Sylvia

Sylvia Mbabazi

In a way, Sylvia embodies my hopes for the Stella-Rosie Foundation, because she is the face of an aspect of rural Ugandan culture that I hate most:  the idea that girls are not worthy of education.

She was orphaned at age 3.  Her father remarried, and her stepmother made Sylvia into a domestic servant, sending her to fetch water, look after goats, dig in the fields and cook meals for the family.  When Sylvia was 12 I saw that she was bright, and urged her father to put her in school.  His response was, “There is no point in educating girls.  It’s like planting seeds that will never grow.”  After I offered to pay the small fees required to attend the local public school, he reluctantly agreed.  Her clothes were basically cast-off rags, so I bought her a few dresses.  Of course she was much older than the other students in the elementary school, and could only attend once or twice a week because of her household chores.  When she finished, her father said she could not go to high school.

I knew that if I did not act fast Sylvia would end up like a typical village girl, married to an illiterate man and condemned to a life of digging in the fields, endless child-bearing, and physical and mental abuse.  So, without notifying her father or step-mother, I sent her money to go to Kampala so she could attend high school.

It was hard for Sylvia.  The language was different, the city was confusing, and the lessons were beyond her.  My sister Agnes who was looking after her, along with the other children I was supporting, called me one day to say that Sylvia was in the hospital and might die.  I called Sylvia and told her that if she got well she could come and visit me in the United States.  “Really?”, she asked.  “Really,” I replied.  Two days later she was discharged.  That ray of hope created by my little white lie changed her whole attitude.  She applied herself to her studies and eventually graduated with flying colours.

I do not know what the future holds for Sylvia.  She will certainly never go to university, but at least she can take a job that requires some education, and will never have to spend her life digging on the mountainside with a baby strapped to her back.