Julian Karugaba
As a young girl Julian dreamed of life beyond the confines of her urban slum, but when tragedy struck the family, it looked like all her dreams would come to nothing. However, the intervention of Compassion and a loving sponsor brought Julian's hope back to life.
Early Life
Julian Karugaba was born into a family of nine in Mulago, Kampala, Uganda where they lived in a small, rented, two-roomed house. Six children slept in the family’s single bed.
Her father was the sole breadwinner in the family and her mother stayed home to look after the children. As a truck driver, Julian’s father earned enough to provide shelter and a little food, but his wage did not stretch far enough to pay for much more, let alone the education of seven children.
While Julian’s father drove trucks, her mother single-handedly raised the children the best she could. She was desperate for a better life for her children and wanted them to be educated. So she gathered what little money she could and paid for Julian to attend school.
Tragedy Strikes
But when Julian was nine years old, her father died and with the sole breadwinner gone, Julian’s family was left in despair and rejected by their relatives. However, it was around this time in 1993, that Julian was registered in the Compassion project and became the first registered child in that project to get a sponsor.
Life improved considerably for her family. The pressure to find the money to send the children to school was lifted and Julian’s younger brother was also registered in a Compassion project.
Julian didn’t waste her opportunity. She had a voracious appetite for learning and loved going to the project, singing at the local church and building friendships with children and Compassion workers.
In 2001, her brother, the only other one in her family to be registered in a Compassion project, died and Compassion stepped in to pay for the funeral and burial costs, again lifting an overwhelming burden from her grieving family.
Inspired by her Sponsor
Inspired by her sponsor who was a doctor; Julian completed high school, excelling in the Science subjects and was accepted into Compassion’s Leadership Development Programme (LDP).
Julian took a university course in Biomedical Lab Technology and quickly found her passion lay in the field of Molecular Biology. She worked hard and had her work published and then was asked to be the lab coordinator for an HIV clinical trial.
As her interest in scientific research grew, Julian with help and guidance from her LDP mentors, applied to do further study in London at the London School of Hygiene. She has been accepted and is currently waiting to begin the course.
Julian’s dream is to be a researcher and Molecular Biologist in order to be involved in something that will help others. But her dreams are not just for herself.
Already Julian has helped finance two of her sisters through university and helped build a new home for her mother.
More than anything, Julian is deeply grateful for her sponsor. “I remember the letters he used to write to me when I was little. They were always an encouragement. I would not be what I am today if my sponsors never loved me with their gifts of finances and care”.