In the stained congestion of Katanga Kimwanyi zone, where small shanties are tussle for space with gutters as improvised paths and makeshift latrines forged from shallow holes, sticks, and sackcloth lives a chaotic neighbourhood. Here, amid crime, promiscuity and profanity uttering drunkards, Ms Tuhaise Rose Mary raises her family of six. Her family is more than complete, with three sons, two daughters, and one grandchild. The forty-two-year-old mother begins her day with a prayer invoking the Almighty to take the lead, a practice she has diligently instilled in her children. She then begins her daily hunt for those with dirty laundry to whom she can offer her cleaning services at a humble price of five thousand shillings. Upon receipt of the fruits of her sweat, Mary rushes home to prepare a meal for her already hungry children who have grown familiar with the single meal custom at home. Amidst the competing needs of life that she and her children have, this mother has to identify the most pressing of needs to spend on meticulously. Usually, her discretion favours the seventy-thousand shillings rent fee, food, and her children’s school needs above all else. The family’s financial improvisation strategy is in a neighbourhood saving scheme where Mary saves a few shillings until her turn of getting the group loan comes. Her usual limit is one hundred fifty thousand shillings of loaned money which she splits into driblets to cater for the family’s top priorities. While the saving scheme has proved to be helpful, there is immense pressure mounted on her to forage for money to pay daily instalments and provide food for her toddlers. She cannot afford to break the trust of the scheme members as this is the family’s only financial cushion.

This is the situation that Mary and her children have had to adjust to in the past five years since their father jumped ship and retreated to the comfort of his village in Fort Portal. The desertion of the family’s sole breadwinner dealt a huge blow to Mary and the children. With nowhere to start, the family was evicted from the more spacious house they rented in Katanga and relegated to the single-roomed shack they now reside in. Struck with a drastic change of status quo, the children grew despondent, and depression took a toll on them. The usual three meals a day were gone and gone for good, the occasional change of meals was now out of the question, and all family resources were to be utilized with utmost frugality. In the face of this vicissitude of life, the children rejected the unfamiliar food improvised by their mother and were often plunged into deep thoughts, wondering what occurred to their father. Questioning what wrong they had done to deserve such harsh treatment. Gripped with desperation and hardship, Mary constantly contacted the father of her children, persuading him to return or to at least send financial support to the family, but all was in vain. After close to two years of futile efforts to persuade her deserted partner, Mary came to terms with the fact that he was never going to return. By now, the children had also accepted the life they had been forced to live and rallied around their mother.

Owing to the nature of the neighbourhood, Mary was hit by yet another blow, her firstborn son, dropped out of school and picked up the habit of gallivanting around the slum. With no aim of getting any gainful employment, he started drinking and engaging in all forms of detestable behaviour typical of slum dwellers. This stirred up a never-ending fear of having her younger children turn out to be like their older brother, who chose a life of unproductivity. On some occasions, she hears her younger children regurgitating the profanities usually spoken by neighbours and recount incidents of fights and bitter quarrels that happen in the congested neighbourhood. This disquiets her soul and resurrects her worry about her children not becoming what she wants them to be. To arrest this occurrence, she has instilled a culture of prayer that all children are bound to follow. The daily prayers and occasional fasting have, in her observation, created a form of restraint among her children and lit a dim ray of hope in their hearts. Although her firstborn is still not part of the family’s spiritual journey, she hopes that he will get on board.

Another source of constant worry and anxiety is the fate of her mentally impaired son, who needs extra attention to navigate the daily tasks of the day. Kato Vincent obtained this impairment as a result of the poor posture of the twins in the womb during pregnancy. While his twin sister Babirye Immaculate has progressed to primary two, Kato’s education journey is still hampered by his mental impairment. Seeing her toddler son in a state of helplessness adds to the already heavy emotional burden she has to carry.

Grim as the circumstances are, Mary hopes her children can grow up to become responsible citizens of this country and live a much better life than she can give them. Her single most important aspiration is to see her children finish school. The audacity to aspire and dream in such unrelenting turbulence speaks to the calibre of unsung heroes that Mary belongs to. An example of the strength of a mother, a heart that does not fumble and a spirit that never surrenders. The kind that William Ernest Henley referred to in his Invictus poem. Indeed, her head is bloody but unbowed.