{"id":7532,"date":"2021-07-30T07:08:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T07:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/?p=7532"},"modified":"2025-02-12T07:33:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T07:33:48","slug":"story-of-muleke-alex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/2021\/07\/30\/story-of-muleke-alex\/","title":{"rendered":"Story of Muleke Alex."},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Embracing change in his life, a formerly defiant Alex now enjoys painting.<\/a><\/h1>\n\n

He uses recycled material to create attractive art and his dream is to start an art school in Kampala City.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Alex is one of 3,650 children supported through his education by the Distance Support Program. He is a student of art at a Kampala university, and his innovative painting is helping him provide an upkeep for his mum.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

He went to school at\u00a0Luigi Giussani Secondary School<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for six years and in 2018 he completed his secondary school level with excellent grades. Previously disinclined to stay in school, Alex Muleke gradually found the motivation in art \u2013 which became his path to continue his studies. Deep-rooted in the school\u2019s curriculum, the teachers at Luigi Giussani Secondary School believe in the power of art and deliberately encourage students to cultivate their potential in creativity. But Alex\u2019s strife in class angered his classmates.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why I didn\u2019t want to listen, I constantly annoyed my classmates and I enjoyed it when I upset teachers.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0This is how Alex, now twenty, tells of his early years at Luigi Giussani High School in Kampala.<\/p>\n\n

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In 2013, Alex\u2019s mum,\u00a0Loyce\u00a0<\/strong>lost hope in her son, she suffered from an illness, she wouldn\u2019t count on her husband for assistance for their family, and there was not enough time available to her to spend with her six children since she had to work hard to meet the expenses of her home.<\/p>\n\n

The social workers at\u00a0Meeting Point International<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0helped Loyce \u2013 they provided psychological and medical support and introduced her to the activities of a group of women in Kireka slum. Loyce, encouraged by the enthusiasm of the other women soon found the determination to face her problems. She joined the group of women where they met every once a week to sing, dance and learn different skills such as weaving and financial trainings to help them manage their savings and small businesses. And from the\u00a0Distance Support Program<\/strong><\/a>, she also received a financial contribution of school fees for her children and this time, Alex was certain he would study and shape a good future for himself and be able to help his mum one day.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe teachers became my friends: they gave me a clear vision about my life, and I realized that I had a beautiful chance. I am talented and I soon composed myself, I paid attention during class lessons, and I began life anew.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Today, Alex is enrolled at Kyambogo University.\u00a0\u201cWhen I paint I can control my thoughts. I am developing my own style with art. I like portraying people and I look for creativity in materials, in everything I touch.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

It was Alex\u2019s passion and determination that helped his mum to face the difficult months of the lockdown imposed by the Ugandan Government to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The situation does not stop Alex\u2019s creativity. He focuses on the emotions he experienced during his early days which he often refers to as \u201ca strange time of his life\u201d and\u00a0his creativity prompts him to experiment on new materials using coal dust and red earth to make unique artistic pieces such as the extraordinary painting of a masked woman, a piece which brought him a new range of clients and with them the money he much needed to care for his mum and siblings.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

And thanks to the help of the local organization Meeting Point International, an implementing partner of\u00a0AVSI Foundation<\/a>\u00a0in the Distance Support project Alex has stayed on course with his education.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Story by\u00a0Clelia Vegezzi (Communication Officer AVSI Uganda<\/a>), 30th<\/sup>\u00a0July 2021<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Embracing change in his life, a formerly defiant Alex now enjoys painting. He uses recycled material to create attractive art and his dream is to start an art school in Kampala City. \u00a0 Alex is one of 3,650 children supported through his education by the Distance Support Program. He is a student of art at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-of-hope"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7532"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7899,"href":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions\/7899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}