Fancy is a beautiful Ugandan girl. Looking at her, you might think that her life has been as beautiful. But behind that beautiful face is a childhood she would rather forget. Fancy was born in a home of more than 14 children. And the number kept increasing as the father brought new siblings home.

Beautiful Fancy grew up with no mother because her parents had separated. It was tough growing up with just her father because he did not understand what it meant to love and care for a child.

At a very early age, Fancy and her stepsister were sent to boarding school. As a preschooler, she had to wash her own clothes and did not have someone to lean on.

Then for a time, her father took them to a day school and they lived with their Aunt Jane (not her real name). Both children dreaded Jane because she had a bad temper.

One day Fancy was sick and vomiting. Jane was furious. She pinched Fancy hard. Fancy also did not like porridge mixed with milk and every time she ate it, she vomited. But every time she vomited, she received a beating. These beatings occurred on a daily basis because they ate that kind of porridge every day.

Fancy says that she did not understand why her aunt treated her badly and this mistreatment planted pain and anger in her heart.

The girls used to hire a motorcycle to go to their school. One day, Fancy’s sister accidentally put her leg in the pedals of the motorcycle and was injured. Jane was furious. Aunt Jane took Fancy’s sister to the hospital and later gave her a beating.

That night, Jane decided that the children would start walking the 8 kilometers [about 5 miles] to school instead of using a motorcycle.

After one term at the day school, Fancy and her stepsister were taken to a boarding school where their other five siblings studied. Life at the boarding school was better than life at Jane’s home, but the children hardly had enough to eat at school.

For a term lasting four months, all seven children would share one box of biscuits (150 small packets), and 2kgs of sugar. Holidays were not any better.

One day while the children were home from boarding school, some snacks went missing in the house and one of Fancy’s brothers was accused of eating them. Fancy’s father was very angry. Instead of buying food for the children, her father bought a packet of candles. He then tied Fancy’s brother under the bed leaving only his hands exposed. He then lit the candles one by one and burned Fancy’s brother with the dripping wax.

Fancy says that that is the day she started hating her father.

Fancy developed so much anger within herself. All she saw in her father was a man who was harsh and treated his children like they were not his own. She felt unloved and useless, and she hated all men. She believed that they were all cruel like her father.

As a result of the beatings she had received and seen her siblings receive, she decided to always protect herself whenever she could. Fancy was lonely and desperate.

One day Fancy even slapped her own mother when she to visit her children. When Fancy’s brother disturbed her during the visit, Fancy beat him up. When he ran to their mother, Fancy’s mother rebuked her and slapped her. In uncontrollable anger, Fancy slapped her back and ran out of the house to be alone.

“I did not feel guilt for what I had done. All I knew was that I had to protect myself from such people who wanted to hurt me. I felt like it was my right to protect myself.”

The Lord rescued Fancy just in time to remind her how precious and beautiful she was. When Fancy was 9 years old, she was registered at the Compassion child development center at their church.

During holidays she would go to the center, where she made her very first friends. There she also learned about Jesus Christ and His love. One year later, Fancy received Jesus as her personal Savior.

After meeting Jesus, Fancy started working on her anger and lack of forgiveness. Even though Fancy says she has not yet completely overcome these attitudes, she has made tremendous improvement. The Child Sponsorship Program gave her hope and helped her appreciate herself the way God appreciates her. It also gave her sponsors who really cared for her.

Fancy eventually joined the Leadership Development Program where she received sponsorship for a university education. When she joined the program she was very excited and grateful to God because not everybody qualifies. She also remained with the same sponsors.

Fancy says that she is grateful to her sponsors who love her so much.

“If I had a choice to choose the one person I want to meet, it would be my sponsors. They love me so much. Every time they write they tell me that they love me and that they are praying for me. I love them too. Whenever I receive a letter from them, I get so excited. It is not easy to love someone you do not know but they love me so much.

Among the things that changed Fancy’s life in the Leadership Development Program are the students who were so loving and the program specialists who showed her a different side of adults. Fancy says the specialists loved and respected her and the other students and it humbled her.

“Even if they were late for a meeting, they would apologize for being late. When you did something small for them, they would say ‘thank you’. This was not something I was used to while growing up.

As Fancy spent more time with the program students and specialists, her life changed. She began to dream and work on herself. She experienced so much love and acceptance from them that her attitude towards her family changed. She learned to love her family as it was and became the light in that dark home. She has since forgiven her father.

Fancy is currently pursuing her degree in social sciences at Kampala’s Makerere University. She also has a part time job at Top Television where she hosts a program for university students called “Campus Flavor.” The money she earns helps to support the education of one of her brothers. On Saturdays she volunteers at one of the child development centers near her university.

