Children affected by hunger in West Africa

abcnews.go.com/International/cry-hunger-drought-crisis-west-africa/story?id=16449341#.T8XoX1ta8dU

Cambodia's Orphan Business - People & Power - Via Al Jazeera English

Cambodia's Orphan Business - People & Power - Al Jazeera English

War has not ended in the lives of northern Uganda children

the Writer with some of the children in amuru

By Gertrude Tumusiime

My friend looked at the pictures of children, I took while in Amuru District, northern Uganda, she said,

 “ugliness is synonymous with poverty.” 

 I laughed to the deepest  but later thought through the statement and realized its validity. 

While in Amuru, I  visited a few places, but of the few I went to, the children’s population outnumbered the adults'. 

Here, only the lucky ones wore very scruffy clothes while the unlucky wore only a shirt or a pair of shorts. It was also here that I realized that bear chests and feet are no surprises.  

Under scorching sunshine, the little ones happily stared in awe at every stranger who graced their territory and ran after any car that passed by. Their innocent eyes could have a lot of hope in the us ( visitors). 

These children are welcoming; they generously return a smile to anyone who offers one, not even the misery has robbed them of their smile- the little they have to give. Nevertheless, the smiles that brighten their faces have not completely washed away the misery in which they live. 

While here, you find reason to extend love to a soul of at least one child because practically speaking, none of them looks like he or she is well taken care of. But I personally believe that if they got access to proper care, they can look more beautiful than they look now, or better still who know if they had grown up in averagely well off families, they would actually look beautiful even when they are naturally not so appealing.

Now, although the insurgency that seized the northern part of the country in the 1990’s recently ended, the children in these post-conflict areas still experience war within their lives. Majority of them children are orphans, whose parents died during the war, they now stay with relatives and families outside their own. 

Many if not all of these relatives are living in abstract poverty, with extended families and typically poor standards of living which they have not chosen to live but fate has got them into. Like in any war torn area, they also suffered losses of property to the Rebels during the insurgency. Therefore, for as much as they would have loved to help these orphans and their own children enjoy their full rights, they do not have capability due to their state.

Going to school is a mystery for majority of the children here, even with UPE, many still do not go to school, and they stay home to play, help with house chores and activities of the sort, also, many of them are dropouts at a tender age. I visited Amuru on a weekday and all the days I spent there were schooldays and this means I did not expect any school going age children at home, but to my surprise, it was the opposite. For as long as they can secure a place to sleep and a meal, a day they do not mind the way the rest ends.  

At home, they sleep in congested huts because the families in which they dwell are extended; a small hut here on average accommodates about 4 adults and about 7 children. Disease in this case is inevitable and when they are ill, it is rare that they get proper medical care. 

Despite the fact that the war has practically ended, in the lives and situations of these children, there is still a lot of fighting and gunshots of poverty, ignorance, defilement, diseases, abuse, no shelter, and many other social ills. These are just a portion of the many vulnerable children suffering in Uganda.

But although the government and other stakeholders are involved in the cause of helping these children, a lot of help is still needed to make these kids look beautiful and regain the glory they were created to be. 

Save a soul of a child today.

A tale of four children struggling to survive

Rebecca, 14, Abdul, 10, Anna 6 and Steven 5 (not real names) have two things in common- same mother, and all lost their fathers.

Their mother is living with HIV/AIDS. 

She was recently diagnosed with kidney disease which has worsened her health and now she lives in a state disability, she cannot move, can hardly speak and cannot do anything on her own. 

As a result, her children, headed by the 14 year old, have to struggle to make ends meet.

"Tea is all they can afford to have, mere water with tea leaves that good people give them, sugar is a night mare and when they have some, it is for only their sick mother."

Riding through a meandering pathway, we past a small dilapidated mud house, different from the rest we had come across earlier, here; children were played and made noise. As we rode off on a boda boda, they all waved as they shouted “see you teacher Rachael.” 

My eyes turned back to look at the children speaking such well constructed English moreover deep in a village in Namayumba sub county, Wakiso district.

The two girls wore dirty dresses while the boys wore shorts with bare chests. It is not that they do not want to put on shirts; they just do not have the shirts, apart from their uniforms.

I had been roaming through the village with Kisaakye Racheal, a teacher friend of mine. The story she told me about these children opened my wells of sympathy that I made an unplanned visit to their house that very evening.

It was about to 7pm, it was getting dark but they were still not sure of what they were having for supper. Playing seemed the only consolation to beat the anger and forget the seemingly usual situation. Despite their state, they kept smiling at us, hoping we walk in with a ray of hope.

