Struggles that define Samuel Opio’s life in remote Ugandan town

 

NAIROBI, KENYA: “It has not been an easy thing, it has been a struggle” 

Samuel Opio was born on Christmas day 1986 in Oyam district in northern Uganda.  

The young man is tall, and crisply dressed; gently spoken with a brilliant smile that’s never far away. He lives with his small family and baby daughter in Gulu. 

The eighth child in a family of ten, life at first was happy. 

Although his father worked away for long periods thanks to his job with Uganda Hotels, he was happy growing up, with the mother he adored.

“I grew up as the last young boy in the home,” he says.

“I grew up doing a lot of things in the home, grazing animals, I would also move to the garden to dig with my mother … sweeping the compound, all sort of things that used to be for boys, including milking cows.”

The local school was nearby, which he loved. He also learnt a lot at home.

“My mother used to do a lot of small scale businesses, like brewing local waragi, and sewing people's clothes.

“Later she opened a small shop, and during the break in class I used to come and open the shop.”

“So I grew up as a young business person, with a dream of only two things as a career - either as an engineer or to be an accountant.

But this was northern Uganda during the 1990s.

 

Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army was waging a bloody insurgency in the region, kidnapping children and forcing them to become child soldiers, committing terrible atrocities.  

First Samuel’s father lost his job. 

“We immediately lost hope for any studies,” he says. His uncle paid his school fees until he too became unemployed. 

In 1996, the government, decided to move people from the countryside into camps for displaced persons. 

Conditions were appalling, and yet an estimated 1.7million people were forced to endure them. It was here Samuel lost first the adored mother who had raised him, and finally his father.

“While in the camp there was no access to medication,” he says.

“So [with] any sickness one is very easy to die. So that is how my parents died.”

All he has now to remember them is a handful of photographs, the backs covered in his father’s writing.

Samuel had to lower his sights. He managed to finish high school, and then thanks to his uncle and brother (who took out a loan) he started a diploma in accountancy.

It must have been a bittersweet moment. Samuel had beaten the odds to win a place at university to study engineering. But there simply wasn’t the money to pay for it.

He went on to volunteer with the Red Cross, putting his qualification to use, as without a degree he was struggling to find a job.

It was here he met the friends that would change his life.

Marianne Tellier, Maria Hytell and Ida Marie Boas were with the Danish Red Cross, and were so impressed by the young man they agreed to pay for university.

“The education system in Uganda is very expensive,” says Samuel.

“So it was very important that someone with a hand could come in and support me, so I could attend a degree of studies that could help me at least meet the competitive market that we have in the country.”

At first Samuel received the money as a bank transfer, which took around four days, and the fees were large – so less money for his studies.

His Danish friends tried money transfer service WorldRemit. The money arrived straight away, paid into his mobile money account, and without the huge fees.  

And he could withdraw the cash from a local mobile money agent. 

Which was vital when he had a serious scooter accident travelling the 150km from work in Apac to Gulu to study. His friends could send money immediately to pay for surgery. 

Samuel Opio graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of Gulu on 9 January 2016. He now works as an accountant for NGO Feed the Children.

“The only focus I had in life was to increase my level of education, so that when I joined an institution I have a voice, a voice in institution making,” he says. He believes good accountancy can stamp out corruption in Uganda.

But Samuel’s story doesn’t end here.  

“During my graduation I made a small speech [to] friends … and I openly told them that if I happened to get some small savings of money … I will have to start another set of studies immediately this year.

“Meaning that the sky’s the limit when it comes to my study dreams.”