Kenneth and his classmates get hands-on experience repairing cars and trucks.
At the Daniel Comboni Vocational School, students spend time both in the classroom and getting hands-on experience in their chosen field. Kenneth, a Legacy Scholarship Program student, is in his first year of the Motor Vehicle Training course. He and his fellow students are gathered around the open hood of a battered white vehicle, talking seriously as they tinker with parts.
“This car here, we are working on the fuel system. Now here, the timing is not there. If you try to start the vehicle it won’t start. The fuel pump is faulty, so we are trying to make it work,” Kenneth explains confidently. “We shall finish today.”
He applied for the Legacy Scholarship Program because it was too difficult for his mother to pay school fees and support her seven children.
“My mother now is old, and one brother is also having a family and he cannot help completely because he has no work,” Kenneth says that he does what he can to earn some extra money for the family while on holidays. “For me I like mechanics because getting work is just very easy.”
In his free time, Kenneth reads in the school library, uses the computer lab, or hangs out with the staff mechanics to learn from them. Kenneth hopes that he will one day be able to do automobile engineering in a factory. He gets excited talking about the work he has been able to do on big trucks.
“If you are to work on the big trucks you need more people,” he says. “We all help each other like that.”
The Legacy Scholarship Program is one of our Recovery Programs in Uganda, and is funded through monthly donations by members of Fourth Estate. Find out how you can sign up for a Fourth Estate membership HERE.
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