Inside their tiny room, a dusty floor littered with plastic cups and plates, jerricans and clothes, their mother helplessly lay on a bare mattress, one other supposedly the one all the four kids share) also lay on the other side of the room.

She could not speak, I learnt that this is how she had been over the past few months, renering her disabled to care for her children. Instead, they have to care for her. 

“Since she got sick, she cannot move and work, she crawls to the shade and sits there until evening and then crawls back to the house to sleep,” a neighbour told me.    

Under the shaky shade besides the house, six year old Anna fidgeted to place a kettle on the fire stones to prepare tea for their ill mother, she wore a ragged dress, held a dirty knife in her hands, which she had been using to eat a mango. Anna looked too tiny to prepare any meal yet she has no choice but to do it. Rebecca, the eldest, supervised her other siblings to make sure all work this evening goes on well. 

Their mother’s state of inability is what turned them into parents of themselves. Routinely, they wake up to think up ways of surviving through the day, Rebecca wakes up to make tea for their mother and to mobilise her 3 siblings to get ready for school. 

“We wake up very early in the morning, to first make tea for mum and then prepare ourselves to go to school.” Rebecca says

Rebecca has to struggle to command her siblings and yet she is a girl who is not old enough to command her male counterpart Abdul, who she says often give her hard time. 

“Abdul goes to the trading centre every evening and he comes back late in the night and he starts conversing for us movies that he has watched from the bibanda,” she reported “When I tell him, he says if I report to teacher Racheal, he will kick me,” she adds 

Abdul in defence says he rarely goes there but when he does, he goes to see if he will get something to eat, and because no one keeps an eye while they are home, they all do as they please and it is survival for the fittest.

Tea is all they can afford to have but the tea is mere water and with a little tea leaves that good people give them, sugar is a night mare and when they have some, it is for only their sick mother.

“We make tea for mum, for us, now that it is a season for mangoes and maize, we look for mangoes and we eat those ones for supper until tomorrow when we go to school,” Rebecca says

They devise all means to get at least a meal. But God indeed cares for his people, these children have no garden, they do not dig and yet they have to find food for both their mother and themselves to survive, but they still survive

“Some good neighbours give them food to eat, one gave them a small garden of maize although they should have finished it by now and now that it’s a mango season, they most times sleep on those until the next day at school,” says Kisaakye

Until recently, these children of school going age were not in school. They were committed to caring for their mother and just roaming about the village to find a living. They had been going to schools before but since no one could pay for them schools dues after their mother’s sickness, they were always sent home for school fees until the schools decided to send them away for good. 

“That is why they are older than their classes; their studying was on and off, they were chased from one school, they went to another and this retarded their education,” Says Kisaakye.

Kisaakye, whom they prefer calling teacher Rachael, had heard of their story from their neighbour and decided to pay for them to study at Fountain academy in Namayumba so that they can study and live a better life. 

“I was touched but I realised that the only way to help them was to take them to school, because at school, they would get breakfast and lunch and they would only struggle to find supper,” says Kisaakye

Kisaakye also provides for them other scholastic materials like books and pens, uniforms and shoes and some times food when she affords.

Rebecca, the ‘situation turned’ family head, normally gives a report to Kisaakye about how each of her siblings behaves and Kisaakye talks to them like their own parent.

At 14 years, Rebecca studies in P4, and her siblings, P2, and top class respectively. Their days are brighter now, since they are assured of lunch at school, a meal day is at least better than none at all. But although they can eat one meal a day and be better of than many others who do not even get a mango; a lot remains to be desired about their life style.

They lack the other basics of life, the shelter is worrying, other basic necessities are also too lacking.Their health is also at risk, Anna is HIV positive, and also on ARV’s, supervising her treatment is not easy now that it is in the hands of a fellow child. The poor feeding could also be dangerous to her health.

this is just one of the many households in Uganda that are headed by children like Rebecca. the syndrome is so common in the rural areas where many orphans head their homes after they have lost their parents.

Kisaakye has done what she can, but healthy mind also needs a healthy body and therefore, compassionate hands are welcome on board to help these children.

tumusiimetrudy@yahoo.com

Child vulnerability in Uganda on the rise

By Gertrude Tumusiime

A situational analysis report carried out in 2010, by the ministry of Gender, Labour and social development (MGLSD) indicates that Over 96% of all children in Uganda are in a state of vulnerability. According to the analysis, the children in this state are either critically or moderately vulnerable, as specified by the National Orphans and other vulnerable Children (OVC) policy.

