Jotham Amugada

Jotham Amugada is an academy manager at Bridge, Malaba which lies on border of Uganda in Busia County, western Kenya.

Jotham started working for Bridge in June 2016 after having studied to become a teacher and teaching for public schools in Kenya. He’s the son of a nursery teacher and a mason from his hometown of Moi’s Bridge. It was during his time working for a public school that Jotham first heard of Bridge.

Jotham began his career with Bridge as a teacher for Bridge Academy, Matunda. Here, he was pleased to find that the rumours he had heard about great teacher training and ongoing support at Bridge were true!

“At Bridge, pupils are helped to find their courage, they see teachers as friends and they love being in the classroom. This helps them express themselves. Teachers conduct themselves very well, their work is in their heart, and they are committed to helping pupils. Teachers are always paid on time and are given enough to sustain them and their families. The work of a teacher has been simplified, they will have less burden than non-bridge teachers. As a teacher you are part of a great community here in our school. It’s a very nice environment to be a part of.”  

Jotham advocated for his twosisters to attend Bridge, Matunda. Once they did, they saw remarkable academic improvements. The younger sister joined Bridge just this year and has already risen from 270 to 308 marks. She talks in English at home, people in her community can see the difference.

Jotham’s work for Bridge has granted him the opportunity to travel and become part of a new communities. Now, he lives in Malaba, Busia County. He has risen to the position of academy manager here and carries out the duties of managing teachers and short and long classroom observations to maintain the quality of lesson delivery at his school. Jotham organises co-curricular activities such as Bible Studies and poetry and can also fill in for lessons, teaching his specialist subject of Kiswahili.

Jotham loves his new community and has been made to feel very welcome. “In this community, I have only stayed for one term but when I am walking through town. There are some parents who call out to me and praise me and say to their friends: “This is Jotham, he runs the school!” The children will also be very happy to see me, they will embrace me and want to play.”

Jotham says a big thanks to the whole Bridge family and is a strong advocate for education. “Education enables a person to create a career, through education you can find solutions to problems in the community. I have found that it’s only through education that people can be equipped to deal with activities in the community. People are also more creative when having received a good education. Education raises the status of a person in any given society, they are enabled to think and do things and make things successful in their lives.”