Winnie Grace

Winnie Grace, locally known as Winach, is a strong-willed young lady from a small town called Mbale in the eastern part of Uganda. Born into a big family of eleven siblings, Winnie had to learn to work at a very young age so as to be able to help her parents who are local farmers.

The greatest challenge for Winnie was her mum’s health issues. Her mother’s battle with heart disease completely paralyzed the family's economic position. Seeing her family helpless, Winnie opted to take up casual jobs during her school holidays. Winnie narrates, “My mum's illness has always been so challenging to us. At a certain point I had to work as a domestic help in Kenya for about five months to get money to help sustain my family and take care of mum’s hospital bills”. Despite all these challenges, Winnie was able to get herself through school and complete her high school education when most of her siblings were not able to complete school. Due to financial constraints, her dream of joining the university was cut short.

Through Young Life, Winnie was able to start her journey of faith at the age of fifteen. This was met with great opposition from her parents since they were not believers. However, she found comfort in discipling kids and was encouraged by the great transformation this brought to her community. Winnie is currently pursuing a degree in mass communications at the YMCA Comprehensive Institute. Her dream is to be an influential journalist in her country. As a Developing Global Leaders student, she desires to develop and mentor other leaders as she continues to grow her leadership skills.