Diane Kwesiga So Vulnerable

She is dubbed ‘Princes Diana,’ by close associates due to her generous heart and charitable work.

On the face of it, it may seem an exaggeration to compare someone with the famous British royal, yet the youthful Diane Myers Kwesiga is using her unprivileged upbringing to give back to the underprivileged in a remarkable way, writes DAVID LUMU.

On July 5, Anthony Kirigwajjo, my neighbour in the suburb of Matugga, called to inform me about a special friend he wanted me to meet. Kirigwajjo has been ailing for some years due to HIV/Aids complications that rendered him unable to move without help. He told me he would have been dead by now if it wasn’t this special friend, Kwesiga.

“I used to do driving errands in Kamwokya when she hired me for some work in 2011. When I impressed her with my professionalism, she took me on in her company as a driver. Life was so good because I was a happily married man,” he recalls.

“However, I later started to constantly fall sick and when I checked, I discovered I had HIV/Aids. Things got worse and by 2018, my legs couldn’t support me and I couldn’t perform my duties as a driver.”

The situation worsened when Kirigwajjo became bedridden, prompting him to miss work and later had his children drop out of school.

Out of concern, he says, Kwesiga inquired to know about his problems. That is when she discovered plight. At the urging of Kwesiga, Kirigwajjo resigned from work in order to fully fight for his health and life’ but what was supposed to be a sad climax was turned around by Kwesiga’s desire to see him through the misery.

“I was excited when took on the duty of paying tuition for my last-born daughter on top of offering to foot my medical bill,” he says. “She is much younger than me but I see her as my saviour today because without her, I would be dead.”

SELFLESSNESS

Indeed, Kwesiga arrived at the home with a few friends to provide Kirigwajjo and his family with much-needed home essentials such as foodstuffs for the family as well as his medication. What’s more, she, through her Ripples Foundation, has finalised plan to complete his house at a cost of Shs 5m.

As I later learnt that day, Kirigwajjo’s story is not a one-off, but just a sample of Kwesiga’s grand scheme of sowing the seeds of love and kindness through educating the vulnerable.

In 2016, Kwesiga started Ripples Foundation as a charity initiative with a mission to help vulnerable children such as orphans, the sick, the needy and disabled. Already, her foundation is helping out Jaja Flora orphanage in Kira as well as Loving Hearts Babies home in Munyonyo, among others.

“I have been humbled to visit and interact with children at these centres and this has given me a surreal feel about what it means to grow up without parents,” she says.

TOUGH UPBRINGING

Kwesiga was orphaned at birth! Her dad passed on before she was born while her mother died during labour. So, she was raised by her maternal grandparents and defied all odds to succeed in academics to become a successful lawyer.

Kwesiga says the misfortune of growing up without her parents taught her compassion for orphans and shaped her campaign to help underprivileged people in Uganda.

“My memories of growing up are very positive. I grew up without parents, but my grandparents provided all I needed. I missed the parental love but did not feel that I was abandoned because I had enough love from them,” she says.

“I am telling you this because when I tell some people I never saw my parents, they assume I suffered a lot or I was traumatised during my childhood. Of course, I missed some of the things children inherit from parents but I had freedom, time to read, which was very essential. The situation around me gave me a sense of the tough world we live in and exposed me to how lucky I was.”

It is from this background that Kwesiga sought to give back to the needy after carving out a successful legal career.

“I have been blessed to have the opportunity to share my blessings with others through paying school fees for less privileged children, building houses for the elderly in rural areas, visiting the sick, and many more,” she says.

“The seeds of love and kindness that were sowed into my life developed in me a strong need to share what was given to me so that others too can experience what it means to be loved. Therefore, I started the initiative to cause and spread love and kindness further by collecting donations to help aid this worthy cause.”

In fact, her pro bono work, [which is basically legal service the public good without compensation] and experience, has helped her appreciate and absorb the plight of poor people who cannot afford to take on powerful individuals and entities.

“I learnt to fight for the poor and their dignity but I realised it was not enough to provide them fish without teaching them how to fish; so, I took it upon myself to help their young vulnerable children with education.

“At first, I started by giving out to babies’ homes but then I got a calling to fully engage in this charitable activity by starting my own initiative to provide support to the vulnerable people,” she says.

Indeed, Kwesiga says she pays fees for more than 12 learners in various schools around the country.

“Some of them are in village schools but the most important thing is not the comfort, but the understanding that education is important,” she says.

LOOKING AHEAD

At Ripples Foundation, Diane has a team of about 15 volunteers that work around the clock to identify and help out vulnerable families and her dream is to sit back one day and appreciate the impact of her protégés on society.  
“There is no better thing to give to someone than a shelter to live in, food to eat and an education,” she says. “I hope I can touch as many lives of vulnerable people as possible.”