Fataha is 12 years old and in fifth grade, and for nearly a year the road has been his shoes.
Every morning, he walks to school barefoot, his steps steady, his thoughts busy with numbers. Not math from class—but money. Coins he might earn from small jobs. Errands. Helping where he can (collect water from miles away).
He has a plan: raise 15,000 Ugandan shillings and buy shoes for himself. So far, he has saved 4,000.
It has not been easy.
Fataha lives with his mother and siblings, a family stitched together by strength after his father left years ago. His mother tries—tries to keep them in school, tries to stretch every coin—but some days there is no lunch, and many evenings there is only a little food to share. They live on less than a dollar a day, and hunger has become a quiet companion.
Still, Fataha keeps walking. Barefoot. Determined.
Today, everything changes.
When Fataha is handed a new pair of shoes, he is speechless.
