Against the odds: a student’s journey to Isaac Newton High School
- Miuizerkia Dive
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
By Miuizerkia Dive
Dive is an upper sixth scholarship student at Isaac Newton High School, Uganda. He would like to be a journalist.
In this article, Dive recounts a childhood marked by uncertainty and interrupted schooling. Through determination and hard work, he went on to earn a life-changing scholarship. Supported by his mother’s sacrifices and the generosity of humanist organisations, his story is a powerful reminder of resilience, opportunity, and the transformative power of education.
Many people have stories to tell, and I think I have a journey to walk you through. I was born into a family of four boys and I was the third. Since 2005, my life has been full of ups and downs, together with blessings and miracles that I never imagined could have happened.
I was born and raised in Rwanda – the heart of Africa just south-west of Lake Victoria. Surviving in Rwanda is easier for people who are well-employed, because the cost of living is high. My father, who is now 62 years of age, works as a property broker. This has never provided a permanent income, so we've never had a permanent lifestyle. Our lifestyle would be good whenever he got a ‘gig’ but then soon return to normal – because the work didn't pay enough to sustain a family of six for even a fortnight. You could say my father is extravagant in the way that he would lavishly spend that little money in a short time. He would assume that more work and money would come along soon, but this often wasn’t the case.
In 2015, after my father received the lion’s share on one of his ‘gigs’, he decided to take me and my younger brother Kevin to Uganda for study. He believed that we should learn English and would get a quality education compared to that available in Rwanda. Our mother, like any other mother, was worried about us going to a foreign country at such a young age, and perhaps she knew her husband a little too well. At first, she had refused to sign our travel documents, because she could see how our future would turn out.
In early May 2015, we began our journey to Uganda escorted by our father. In Uganda, we lived with our uncle Noel who was studying at St Lawrence University as well as hustling to get money for his tuition. We were then admitted into a school called Lorencia Junior Academy – I was in primary four and my brother in primary two. To be honest, the school wasn't for people like us (low-income earners) because by then the school fees were around 900,000 Ugandan Shillings per term (£180). Furthermore, in 2016, we returned to our normal life because our father couldn't manage to pay those large amounts of money with the same job and other responsibilities on his shoulders. To cut a long story short, we never attended school that whole year and in the same year our uncle married a woman who would keep reminding us how we were a big burden to them as a young couple.
Life became harder and harder, but in 2017 my father got a little money together and we returned to a different school in the neighbourhood. We were day students because boarding required far more money than we had. All I remember is that we would always top the bursar's list of pupils to be sent back home for fees, so we only studied for a few days at this school too. It was in this year that our mother decided to pay us a visit – her first time in Uganda. Of course, she wasn't pleased by the situation she found us in. Scratching her head for a plan to get us out of it, she went back to Rwanda and started plotting a way to look after her kids herself.
In the very last days of January 2018, our mother left Rwanda to live in Uganda, just to look after her children. She planned to get us out of our uncle's place without our father knowing anything, as by then they had divorced, though not legally. Our mother had rented a room in Ssembabule, a village far from the main city, and a six-hour drive from the capital Kigali. She also used the money she had to buy shoes, which she would then sell in a mini kiosk she rented in the nearby town. She has a friend called Aunt Flora, who I call my ‘second mother’ because of the love, care and generosity she has given to us.
In 2018, we were admitted to a government-aided school in the village. It was the cheapest available but, even so, my mother could not afford to pay for both of us on her own. By then, I was in primary six and my brother Kevin was in primary four. One thing I forgot to mention is that we were both bright in class, and this has been our ‘weapon’. By 2019, I was in primary seven, the final one at primary level, and so I had to sit my Certificate of Primary Leaving Examinations (CPLE).
I was nervous because of my poor primary level background, in addition to missing some classes, but I believed I could perform well. As the examination period approached, staff from Isaac Newton High School visited our school and explained that any student who achieved a first-class grade would qualify for a scholarship from the Uganda Humanist Schools Trust to study free of charge at secondary level (Senior 1–4). This became my goal. I had no other dream other than securing this scholarship. I read as much as possible because I didn't want to miss this chance.
Out of sixty two candidates sitting their final examinations at our school in 2019 I was the only one who managed to get a first class grade. For me, this was a dream come true. This good fortune removed a heavy burden from my mother's shoulders, and she was only left to deal with the school fees for my younger brother. This was one of the moments I felt proud of myself, and this boosted my confidence academically.
‘For once in my life, I was able to study without being chased for school fees – since all costs were covered by generous humanists.’
As had been promised, I joined Isaac Newton High School in 2020 to start my secondary journey. My mother did what she could to look after us and pay the rent. I greatly enjoyed secondary school life since, for once in my life, I was able to study without being chased for school fees, as all costs were covered by generous humanists. My studies went on successfully, and in the Ugandan Certificate Examinations I was one of the top five students. This enabled me to qualify for another scholarship to pursue my studies at advanced level and now I am in senior six, the final year for secondary level and waiting to sit my exams in November.
I don’t know how I can ever repay the generous humanists for their support in my education. Without them, my mother would not have been able to manage on her own. I can’t lie that I will go on to university because it’s very costly, but my dream has always been studying at the University of Cambridge and becoming an internationally recognised journalist. And if there is one thing I could do for my mother, it would be to build her a house, so she no longer has to live with the stress of landlords she has endured all her life.
We are grateful to Mattie Robson for putting us in touch with Dive.
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