From poverty to hope

Noirine Khaitsa explains how she was lifted out of poverty and given an education through Compassion’s child sponsorship programme

I come from a family of eight kids. We grew up in Mbale, in eastern Uganda, and my mum was single. I was told my dad didn’t want to have me because he was not ready to be a parent. He told my mum that if she decided to keep the baby, she’d have to take care of it on her own. So that’s what happened.

My mum was a primary school teacher. Teachers in my country are not paid much, so life was really, really hard and Mum had to work extra hours, tutoring children who found mathematics challenging. She was hardly ever at home, so my older brother was like our parent. At one point we ended up living in the garage of a rich man, but Mum couldn’t even afford that rent, so she tutored the kids of our landlord.