“As a young boy growing up in rural Uganda in the late 80s, quality education was not a guarantee. Attending school meant a daily 14km walk, only to be met by a lack of books and classes of up to 100students per teacher.
“To complicate matters further, I had lost my immediate family to HIV/Aids and other preventable diseases by the time I was 10.
“Not everything was bleak, though. My grandmother stood by me and one of my teachers became a mentor. With hard work and their support, I had the top grades in the country in junior school.
“But when the time came for high school, my grandmother and I could not afford tuition. Because we both valued education so much, we hatched a plan. I sold my only beloved goat and used the money to take an unprecedented 500km journey by bus and foot to ask the President of Uganda send me to school.