Melon Nyamwiza Rwancumangi kept her dream of going back to school alive for 20 years, having dropped out when orphaned in her teens.
The Ugandan mother is now about to take her O-Levels. She’s at the same school as her children and in the same class as her daughter. World Service’s Outlook producer Richard Hooper spoke to Melon through an interpreter.
Orphaned in her teens and overwhelmed with looking after her siblings, Melon Nyamwiza Rwancumangi reluctantly dropped out of school. She married a man of 71 and took on his children, before conceiving her first child after seven months of marriage. Six other children followed, before Melon made a decision – she wanted to return to school.
“I said to my husband that I still really needed to go to school. I had lost my parents in such sad circumstances, that I felt like there was unfinished business. I still felt those emotions.
“By then, I was in my 30s. When I’d left school the first time, I had been in Primary Six. So I rejoined in Primary Seven. The kids in my class were about 13 years old. I was a grown up, but I wasn’t ashamed. I wanted to study. I was so happy and interested in the lessons.”