In the future Fancy hopes to pursue a masters degree in mass communication, with a specialty in radio. One of the things she would like to do is to have a talk show where she teaches people how to survive. Her passion is to help those that are vulnerable.

Fancy also hopes to open up a school for music and drama. She hopes that children who are not able to manage formal education can go to her school and gain life skills to survive.

Twenty-two year-old Fancy, a beautiful girl who once felt lonely, desperate and hated all men, is now in love with a young man at her church. Despite what she went through she has learned to love and live her life as Christ wants her to.

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Joanita Nannyunja completed a bachelor of science degree in agriculture at Makerere University in Kampala. Makerere University is Uganda’s oldest and most prestigious institute of higher learning.

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In the slum community of Makerere Kivulu that lies in the shadow of this prominent institute, the storm drains overflow with filth and stinking water between rows of shacks made of planks and rusty iron sheets. The dilapidation of these structures is set off by the stable buildings surrounded by high stone walls that dot the area.

Many of the people in the community are unemployed, and even those who are employed are underemployed, dealing in small businesses like hawking goods, frying and roasting food like cassava, and selling vegetables like tomatoes and eggplants.

Most of them earn a maximum of about a dollar a day. In despair, many of the women look to prostitution to earn a living, and the men resort to alcohol and spend their days drunk. The youth form gangs and go about stealing and indulging in drugs.

It is this community that 13-year-old Brenda wakes up to every morning at 6 a.m. Brenda lives with her 70-year-old grandfather, Juliano, her 65-year-old grandmother, Violet, her uncle who is mentally ill, and three cousins.

Brenda’s grandmother sells roasted maize, potatoes, grasshoppers and cassava in the market while her grandfather earns money as a shopkeeper. These sources of income sustain the family, pay the monthly rent for one room in a five-room house, feed and clothe the family, as well as pay school fees for the other children not registered with Compassion.

Brenda begins her day with prayer and then brushes her teeth. She dresses in her uniform bought by her grandmother, and heads off to school. She has to be at school before 7 a.m.

School is a 20-minute walk from home, so on school days she never has time to have breakfast. When she gets to school, she goes straight into class for the first lesson of the day.

Her first meal of the day is at 10:30 a.m. when class breaks for 30 minutes. Brenda’s grandmother, Violet, gives her money for food at school every day.

Brenda often buys passion fruit juice and a doughnut. She eats these quickly so she can have 15 minutes to play with her friends before heading back into class.

Class breaks for lunch at 1 p.m., and if her grandmother has paid the fee required of each student to eat lunch at school, then Brenda goes to the school kitchen for lunch.

Lunch at school is usually posho (a kind of bread made out of maize flour and water) and beans. However, so far this term her grandmother has not been able to pay the lunch fee and so Brenda spends the remaining money her grandmother gave her for the day to buy a samosa (a small palm-size triangular snack made of a vegetable or rice or meat wrapped in dough), and this is her lunch.

She then uses the rest of her lunch period to play with her friends. She resumes her afternoon classes at 2 p.m. for two hours until 4 p.m. when she heads back home.

At home, the first thing Brenda does is to take off her uniform and fold it neatly so it will be ready for school tomorrow. She then changes into her stay-at-home clothes and goes to fetch water from the community tap nearby.

Brenda’s home does not have clean running water, so the family has to buy water from the community tap. Brenda usually makes two trips for four 5-kilogram cans every day so the family has enough water for their needs.

After making sure there is enough water to last the family until she comes back from school the next day, Brenda helps her grandmother with chores in the house like cleaning the floor or washing the utensils.

She then takes a bath in the communal bathroom used by all the tenants of the building. The bathroom is made of old iron sheets and sackcloth to give the families some semblance of privacy.

As the sun begins to set at 6 p.m., it is time for one of Brenda’s favorite activities: teaching her friends at home the Word of God that she has learned. They sit together outside the house in the company of the yard animals.

After this she heads off to watch television at a neighbor’s home. Her favorite program is “Second Chance,” a Spanish soap television series currently popular in Uganda. It’s the story of a man given a second chance to change his life.

One hour later Brenda is back home, ready to settle down for the night.

She has her supper, which is usually whatever meal was left over from lunch. Brenda’s grandmother cannot afford to cook twice a day because she spends most of her day at the market. So she cooks enough food for lunch and supper at once, and then divides the food into two for both the meals.

As soon as Brenda has had supper, she says her prayers and goes to bed to rest, ready to begin again the next day.

Brenda misses going to the Compassion-assisted child development center on Saturdays. Now that she is in secondary school, she studies at school on weekends.

However, she is comforted and looks forward to spending two days at the center each week during her holidays. During these holidays Brenda also has more time to help her grandmother at home with chores as well as spend more time with her friends.

Brenda wants to be a lawyer when she grows up so that she will be able to solve conflicts in her community.

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