THE TOWN DOG

WHO IS THE TOWN DOG

The Town Dog was born by the man called Kemisi Issa, and a woman called Nagawa
Christine from the country called Ugandan in East Africa. He was born on 11 th, Dec, 1989
from Kawolo hospital Lugazi Uganda. He grew up from a slum area called Geregere Majani
which is found in Lugazi Municipality, Lugazi Town Council in Buikwe district former Mukono
district. The area where the Town Dog grew up from is highly populated compared to other
nearby areas such as Namengo, Kinyoro, and Nakazadde among others. The Town Dog loves
calling himself a Town Dog because in his local language “LUGANDA”, a Town Dog is
someone who is known by everyone in the town and every corner of the area. The biggest
percentage of the Town Dog’s village is made up of youths. The number of youths who have
ever reached at school in his village are estimated by the following percentage, University
level are about 2%, secondary level are about 18% ,primary level 75% and none about 5%.
That is so because most of the youths are involved in drug abuse at early age which is
caused by the group influences, early sex/ marriages which leads to unwanted pregnancies
hence making them to dropout of schools. And lastly also the refusal of their parents to pay
their kids school fees leads to their stay at home hence lack of education.

The photo bellow shows the Town Dog on the right hand side and his family. In the
background is the House where the Town Dog and his family were staying from.
The Town Dog on the extreme left with his family members in their house during one of
the X-Mass day

TOWN DOG’S LIFE

The Town dog started his studies from a nursery school called Lugazi Central Nursery found
in Lugazi and then he joined a primary school called Geregere Safi known as Geregere P/S
and later Wagala P/S, where he used to walk some good kilometers to school bear footed.
The Town Dog studied primary 1, and 2 from Geregere P/S. Primary 3 and 4 from Wagala
P/S. When he reached the middle of primary 4 (term two), his father stopped paying his
school fees. He stayed at home for some good time. Then he started to look for his own
ways of looking for school fees so that he can study because he was so much interested in
studies.

The Town Dogs mother wanted the son to study but when you look at the type of business
she was running, it was only proving food at home (one meal a day) and that made it a
challenge for the Town Dog to study. The mother used to sale tomatoes, onions, and
silverfish among others which had a capital of not more than Ten thousand shillings as it is
seen bellow is the town Dogs mother Nagawa Christine with her business.

Due to the lack of school fees at home, Town Dog had to look for the possible ways of
studying and there was an orphanage/rehabilitation center in Kibubu Village Lugazi
municipality which used to take kids from the street where Lugazi Simple supermarket is
located by now. It’s in this area where the street kids used to stay/gathered because of its
good geographical location of trees by then which made it a suitable place for the street kids
to stay in and from that area, that was place the owner of the rehabilitation center called
Jaja Maria and the team used to get the street kids from and take them to her rehabilitation
center where she used to provide them with the basic needs, such as rehabilitation services
for the drug users, free education and all the school necessities to those who had interest in
education where they were taken to good schools such as Kibubu Academy, Community
among others.

The town Dog had his friend who was staying at the street by that time who explained to
him what was going on at the street and then he asked him whether he wanted free
education and he gives him the way forward or not. They talked a lot and the Town Dog got
interested in his friend’s deal. Basing on what his friend had told him, the town Dog had to
live his home to go to the street, not because he was an orphan or drug user but he did it to
get education.