Grapevine

Rebecca Abiyo: Catholic nun who transformed Adjumani school

Looking at female victims of child marriages was one of the things Catholic nun Rebecca Abiyo never wanted to persistently see since she had chance to study and live a better life despite her history as a refugee.

In pre and the immediate post-independence Uganda, most Catholic schools cherished girl-child education.

But majority of the girls in rural Uganda, faced with poverty and unfavorable cultural beliefs and norms, could not access education to completion of basic levels.

Inspired to change the narrative, Sister Abiyo, while carrying out her pastoral work in communities, found need to use a school to champion girl child education.

The 58-year-old nun, who has served as the head teacher of St Mary’s Assumpta Girls’ Secondary School since 2007, says she is still on course with her ambitions at the time she took over the institution.