From Sticks to Stories: A Teacher’s Journey of Redemption in Oyam District

In the quiet heart of Iceme Sub County, Oyam District, a teacher sat beneath the shade of a pawpaw tree, reflecting on the path he had walked. The wind whispered through the leaves like voices from the past; some painful, some full of hope.

For over 10 years, Joseph Owani, a teacher attached to Angweta primary school in Oyam District Local Government considered himself the “master” for dominating and instilling fear in the hearts of his learners.

Before he was a teacher, he was a boy in dusty schoolyards, wearing a worn uniform and carrying more fear than books. He remembered the way teachers loomed like shadows, and how learning came hand-in-hand with pain. Among them was Teacher Kela, a name that still echoed with the snap of a cane.

“She is still alive today,” the teacher said quietly, his voice tinged with memory. “She beat us so hard.”

And yet, when the boy grew into a man, and graduated from PTC, he too wore that same shadow. He returned to the classroom, not as the scared pupil, but as the harsh teacher.

“I thought that was what it meant to be strong. I thought that was how you earned respect,” he confessed. He beat his pupils without mercy. He did not speak, did not ask, did not listen. He simply punished.

Then, something happened; everything began to change.

Owani joined a 10-week program organized by Foundation for Inclusive Community Help (FICH) in collaboration with Uwezo Uganda. The program which ran from May to July 2025 provided practical ways to community members to develop their children’s problem-solving skills.

With this, something in him softened- not with weakness, but with understanding. For the first time, he looked at his pupils not as problems, but as people; Children, sons and daughters with homes, with hearts, with stories.

“I began to speak to them gently,” he said. “I asked questions and they answered.”

One child stood out. A boy, stubborn and distant, always dodging lessons. Teacher Owani called him in, no stick in hand, only a voice filled with concern. The boy broke open like a storm: his mother had left; his stepmother was cruel. There was no food. No soap. No kindness.

Teacher Owani, having learnt something from the dialogue wrote a letter home, and the family came. They spoke, really spoke, for the first time. “The following day the boy returned to school, clean and fed, eyes brighter, ready to learn.” He bragged; eyes filled with pride.

“It used to be that I beat them and they ran,” the teacher admitted. “Now I talk and they stay.”

But not all memories are so easily healed.

He remembered a girl from 2014, bright and full of promise. One mistake, five strokes of the cane, and she vanished. She never returned for her Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE). She disappeared, taking her future with her.

“I still don’t know where she is,” he said, pain in his eyes. “That mistake… I carry it with me.”

Now, he is a different man. “Never again,” he said. “I have learned. I have changed.”

He walks the path of redemption not with grand speeches, but with simple acts: listening, guiding, caring. Owani shares his journey with fellow teachers, carrying the flame of compassion from school to school.

To teachers, his message is clear: “Let us not lead with fear, but with love. Let us be the teachers we never had.”

And to the parents: “Train your children with kindness. Speak to them. Guide them before they ever reach the school gate. Their first teacher is you.”

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