Nnali Mariam Sarah isa philanthropist and a YouTube content creator from Jinja, a city located in Eastern Uganda.
Through fans and subscribers of her YouTube channel, Salla Tourist, she has been able to construct a school and houses for the poor in her community.
Prior to venturing into content creation and philanthropy, Sarah worked as a domestic worker in Dubai.
Here is her story as told by WoK.
In an interview with Wode Maya, Sarah explained that she faced difficulties growing up thanks to the situation at their home.
She stated that her mother would have to look for sponsors every now and then to take care of her and her siblings.
However, sometimes people claiming to be sponsors would collect money from her and offer promises that never materializes.
Sarah said that it was her experience growing up that inspired her to participate in philanthropic works.
“For me when I seek the sponsors, I feel like it’s a prayer for my mom because she wanted it for us but it’s now for the kids and the grandmas and grandpas in this community,” she said.
Growing up, Sarah never left her village until when she secured an opportunity to work as a house maid in Dubai.
She worked in there for four years.
“My bosses were okay compared to what I hear but of course it doesn’t feel good working in someone’s house; away from your parents,” she explained.
Sarah saved some money and returned to Uganda where she first built a house and started a business for her mother.
She also bought land where she later built a school for the less privileged children in her community.
By the time she returned from Dubai, she was running a YouTube channel where she documents her philanthropy work.
With time, she started getting inquiries from her subscribers on how to offer monetary support for her projects.
One of such is classrooms that she built using money contributed by a section of her subscribers from different parts of the world.
“My subscribers built the school because during the lockdown, I was teaching them from an open space. I was just vlogging and then one person at a time came offering basics such as blackboards,” Sarah said.
She explained that she was inspired to start a school by her mother who was a teacher before retiring to take care of them.
“My mom was teaching before she gave birth to us but my dad stopped her or doing anything over insecurities that other men would hit on her,” she said.
At the moment, her mother is among teachers at the community school.
At the same time, Sarah has also built houses for the elderly living within the community, adding that she was inspired by her grandfather.
She has built a house for five families so far with the help of her subscribers.
“My grandpa was living very badly and at the time I had nothing. I went to renovate his house because it had been destroyed by the rains when one of my subscribers offered to take care of it. That’s how I started building,” she stated.
