Student Spotlight
Alex Ainebyona
Jun 22, 2022
After tragedy struck his family, Alex Ainebyona began to dream of becoming a doctor so he could help families avoid the pain he experienced. But limited resources made this an unlikely dream; Alex knew it was far more likely he would miss out on university altogether. After Meto connected him to one of the continent’s best medical schools, Alex wowed the admissions staff and received a full scholarship. Now, instead of hand-weaving sweaters to make a living, Alex will fulfill his dream.
Alex's Story
Alex Ainebyona was at the family sewing machine the moment everything changed. He couldn’t believe the email. He read it over and over again, but the words weren’t changing. “The decision is: Admit.” Alex began to shiver. He was going to the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), perhaps Africa’s best private medical school, on a full scholarship. He would become a doctor. His life and his family’s lives would never be the same.
It is impossible to fully appreciate this moment without understanding Alex’s story leading up to this point, a journey that spanned five schools scattered across Uganda, with an agonizing long-term hospital stay in between.
The story begins in Kitooma-Rwencwera, a rural village in Western Uganda, where Alex grew up with his mother, two younger sisters, and maternal grandparents. He excelled in the local primary school near his home. A teacher recognized Alex’s uncommon potential and encouraged his mother to enroll Alex in a more competitive primary school. Through her work as a seamstress, Alex’s mother was able to send him to a better-resourced school in Mbarara. It marked the beginning of a winding educational journey which saw Alex attend five schools en route to finishing high school, each in a different city and each more demanding than the last.
Alex continued to shine in each new setting. “By the end of primary 7 [the U.S. equivalent of 8th grade], I started seeing the future to be bright,” Alex says. “It opened my eyes to not just complete primary school but to be someone who makes it. In the urban centers there is hope that they build in their students that we don’t find deep down [in rural areas]. Like, you can make it in life.”
Each step in his educational journey represented a major milestone for Alex and his family. “I became a very good man at school because I was determined by seeing where I came from compared to where I was now,” Alex says. “It was like a dream coming true because none of my parents, none of my grandparents, none of my uncles ever exceeded primary 7.”
But a heart-wrenching challenge arrived during his form 3 year (roughly equivalent to the sophomore year of high school in the U.S.): his grandfather, whom Alex considered his own father and called “Dad,” fell seriously ill. As the most educated person in his family, 16-year-old Alex served as his grandfather’s next of kin at the hospital, spending weeks by his bedside and liaising with hospital staff.
Alex speaks through pain but also with remarkable strength about the ordeal he and his family endured. “What we met at the hospital really was tarnishing,” he explains. “It was pain. My grandfather was from a poor family. He could not afford the private wing where you are given a lot of care. We had to go to the government wing where we had to wait for free services, free doctors, sometimes doctors would not come. We could wait for the whole day, he could be crying. Seeing your grandfather crying in pain…”
Alex continues: “He was not given care. I used to cry with him at night. He would say, ‘My son, this is because we don’t have any connection here. Maybe if we had any doctor here it could have helped us.’ We struggled. They give you just a simple dose of medicine rather than advanced healthcare.”
Tragically, Alex’s grandfather ultimately died of a treatable liver condition. “It is really hard because even on his deathbed, I was there,” Alex recalls. “He was breathing his last time. It was not easy to withstand that pain. Remembering… if we had more assistance, he would not have died.”
Alex’s grandfather was not the only one. “The sick ward we were in was flooded with people in and out, day and night,” Alex says. “It rains on patients,” he adds. Amidst the heartache, he felt a surge of clarity about what he hoped to do with his education: “I was like, ‘My God, if you could give me an opportunity of becoming a doctor, I would die for this. I would really be a doctor for the poor.’ ”
Heartbroken but filled with resolve, Alex returned to Trinity College Kabale, his O-Level high school, determined to fulfill his newfound dream. He was away from school for so long he nearly lost his scholarship, but he was able to get back on track and quickly returned to the top of his class. He ended up receiving a scholarship for his A-Level to Mengo Senior School, an elite high school in Kampala featuring some of Uganda’s brightest students. As he had at every other stop on his journey, Alex excelled.
Despite his sterling academic performance, Alex still faced long odds in his quest to become a doctor. Given his family’s financial situation, he would need to secure an ultra-competitive scholarship, and, like many students in Africa, he scarcely knew where to look. His career guidance counselor at Mengo Senior School, Mr. Ssettuba William Edward, proposed some options that Alex could explore, including Meto. Alex quickly completed the Meto intake form but didn’t know what to expect.
