girl in that house who touches a textbook. The others her age are already married off, or lost to the same bottles that surround her.
But Sarah still dreams.
This term, the dream is at risk. UNEB registration closes next week. *195000UGX*. She doesnât have it. Her grandmother sells charcoal when her back doesnât hurt, but that money goes to posho. Sarah tried to get a job washing clothes, but the men in the trading centre laughed. _âPretty girls donât wash. Come drink with us instead.â_ She said no. Every day, she says no.
Yesterday, she walked 8km to school and told her headteacher, _âMadam, please donât chase me. I will pay. I just need time.â_ The headteacher looked away. _âIf you donât register, you canât sit. Thatâs the rule, Sarah.â_
So last night, Sarah knelt on the same dirt floor where she was left as a child. She prayed. Not for money. She prayed for strength to not give up. She prayed for someone, anyone, to see her.
Sarah was dumped by her family. But she refuses to dump herself.
She is surrounded by drunkards and drug addicts, but she is not one of them. She is a girl child fighting for her future with nothing but a candle, a textbook, and a God she believes hasnât forgotten her.
*We must fight for the girl child.*
Because girls like Sarah shouldnât have to choose between school and survival.
Because her being born a girl was not her mistake.
Because if she gets to sit those ex
