Miria is a dreamer. Her eyes sparkle and her face lights up as she smiles. Her dreams are like the excitement that emerges when a seed first surfaces as a sprout from under the soil. There was darkness for a long time – the soil laid dim and dormant. Suddenly, a sprout of life appeared fiercely out of the soil. The plant is petite and fragile at this point, but the possibilities are endless when thinking about all the fruit it could produce.
You see, Miria’s dreams are certainly like the new sprout – full of opportunity. But her life didn’t always look so hopeful. Miria had a season that looked like the darkness of the soil, unsure if anything would rise up out of it.
When Miria was 15, her church choir was invited to sing at a youth conference. One evening she wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed behind to rest. In this time, Miria was raped and threatened of harm if she told anyone about what happened. A month later when Miria suspected she was pregnant, she told her sister what happened. Miria’s father wanted her to get an abortion… but Miria refused. Miria was chased from home.
Looking at a future with no more education and slim chances of finding work to support her child, Miria’s course for accomplishing her dreams in life was thrown off.
But then Miria’s aunt was able to help Miria get connected to our partner, Vivian, who runs Wakisa Ministries, a pregnancy center in Uganda. Through her connection to Wakisa, The Hope Venture was able to get funding for Miria to attend Agromax, a 6 month agricultural training program. There she was able to gain the knowledge and skills needed to practice agriculture on her own. This will hopefully provide a stable source of income or food for Miria as she begins her life as a mother.
Miria is incredibly excited about all that she has learned through the Agromax training program. There were a ton of practical agricultural techniques that she learned, such as managing a greenhouse and how to control the plants inside it, how to steam soil and the importance of steaming soil before using it in her greenhouse, mixing chemicals to use for spraying weeds, and so many more nuggets of knowledge. Miria knows the skills she has learned are crucial for taking steps towards achieving her dreams.
Like the hope of a new sprout emerging from soil, Miria also has dreams that have emerged from her experience at Agromax.
Miria dreams of getting a degree.
She dreams of getting a job, which would help her provide stability in the future.
She dreams of being a teacher for future trainees at Agromax, teaching them the agricultural techniques she has learned so that they can be set up for a stable future too.
She dreams of starting up a big farm using the skills she learned at Agromax.
She dreams of becoming an engineer for the irrigation systems to advance agriculture even further in her community.
Miria also dreams of being a testimony in her community – a testimony of the hope that she now has after completing the Agromax program.
Up to this point, Miria already has practical steps to start reaching her dreams. We know by the time we see the sprout – the glimmer of hope – roots have already been growing down into the soil, establishing a firm foundation for the plant. Miria’s foundation has been set through her time at Agromax. Before long, the sprout will be producing fruit.