Although it was only just founded in 1993, the Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) - often just called Nkozi due to the place in which it’s located eighty-eight kilometers south of Kampala - has already achieved a high status in the Ugandan educational system and is considered to be an elite African educational institution.

Nkozi started out with two classrooms, which eighteen years ago took in only 84 students. Since then it hasn’t stopped expanding and increasing its numbers. In the last academic year this university reached and passed the figure of 5,000 students...

But, let us not talk about Nkozi too much, and the numerous possibilities this institute opens up to ambitious students. I want to talk instead, about how a couple of days ago, twenty of our very own CFJ students, who completed the second year of the masonry course, went off to Nkozi. There they will be working on the construction of new buildings and the expansion of the campus which permanently hosts 1,200 students.

In this way, the students of our Padri Vjeko Center will best demonstrate what they had learned in our little Kivumu. It will be an ideal opportunity for them to additionally improve their construction techniques by working with fifteen excellent builders from the Republic of Ireland. Of course, as in many other things we have done, and again this time, the woman behind this whole story is our great friend and guardian angel Mary Moran.

However, Mary would not have arranged such a responsible job for our students if they hadn’t proven themselves many times over by working on numerous buildings in Rwanda. And, by working on such a large project this time, they get a great opportunity to demonstrate their practical skills.

When we first began these cooperative efforts, only few of our students, almost as an experiment, were called to participate in such projects. With the quality of their work and such a responsible attitude toward the job, our Kivumu students very quickly won their own “place under the sun”. The work on the expansion of the Nkozi campus is the icing on the cake and the best indicator that we are headed on a good course. Three years ago, for the first time, we sent our students to perfect their skills in Uganda. The employers were thrilled. The students were extremely satisfied. And I was proud of them. This is another step forward. Let’s go further!

Translated by: Branimir Mlakić
Edited by: Valerie Kae Ken

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