As we are all sent to schools to accomplish our dreams and become successful in life, we often  meet challenges that even compel some students to take away their lives, and yet our parents and the outside world remain oblivious about these hiccups. SHIFRAH KAYAGA talked to some students from different universities and they divulged to her what some of these challenges are, what normally causes them, and what some of them have done to avoid them.

According to Danson Ayesigye who
lives in Kikoni, Makerere but had earlier stayed in Baskon hostel which is located long Sir Apollo
kagwa road, some students face problems that can not be easily shared with parents and yet they are the very problems to that force them to commit suicide, especially boys.

Ayesigye notes that the root causes of these suicides are normally sexual relationships which go sour, and because boys are normally blindfolded by their patners to an extent of eating their tuition fees, they end up 'with no option' but to take away their lives.

He gives an example of a fourth-year student from Makerere, who commited suicide by jumping from Baskon hostel's fifth floor, previously, and died instantly, after suspecting his girlfriend to be in love with someone else.  He
left a note behind reading: “No one loves me”. This act was so gruesome, hurt most of the students and yet the boy's parents didn't have a clue about it.

Ayesigye also observes that there is also a problem of promiscuity homosexuality and sex tapes
being made for money and. About homosexuality, he still has a fresh testimony. He says “I had a neighbor, a young boy, who was a gay. We caught him going to throw around 10 condoms, into a pit, but as I was talking to him, he told me he was dragged by his classmates to do so.” In his view, sex education should be geared up so that may be students learn how to handle relationships.

For Wilfred Pip, a student of Nkumba University, there are some other serious causes of this disillusionment, apart from academic stress. Some of these result from parents who just give basic needs to their children, forgetting that the 'cost of living at campus is high'. These include; poverty and loneliness, as students end up finding partners to always be there for them during financial crises.

He notices that because this assistance comes with attached strings, those who receive it have to pay the price in the long run, which has seen many students get infected with HIV/AIDS.

"Poverty causes injuries in students' hearts mostly girls who end up doing whatever they can do to acquire a great living," Pip adding: “I had friends who always told me they use what they have to get what they want.”

However, Pip is afraid that the percentage of girls wgo are doing this is rising, as some of them suffer from demonstration effect, by copying the standard of living of other students from well-to-do families.

"Girls are being taken in affordable hostels but due to greed of acquiring high statuses, they end up
going in far expensive residents [which they cannot afford in the short run] and this makes them do what ever they can to maintain themselves in such places,” he says.

However, he advises parents to always fix some time and talk to their children about the divulged issues so that prostitution, desire to have expensive things, and such acts that can land students in trouble, can be reduced.

Peter Pedro Mutale who is also a student of Makerere University looks at the challenge of unwanted
pregnancies and risky abortions as faced by girls, yet parents and other people within the society find it hard to believe or even know about.

He says some students go as
far as giving birth and raising their children secretly minus the knowledge of their parents, for fear that parents can deny them tuition if they come to know the have been impregnanted while still studying.

"This is mainly caused by peer
pressure as many follow actions by
others and earn nothing other than falling into a big ditches," Mutale says, adding that others use money meant for renting to do other things which ends up tempting them into acts that will cause them trouble, including cults.

"Devil worshippers are all
most all over the world Just like God has sent his messengers in the
world, even the devil wants followers and so he ends up sending his agents...most students are being brain washed to join such religions for prosperity and excelling in academics and thus to accomplish these, sacrifices have to be made.

"Therefore, our bothers and
sisters have to be careful as some engage in acts, whose repurcusions they don't know, and they end up paying for prices that were unplanned for.

He asks parents to start educating their children about these things and also teach them how to bear with any situation that comes their way in order to be saved from miseries that follow.

Like Mutale, Ruth Nakafuuma who is Journalism and Communication at Makerere and staying in Kawempe, looks at the challenge of insufficient funding from parents which leads girls into sexual acts with richer men, thereby getting unprepared for pregnancies.

"Parents at times don't like sharing with us their financial constraints so that we can really understand the situation they are in, they just shout
at us something that causes
confusion in children’s lives" she says.

Contrary to majority thinking that retakes are a nromal thing at campus, many students still hate them so much so that that can even do anything to see them out of their lives. Nafuuma observes that many girls have secretly been involved in sexual relationships with their lecturers so as to avoid retakes.

She however advises parents to be as friendly to their children as possible by communicating to them even when in they are not home but in hostels as It make no sense for one to graduate having nothing in their heads because they bribed for good marks.

Paul Kato Ssali the youth councilor for Makindye West advises all students to always learn how to work hardvand live a life within their means because a lot is being expected from them as they study.
He says: "The fact that students pass through a lot of problems for
example exposure to phonography, abortions and the like, are all
nothing when someone is God
fearing... believe in God and life will be simplified for you."