From Child Refugee to Project Engineer: A Story of Resilience from Moyo, Uganda

July 14, 2025

Isaac was born in a refugee camp in South Sudan because parents fled war in Uganda. 

Two years later, his family fled South Sudan because of war and returned to an unstable Northern Uganda. 

His first school was under a tree. His first pencil was his finger, drawing letters in the dirt. 

He lived with constant fear of rebel attacks. When bullets rained through his family’s home, his parents scraped together what little they had to send him to a safer place—to live with an uncle and go to school. 

Despite unimaginable hardship, Isaac dreamed of becoming an engineer. He couldn’t afford a university degree, so he earned a two-year diploma and began building construction projects. That’s when I met him—he was the contractor hired by Pipeline Worldwide to build a dorm for 80 young women who had escaped captivity under Joseph Kony. 

Years later, after he’d married and had three beautiful children, Isaac still hadn’t let go of his dream. So he saved up. And when he had just enough, he enrolled in a university… 13 and a half hours away. 

That meant taking a night commuter bus—13½ hours one way—twice a week. These buses are overcrowded, dangerously fast, traveling on treacherous roads, and they even require a ferry crossing over the Nile River. 

But Isaac was determined. So every single weekend, he’d leave on Thursday evening and return every Sunday evening, for four years, he made that journey—working full-time, supporting his family, and pursuing his education. 

When he graduated, we hired him. 

And what did Isaac do with that new opportunity? 

When he graduated, we hired him. 

And what did Isaac do with that new opportunity? 

He sent his wife to study clinical medicine—a three-year program, five hours away. He stayed in Moyo with the kids working full-time. 

And then he opened his home to four more vulnerable children—because he remembered what it was like when someone helped him. 

I asked Isaac why we should care about the people in Moyo.   

He said, “Because innocent people are dying. We should all care about that.” 

And he’s right.