The Principal for St. Maria Goretti Girls Vocational Training Centre Musa Nsamba expressed gratitude to entities including CARITAS Uganda, Crest Hope, Chain Foundation and Compassion International Uganda, which he said have gone a long way in extending financial support to learners from handicapped families.
The Vicar General of Lugazi Diocese, Msgr. Dr. Richard Kayondo on Saturday July 5, 2025 presided over the 14th graduation ceremony of St. Maria Goretti Girls Vocational Training Centre.
The graduation saw 170 finalists awarded with diplomas and certificates after completion of the two-year courses in nursery teaching, tailoring, secretarial studies, catering and hair dressing.
Rev. Sr. Theresa of Avila Basemera, the institute said it is Catholic founded under the supervision and management of the good Samaritan sisters.
“It is registered by the Ministry of Education and accredited by the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT), Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB) and Kyambogo University as assessment bodies.
The awarding ceremony was conducted at the institute at Kikubankima village in Nama sub-county, Mukono district.
While addressing the Vicar General, other guests and parents, Sr. Basemera decried the unchecked land grabbing which she said has greatly impacted the Good Samaritan Sisters in Mukono, reducing their land from the original 400 acres to a mere 200 acres, and regretted that no authority seems to be really concerned about their fate.
She said they have begun frantic efforts to fence off the remaining 30 acres belonging to the institute with the attempt to save it from greedy grabbers who she said have victimized church land elsewhere.
“The late Cardinal Nsubuga bequeathed to us as the Good Samaritan Sisters, 400 acres of land in this vicinity in which we have built a hospital, a convent, a vocational institute and carried on agricultural activities for food to feed our community, but half of the land has been taken by impudent land grabbers with nobody expressing readiness to stop them,” she reported, adding;
“At the Good Samaritan Health Centre III in Takajjunge, the land grabbers are threatening the lives of our sisters serving in the facility.”
Sr. Basemera said that they have made reports to district authorities including police, and that under the circumstances, they have left the matter to God to decide the fate of the thieves who she said are acting with impunity.
In response, Msgr Kayondo advised that in a situation where there is no hope at the end of the tunnel, the only resolve exposed to them is to invoke God’s intervention through vigorous prayer.
In his message to the graduands, the Vicar General, Msgr. Kayondo advised them to keep clear of temptations of making fast wealth which he said comes through means that are abominable to God and by human standards.
He called on them to endeavor to maintain the good characteristics they have been trained to uphold in order to be able to avoid walking down avenues that are fraught with turning them into wild beings.
“Strive to make ends meet with the limited resources available legally, and to avoid as much as possible, taking loans in a bid to competitively get to levels of peers with bigger earnings”, he advised them.
Dr. Kayondo stressed the importance of humility as the beginning step for winning favours in society, noting that it costs nothing to thank or greet people, and to show gestures of kindness and love, adding, “Don’t be like cows which neither smile nor say thank you when you feed them”.
The Principal for St. Maria Goretti Girls Vocational Training Centre Musa Nsamba expressed gratitude to entities including CARITAS Uganda, Crest Hope, Chain Foundation and Compassion International Uganda, which he said have gone a long way in extending financial support to learners from handicapped families.
Nsamba also advised the graduates to brace for challenges ahead including coming face to face with a world driven by technology in almost all aspects, and to seek for more training opportunities, being innovative, exercising integrity and building reliable networks and relationships.
Rev. Sr. Maria Gemma Nalubwama who represented the Mother General for the Good Samaritan Sisters Mother Evangelist Mugisha, thanked Lugazi Diocese for always being a willing counsellor which she said can be clearly seen in the positive results exhibited by the learners.
Turning to parents, Sr. Nalubwama told them if they continue to equip the learners with requirements, the school is bound to give even more shining results in future. The best performing students were awarded with prizes as a token of appreciation and encouragement to others to follow in the same direction.