Nkumba’s iron lady lives for the afflicted

“Grace is an achiever. She is so principled and if you are working on a policy and a collective decision has to be taken, she’ll always stick to the right thing,” commented John Matovu of Grace Obalim, the vice guild president of Nkumba University.

Obalim’s leadership ethos has been shaped by her leadership background. Throughout school, she held positions of time keeper, head prefect, assistant head girl and dormitory captain. Her integrity has earned her nicknames like iron lady and mover.

Throughout our interview she kept mentioning the fact that a good leader ought to give to the people what they want and not raise excitement among them and then fail to deliver.

“I want to lead everywhere I go because in every community, there will always be something wrong and this is why I believe that a good leader should also be a good administrator,” she says with a gait of pride. 

Daily, she is charged with the duty of attending to student’s complaints, debating students’ matters and assisting the guild in the day to day running of the students’ council.

Currently, her plate is full with projects of forming an alumni club of St. Mary’s College Lacor and establishing a psychology centre in northern Uganda to facilitate psychological rehabilitation for those struggling with the scars of the LRA war.

Obalim hope to become a speaker of Uganda’s parliament some day and come 2016, she is taking the bull by its horns and campaigning for Youth MP, northern region.

Her past achievements, current responsibilities and future ambitions however tell half the story. It’s been a gory struggle to the top for Obalim darkened with scars of neglect, sexual abuse and dropping out of school.  

Tears of the past:

Obalim and her eight siblings were raised by a single mother, Regina Agol, a peasant who struggled to see all of them through school. However, to mark this milestone, a toll of her children’s energy had to be employed.

“I remember us following mum every weekend to brew crude alcohol and since a bottle cost only Shs700, we made sure we brewed at least 20 litres. It was tough!” she recalls.

Then the LRA war meddled into her family’s affairs forcing her to drop out of school in senior three at Ramasa Girls College in Mukono. For the one and a half years she was out of school, her life was no more productive than idling at home, hanging with friends and visiting night clubs. At a certain point, she conceived.

“This was the greatest shock of my life and I do not know how it happened. I only realised that I was pregnant when I was about four months gone,” she says, her eyes squinted.

Her elder brother, Youth MP northern Uganda, Hon Dan Kidega on realising she was pregnant, gave up on her. He stopped paying her school fees. Although the thought of him ceasing to pay her fees gave her depressions, Obalim was ready to give it a fresh start.

“For me, the sky was the limit and with or without my brother’s help, I knew I would sit for my Senior Four and ascend the education ladder,” she said.

She immediately applied for a scholarship from Invisible Children, an organisation founded in 2004 to bring awareness to the activities of the LRA.

Dream come true

Despite having applied along with over 700 others, Obalim was picked on. When a staff from the organisation visited her family to warrant approval of her scholarship, he was moved to tears with her painful story.

Then she was able to join school for her senior four at St. Mary’s College, Lacor in Gulu and completed her A ‘level there too. Later, she joined Nkumba University, where she is now a final year student of Science in Psychology, Guidance and Counseling.

Being the leader that she is, Invisible Children sponsored her trip to the US in 2010 to speak on the effects of the LRA war. After four months of deliberations, she returned and changed her course from the original Journalism she was offered to Psychology after reflecting on the trauma of her fellow tribesmen.

Her inspiration:

Obalim’s mother, Agol remains her role model.

“My mum has raised all of us and regardless of what we’ve been through, she managed to educate us and three of my four brothers have masters [degrees],” she says with pride.

She is also inspired by her mentors at Invisible Children and Nelson Mandela for his determined, objective and persistent character.

She cannot do without God, her mother and friends.

Hobbies:

Although Grace hardly has free time on her hands, she loves listening to RnB, country and gospel music, read her Bible and visit friends.