A two hours drive from Bugiri town to the south west into Lunyo village ushers you to Sylvester Egondi’s home, one of the children sponsored under Beyond Uganda’s “Not Forgotten” program. The trip is punctuated by jarring roads. The sight of tall green stalks of elephant grass on either sides greets you as you snake through the jungle. The two-rut road with serrated bumps where we drove seemed like an interstate highway, no car had ever driven here for decades. Most of the kids in this village had never seen a car either. In most places, they scampered into the bush as the brave ones chased after a cloud of dust forming into a blue sky overhead. As the sun kissed the western horizons, light is overcome by darkness which engulfs the area as every household retreats to their grass thatched huts, no electricity here so lanterns substitute the light bulbs. A few hours into the dusk, voices in homes dim into bed leaving the sound of crickets around the surrounding jungle only. Such paints a typical community in which Sylvester and many other kids are struggling to raise their heads to reach their God given potential.Born in a typical African traditional polygamous family of two wives and eleven children, before Sylvester was grown up to separate right from wrong, his mum divorced leaving him under hardship that had a toll on his childhood. He remembers times when his family survived on a single meal per day, when he fell sick and his dad couldn’t afford tablets because of a state of poverty they lived in. His dad brings home an average of two dollars a day as monthly income from crop harvest which he has to spend to sustain his towering family. Children in Sylvester’s community who face similar conditions are usually left with no choice but to ride motocyles to make a living, or at worst marry, as education turns into a luxury to them.

Sylvester says he would burn charcoal as a little boy to sell and buy books and pens to school. Life was meaningless to me, he says, with no role models to look up to in my family and surroundings. I contemplated giving up but the urge to press on for the sake of my dream often overcame the spirit of discouragement. I longed to see God bring me into the hallway of my dreams someday. That’s what poverty and its effect does to a child. There’s a silent whisper in their spirits, “give up” see your grand parents, parents and siblings never amounted to anything, you won’t make it either! Consequently the fainthearted throw in a towel for their hopes and their dreams are forever shattered. With lost dreams goes the potential and ultimate impact that a child might have had.

When children live in a nurturing, safe environment surrounded by family, friends, and a supportive community of people who love them, believe in them, and affirm their lives, they dare to dream of possibilities in life. That’s what changed of Sylvester when he joined BU program. From the support of his sponsors, he has been able to go back to school where his academic prowess has been felt. In the just released national exam results, Sylvester’s star shone when he emerged second best candidate in his school to book a place in high school…that’s what happens to children when we choose to believe in them. They’re more than we think they are; they can do more than we think they can do. All they need is a vote of confidence from grownups, and their dreams today will become realities of tomorrow.

His top performance, he says, was motivated by the desire to excel at everything he does. “My hopes have been rejuvenated and my family and society see a lot of values and respect in me. This gives me a hunger to embrace every opportunity and do my best at it.” He says. Sylvester’s current academic credentials aren’t so much to count going by Ugandan education standards, but even with his primary school paper alone, he’s highly respected and valued in his family and clan circles. As his dad, Wilson Egondi puts it; Sylvester is the family and clan flag bearer. He’s the most highly educated person that his clan of over 300 clansmen can ever front if asked to. “Sylvester has turned into the most trusted of my children with high integrity. I now look at him as my heir” Wilson says, with a beaming smile.

The family and clan icon says his life’s transformation journey of changing his family tree has just begun. He’s leaving no stone unturned until he achieves his dream of becoming a pilot. “My heart burns with ambition to fly a plane someday” he says. But what does it mean for a child raised under poverty in one of the remotest areas of Uganda where they hardly see even a car to dare dream of flying a plane! To Sylvester, when God gives you a dream, He’s already laid conditions necessary a head of you to propel you to see you it come to fruition. Abraham did not wait to see the entire world to believe he would become the father of nations. No, he just believed and it came to pass. God was working behind the scenes for his sake. That’s the spirit of faith that Sylvester is riding on to the cockpit.

Sylvester’s dream got a boost in May 2014 when BU organised a children’s tour of Kampala, the nation’s capital and Entebbe International Airport. This was an icing on the cake for his vision, “I saw myself closer to my dream. It was an awesome experience to see a plane take off and land” Sylvester talks of his first time experience to come face-to-face with an airplane. Tipped on plans underway to get him to the States to further his education and undergo a better training towards his goal than he would receive in Uganda, Sylvester is all smiles, akin to a new dawn of hope in his life. “I’ve never doubted that God embedded a lot of innate potential in me, I can hardly wait for the opportunity to come, and when the stage is set, I want to prove to the world that a child can be born under poverty but isn’t an indication that they would never amount to anything”

To Sylvester’s sponsors and funders, he’s indebted and humbled that God has chosen and set him a part from a multitude. He pledges total commitment to God, and a great return to his family, community and nation of Uganda.