The stakes were high. “I had been depending on scholarships for high school,” Alex explains. “If I didn’t get a scholarship for university that means you have to struggle through life, maybe trying to work here and there, making sweaters maybe. I’m good at weaving sweaters, so maybe I’d do that for life.”
Meto shared Alex’s information with UGHE, and an admissions officer from UGHE offered a preliminary expression of interest to Alex through Meto. “I was very, very happy for the first connection,” Alex says. “I was like, ‘Who am I to interest a university? A university being interested in me? This is so great!’ ”
But Alex still had a long road ahead. “The application process was not easy,” Alex explains. “It was very competitive, from over 1,000 applicants to only 42 admitted students.”
Meto’s newly launched application mentorship initiative helped Alex navigate the lengthy process. “I must thank Meto,” Alex says. “Meto connected me to a mentor, Ms. Laura Rink. She is pursuing her master’s at University of London. She encouraged me, inspired me, and helped me make informed decisions at each stage of UGHE’s application process because I told her about my journey. She became a guide that lighted up my way.”
With Laura’s help, Alex submitted a strong application, and he had reason to feel confident about his chances. But nothing could have prepared him for the torrent of emotions he’d experience when the acceptance came. “It was the 28th of December,” Alex recalls. “I was at home making some sweaters. I got a message when I was at the sewing machine that UGHE’s decision is to Admit. I started shivering. I failed to eat for the whole day. I could not believe it, that I have gotten into such a university.”
The acceptance into UGHE would change Alex’s and his family’s lives forever, but he waited a day to share the news with his mother. “My mom was out of town and planning to return home the next day,” Alex explains. “So I was like, ‘I won’t tell her yet so she can focus on traveling because she might die of excitement!' Deep inside me I was very happy. I cried. Getting into UGHE was a dream. I could not believe it. Reaching here, I was like, ‘My God, this is not me.’ ”
“When you come from my background, you really don’t think that such people or such organizations or opportunities really do exist,” Alex says. “Up to now, to be sincere, I even wake up and pinch myself. I am like, ‘Is this really true?’ Because Meto connected me without me giving anything. From the start we never paid anything, for Meto, applying for UGHE and getting in, I never paid anything, not even a single coin.”
Alex’s arrival at UGHE has changed everything. “In my life, it has been a turning point,” he says. “Because everything is new. It is a school but it feels like a hotel! Your bills are already paid. Having free wifi wherever you go. The kind of water you want. There is warm water, there is cold water at every tap you are going to. How can I describe this? Here comes a place where everything is at your table.”
In addition to enjoying the campus in Butaro, Rwanda, Alex has been soaking up the medical education offered by UGHE’s world-class faculty. Lectures from the late Dr. Paul Farmer were particularly impactful, as they aligned with Alex’s passion to increase access to healthcare. “He inspired us to keep strong and fight for the poor to access healthcare,” Alex said. “He told us that the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world and that equity is the only acceptable goal.”
Alex hopes to use his platform to become an advocate for the poor. “After here, God willing I will leave UGHE as a global health leader,” he says. “I hypothesize most people in Africa, and in Uganda in particular, die of pain rather than disease. I really need to change that. I need to stop the pain that people die in. I also need to increase healthcare access.”
Early in his medical training, Alex doesn’t yet have all of the answers. But he is determined to fight for his people. “I don’t know how,” he says, “but I believe UGHE will give me the experience and the skills and the support I need. And in my country’s health systems, I will have the capacity and the will and potential to increase access to healthcare for my people down there.”
He is already dreaming of ways to integrate his education with the herbal medicine used by his community in rural Uganda. “I personally grew up on herbal cocktails deep down there,” he explains. “They have been partially working so most people are taking them but they don’t know the modern measures… if we can integrate this herbal medicine into the modern medical technologies that we are using now and try to improve access to healthcare by reducing the costs, we can help the medicine work more effectively. These are my greater plans for the future.”
The journey that began in Kitooma-Rwencwera has now spanned thousands of miles, but in so many ways it is only just beginning. Each day as Alex learns under some of the world’s sharpest medical minds, his own future grows ever more bright. But even as everything has changed in his own life, he remains focused on helping others. “I hope I will change lives for good,” he says. Just six months since that fateful day at the sewing machine, Alex is well on his way.
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