The therapist first met Ruth when they arrived for the mission in Uganda on January 11, 2017. Ruth was one of the women present to welcome the Therapists. She came across as a helpful, warm, and kind person who care about all the people she came into contact with. She was a smart girl with big aspirations. Ruth attended all the sessions over the 3 steps.

Image 24 above is Ruth’s painting of a mountain and a valley. The valley signifies moments where she feels sadness, and the mountains, happiness. She talks a lot about people not having support to make their dreams come true.

Ruth was born on May 28, 1999 and hails from a small village in Uganda. She belongs to a large family which includes her mother, step-mother, father, a peasant farmer, 8 sisters, one of which is in nursing school and 4 brothers. Her stepmother no longer resides in the home as she has left the village.

Like the other girls and women in the village, Ruth contributes to taking care of the garden, crops, fetching water, and completing other chores at home. She is a student at the Standard High School in Kampala and is in Division 2. She has been at the Standard High school for three years. She realises how important education is for her to live the life she wants. She wishes to attend University to become an engineer, but does not have a sponsor for her education.

Ruth's parents have a volatile relationship, sometimes they can work together well and other times they do not. External circumstances, such as paucity of food or money leads to them arguing. This was also true for her relationship between her father and step-mother. Ruth would often cry when her parents would fight. Ruth's mother is also not very healthy and believes she has been suffering from cancer for a year. Her mother goes to the nearby hospital for treatments, and Ruth enjoys the time she gets to spend with her.

Ruth also enjoys spending time with her friends and playing games, like net ball or basketball. She is very good at net ball. They like to fetch water and pray at church. She also likes to talk to her friends about her studies, where they encourage her to keep working hard so she can make a better life for herself. She wants to help build things in the villages, such as water wells, lighting, crops, improve health facilities, educational facilities and housing to improve the lives of the people. She hopes to form a community in the area to help bring income to the people. Ruth also dreams of traveling to other countries to see how people live and to become inspired to find a way to help her country.

Image 25 presents Ruth’s hopes and dreams along with those of other girls in the group.