By Dismas Nuwaine
Santina Kansiime had always wanted to be part of a fitness community. She was tired of a dormant and sedentary lifestyle. She wanted more colour and activity in her schedule, but like many, she didn’t know how to start on her own.
“I wasn’t proud of my lifestyle,” says the journalism major. “I was so relaxed, just sitting there and adding fat to my body. I knew that something about me had to change.”
It was finally through her contact’s status updates, that she found something to do. She found out about the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Health and Fitness Club.
“I was merely scrolling through Constance’s [her classmate] status and I found her posting about her fitness challenge and the distance she had to foot. At that moment I felt inspired. I knew I had to be part of this,” she says.
She quickly knocked on the club’s doors and, “like they always do, they joyfully let me in,” she said.
“I hadn’t just found just a club, but a family,” Kansiime remarks, saying she received so much care, and was encouraged all the way. “Because of this I was able to test the limits of my body. I knew that I was on a journey of something big. It gave me a sense of purpose,” she adds.
Kansiime confesses to have better managed her weight through the club’s daily rigorous exercises and fitness challenges, saying within two months of joining, she had lost five kilogrammes.
The club
The health and fitness club’s story was started by an unassuming young man – Chaz Miti Lwanga, who had had long periods of physical inactivity which led to him gaining a lot of weight. Looking at him now though, you would never know.
A pleasure-seeking university socialite, Lwanga had the swagger, but good health constantly eluded him; he weighed over 94 kilogrammes. This, coupled with his troublesome lifestyle soon drove him to a breakdown, till he started contemplating suicide. Though he lived the semblance of a happy man, he was hiding inner turmoil.
Before he knew it, and to the surprise of his peers, Lwanga was dropping out of school to put himself together.
He found his solace during the Covid 19 pandemic. He entered a rigorous training schedule, walking 10 kilometres – five apiece, to and from the market on a daily basis. He engaged in heavy farm work activity alongside his shamba boys. What started as baby steps, soon grew to purposeful ones. Before Lwanga knew it, he was in the process of rehabilitation. He had lost over 20 kilogrammes.
The redemption
In the September 2021 intake at UCU, he was readmitted for the Bachelors of Science in Finance and Accounting course, a totally different person.
He was determined to re-write his story.
Given his previous experiences, Lwanga says he was convicted to start the club, and is sure it’s God’s calling and considers it ministry.
Once condemned as a public nuisance by his comrades because of his behaviour previously, he is now embraced as a source of pride for the whole community. This club has made Lwanga a model amongst his peers. He has had such influence and he received the 2023 Impact Student of the Year award from the 25th Students Guild.
Lwanga says the club is “a peer to peer support group” that does not only help young people maintain physical but spiritual and psychological fitness.
The club has a cocktail of activities, including gyming, track and field activities, and hiking. They also often have physical fitness challenges that test the limit of their physical endurance.
Many young people have found their identity through the club, and this speaks directly to the vision of the proprietor.
“Now that l have come back to university, I see many people taking the path that I once took,” says Lwanga before he continues, “I can’t sit back and watch comfortably yet l know l have touched the fire and it has burnt me and I’m seeing other people heading towards it.”
Kansiime’s story is not an isolated one. She is one of the many students that have reaped the numerous benefits the fitness club has to offer. Her friend Constance Asere Ichuma is another.
“When the semester was beginning, I weighed a whole 94 kilogrammes,” confessed Ichuma, whose inactive lifestyle had led her there.
Upon the prodding of a friend, the communication major decided at once to join the club. Within a month’s time, Constance was counting her benefits.
“Within six weeks I had already lost 10 kilogrammes. Through the club, I have met many friends who have enabled me to be on my feet and work towards achieving my goals,” said Ichuma.
Having started school in 2019, Lwanga is graduating this October and he leaves behind something that will benefit many students and that he can be proud of.
“We already have a leadership team constituted and the activities will continue as usual; if anything, the team will expand them,” he says, adding that there are plans to take the idea further.
“We hope to sow this seed in several other universities to start fitness clubs of their own,” he says.
