'When I heard the noise, so loud, and saw the others playing I just knew that I had to join. It makes me happy to play..'

Yesterday I was invited to band practice by John, 15 years.

John joined our education programme three years ago. When we met him he’d missed more than four years of school and had a lot of catching up to do.

After his parents died he went to live with his grandma, she couldn’t afford school fees or to feed him, he would spend his day on the street selling brooms in order to scrape together enough to eat.

Because of support from Awamu friends and family like you, we were able to give him the opportunity to go back to school. He is now in P6 and getting good grades.

John is one of the tallest boys in school, he is now over six foot and stands out amongst his primary class mates but he says ‘I don’t care what anyone thinks, I’m just happy to be at school. I study hard because I want to be an Engineer. I’m just trying my hardest.’

He joined the schools brass band last year, he explained ‘When I heard the noise, so loud, and saw the others playing I just knew that I had to join. It makes me happy to play and I like to stay at school after class because I don’t want to hang around on the street.

'Before I was playing trumpet, but a few weeks ago my teacher asked me if I wanted to play the Tuber so I’m trying it out'. Listen to John and his band below..

"When I heard the noise, so loud, and saw the others playing I just knew that I had to join. It makes me happy to play. ' John, 15, joined our education programme three years ago. When we meet him he'd missed more than four years of school. Now he is in p6, getting good grades amd has joined brass band #awamu #development #education #music #Kampala #Uganda

A video posted by @emma_at_awamu on Oct 5, 2016 at 9:30am PDT