From ‘I Lost All Hope’ to Busitema’s Top HEAC Student

Nakyanzi Sharon Mufiiti, 22, is a FAWE Uganda programme participant enrolled in the Higher Education Access Certificate (HEAC) at Busitema University. She achieved the highest Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) among HEAC’s Biological Sciences students, scoring 4.85 out of 5.0. She has since been admitted to pursue a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) degree. This is the fulfilment of a dream she once thought had died.

Sharon grew up in an adoptive home in Uganda after escaping a traumatic childhood, her school journey repeatedly disrupted by a lack of fees, family conflict and late starts. She missed the two principal passes she needed at A-level and felt the world had closed in. “I lost all hope and knew I was a failure,” she recalled. By the time she completed A-level, her results and circumstances seemed to confirm the worst. The turnaround came through HEAC, a one-year bridging programme that gave her a way back.

Her adoptive mother, however, refused to accept that one set of results would define Sharon’s future. “Bad results are not the end of the world,” she told Sharon, and encouraged her to apply for FAWE Uganda’s Higher Education Access Programme (HEAP) bursary. That encouragement led Sharon to enroll in HEAC, accredited by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) as an official entry route into university.

HEAC exists to address a critical gap: Uganda’s tertiary enrollment ratio is approximately 6.8 percent, the lowest in East Africa and well below the continental average of 15 percent. Many young people from underprivileged and underserved communities underperform in the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) because their schools are underfunded, lack science teachers and have poorly equipped laboratories for practical lessons. HEAC gives those who miss direct university entry a second chance: a one-year bridge that strengthens subject knowledge, study skills and readiness for higher education.

In 2025, FAWE Uganda recruited 700 young people, of whom 483 were admitted to partner universities to pursue HEAC. Before classes began, all participants attended a week-long Extended Orientation Programme (EOP), which prepares students for university life and covers practical topics such as financial literacy, digital literacy, sexual and reproductive health and rights, self-determination and stress management.

During the EOP, Sharon learned how to manage stress, handle money and build self-esteem. “FAWE Uganda organized a counsellor for me, which helped me feel worthy and loved,” she said. With support from FAWE Uganda, its mentorship programmes and a solid academic foundation, Sharon thrived, completing the HEAC programme at Busitema University with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.85 — almost a perfect score of 5.

Sharon shared that HEAC restored her confidence. “HEAC gave me new hope. I no longer call myself a failure,” she said. Sharon is now the first person in her family to reach university. With her admission to study Medicine at Busitema, she is on her way to becoming the doctor she always dreamed of being. She still hopes to earn a PhD one day.

“Do not give up because of one set of results,” she urged others. “HEAC became the bridge that carried me to university, and it can carry you too. Apply for the certificate. I am living proof that regardless of where you come from or what you have been through, you can make it.”