At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Mercy Brenda Awori, then a 17-year-old student at Kololo Secondary School in Kampala, resorted to making bricks to temporarily relieve her father of the fees burden.
When the Monitor visited her in Lukone Village, Baitambogwe Sub-county, Mayuge District, about 12,000 of her bricks were in the kiln, ready for combustion, while about 30,000 were ready for sale.
Her father, Mr Eria Misanga, had mobilised youth from the village to make bricks to sell and raise school fees for his children; but Ms Awori was keen on learning, so that he used what he was paying the youth to feed the family.
It is from these youth her father hired that Ms Awori learnt brick making, and after discovering that she could manage, she embraced the activity until her determination attracted Odur Foundation, a non-profit organisation that empowers the girl child.
Odur Foundation later partnered with then Liquid Telecom (Liquid Intelligent Technologies), which delivered a smartphone to help in her online lessons, and also committed $1,000 (about Shs3.7m) to her tuition and scholastic requirements every year until she completes secondary education.
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