Brit teen helps Ugandan boy move to UK after chance meeting on school trip

Living in a one-room shack while earning 70p a day picking up litter in Uganda, ­11-year-old Julius Muyombya had no idea his life would turn upside down a decade later.

He was spotted by a British teenager, who was on a school trip to the East African country in 2008, and has now ­graduated from Bangor ­University with a first class degree in business and law.

The heartwarming story began when Christina Ramsay, now 29 and a mum of two, sent a photo of the “sparky” lad in an email to teachers with the message “this boy has to come to Wales”.

She helped raise £5,000 to build his family a new home, then convinced her £33,000-a-year boarding school to let him in for free.

Barely able to speak English, he got on a plane and embarked on a new life with the help of 10 families in Llandudno, North Wales, named “Friends of Julius”.

Staying with each of them for stints, he got his GCSEs, then a place at university and graduated last month aged 22.

He has since returned home to help with projects aimed at improving living ­conditions in shanty towns.

Julius wants to pursue a political career in Uganda with the ambition of ending extreme poverty.

He says: “It is a dream come true. This couldn’t have been possible without the support of those who have been there for me since day one.

“Christina started it but so many people helped me in so many ways. It’s amazing to think strangers paid for my travel and living expenses.

“Christina was terrified by what she saw when she visited Uganda. I owe her so much. Meeting her changed my life.

“I worked day and night to make sure that I got good grades. I pushed myself beyond the limits.”

Julius grew up in the coastal city of Katwa, where many of its ­residents live in tiny huts made of wood and scrap metal. Aged four, Julius and his six siblings were adopted by their grandmother, Tereza Nassuna, following their parents’ ­div­­orce. He made money by picking up litter for 70p a day.

“We all lived in one room with no water or electricity and a roof that leaked,” says Julius. “My grandmother made sweetcorn which I sold or I cleared nasty, smelly rubbish.

“I lived in extreme poverty. When I look back at where I came from I do cry. To be where I am now is a miracle.”

His life changed for ever when he met sixth former Christina, then 18. She was in Kampala on an outreach project with leading independent school, St David’s College. Christina, now a nurse from Afonwen, North Wales, says she was “heartbroken” by how he lived but blown away by his drive, saying: “I saw a spark.”

In 2010, she returned to Kampala to help the family move into a new house built through crowd-funding.

Back in Wales she approached college chaplain Reverend Tim Hall. They kick-started a campaign and the Friends of Julius group was formed.

Julius started at St David’s College in 2010 on an expenses-paid sponsorship.

“It felt amazing to have the ­opportunity. I was tough mentally and physically. I wanted to come,” says Julius.

“I landed in Heathrow in the rain and then went to Anglesey to stay with a family from the school.

“My first impression was that Wales was the most beautiful place I’d seen. It was green and there were mountains.

“But I was 13, the food, culture and climate were all so different but people were very friendly.

“At first, I was shocked at the amount of food here – and that you could eat as much as you wanted. At home I could spend a day without eating and here I saw kids throwing food away.”

Julius says it was a “no-brainer” for him to move to Wales but admits the only thing the young Arsenal fan knew about the country was that it was where footballer Aaron Ramsey came from.

Julius had been to school part-time in Kampala. But sheer hard work led him to achieve eight C grade or above in his GCSEs.

In sixth form he won a national award for his Btec in business diploma which helped him to earn a scholarship at Bangor University in 2016.

Still supported by the Friends of Julius, who raised £50,000 in total, he was able to pay his international student fees and living costs.

Christina says: “He has turned into the most amazing man who has taken every opportunity. I’m lost for words.”

Julius is back home and working on a graduate programme with international accountancy firm BDO.

He says: “I want to do as much as I can to end poverty. I want more people like me to get these opportunities.”

A key figure in Friends for Julius was dentist Alison Foxall, with whom he stayed during holidays for eight years.

Alison, 57, says: “My children went to the college. At speech day, Reverend Hall explained every parent should do their part to try to raise money for Julius.

“The view was that if we could give him an education, he would be a real force for good in his country. He became another son to me.”

SOURCE: MIRROR