Black Boy Opoka's Hard Life

Innocent Apio stands at the door of the hut at Ajulu village, in Gulu district, northern Uganda, on October 20, 2009. [Xinhua]

Denis Opoka, 14 years old, his younger sister Innocent Apio, nine years old, and his 12-year-old brother Samuel Owen live at Ajulu village, Patiko sub-county in the war-ravaged Gulu district, about 350 kilometers off Kampala, capital of Uganda. Denis Opoka runs the family after they lost their parents to the Lord Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group.

Living in their mud-built hut in Ajulu village, Opoka always tries to come up with a way to keep them fed and educated. They opened several small patches of farmland around the hut, planting maize, sweet potato and bean. The harvest, however, could barely sustain them after drought ruined the first season early this year. From time to time, the Opoka would work in the neighbor's garden in exchange for a little money to buy soap, candle or salt.

Opoka is sitting in Primary Seven, for the second year, after he failed to raise about 150,000 Ugandan shillings (about US$85) as extraordinary fees for Senior One last year though he passed the exams with an equivalent of B. The siblings are luckier to get education at a nearby school, Ajulu Model Primary School only five minutes walk from their home.

Unfortunately, a paraffin-lit lamp, the only thing that can extend their study time after sunset, was stolen recently, leaving them depending on candles borrowed from a neighbor, so Opoka has to check the homework of his siblings before sunset.

Opoka's dream is to join a vocational technical institute so that he can get a job to pay school fees for his brother and sister.

(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2009)