Research also asserts that children make up 57 % of Uganda’s total population of over 30 million. This adds up to an estimated number of over 17 million children below the age of 18 years.  

The national OVC policy specifies the critically vulnerable children as the orphans whose rights are not fulfilled, children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, children with disabilities, those in child labour, children experiencing various forms of abuse and violation, street children, those in contact with the law, in child headed households, those in armed conflicts and finally those assessed to be in need of immediate care and protection. 

On the other hand, the moderately vulnerable children are noted as the out of school, child mothers, children in poverty stricken areas, those involved in hazardous work, children living with the elderly or guardians with disabilities and those in hard to reach areas like war tone areas and remote villages.

These children according to the report, live with their full potentials underutilized for example majority of them live under despicable conditions of improper care, neglect, without education, in poverty and other dire conditions such as sickness. 

The magnitude of the problem has been accelerated by orphan hood status, with the number of orphans increasing over the years, from 11% in 1999/2000 to 13% in 2002/2003 and 14% in 2006 although it slightly reduced in 2010 according to the report.

Orphan hood has been majorly blamed on death of parents to HIV/AIDS and Malaria leaving children in the hands of relatives who are either unable to give them proper care, or abuse them. And as a result, most children end up in a state of helplessness.

Other than orphan hood, other causes have been blamed for the problem of vulnerability include difficult socio-economic circumstances such as poverty, domestic violence, low incomes, household food security and poor child care practices.

Cultures practices in some areas are also blamed for accelerating the problem citing an example of those that permit early marriages leading to child mothers. Inadequate adoption of family planning methods, which increases the numbers of children produced while their parents are not ready to take care of them, is also a cite cause.

While children’s vulnerability is wide spread in all parts of the country, the report shows that the problem is highest in the post-conflict areas, especially the northern Uganda, presenting more unique categories of vulnerability like child motherhood, children living in Internally Displaced People’s camps, children who after being abducted were forced to marry rebels, former child rebels and children in conflict with the law among others.

The same report ndicates that only 115 of the children in great nee had been reached by external support, with greatest support coming through education and health while social economics, food and nutrition interventions were poorly managed.

What has being done to address the problem?

According to Magall Moritz, the head of the OVC national implementation unit, despite all the previous responses made by the different stakeholders in solving OVC matters, Child vulnerability remains a major 

The unit under the MGLSD has recently launched the second National strategic program plan of intervention to guide all people in providing comprehensive services to the OVCs, with an aim of improving situations of children in Uganda. 

Different from the previous one, this programmed plan is designed to reach the vulnerable child from the grass roots.  This plan also takes a multi-sectoral approach, bringing together all the stakeholders to play different roles in handling the problem of OVC.

“We are working with the office of the Prime minister, the ministry of education, the ministry of water, UNICEF and other stakeholders, in order to address the problems of children for example, to improve conditions in Karamoja to reduce the numbers of children coming to Kampala.” Says Mondo Kyateeka, the commissioner for Youth and children, MGLSD

The ministry is also investing in other strategies to address the causes of the problem such as sensitizing people to produce children they can take care of in order to reduce the problem.

“What causes the problem is because people just produce without any planning, we want them to stop unwanted pregnancies, this way they will be addressing the problem at hand.”  Says Kyateeka

However, all set aside, the best solution to the problem according to Kyateeka is to rejuvenate the historical values of love and care existed in communities long ago, in that when a parent dies, a relative or guardian can take care of the orphans as the parents would have.

tumusiimetrudy@yahoo.com

A new dawn for Street children in Uganda

By Gertrude Tumusiime

Victoria Hall at Serena hotel had been filled to capacity by 10am last Thursday, when Uganda joined the rest of the world to celebrate the Day of the African child. The biggest number of the audience was made up of children, but while school children made up a good number of the audience, Street children were also a significant part.

The celebrations were to mark the 21^st edition of the African Child, a day celebrated internationally to remember the South African children who were killed during the apartheid while they tried to advocate for a racism free education.

For some reasons, the day’s celebration in Uganda was the first of its kind.  First, the theme of the day, “Altogether for action in favour of street children” was over emphasised as the day brought together many street children like never before, they were the masters of their own event.

Shortly after the occasion had kicked off, the street children’s voice was amplified when a group of more than thirty street children took up the platform to read out a Memorandum they had prepared, to the house that had gathered.

In the document presented by one of their representatives, the children demanded for their full rights and freedoms, demanding that government, and other stakeholders place their issues as priorities. 

“We want the policemen to stop beating us, harassing us sexually and asking us for money, we want the government to improve the conditions in kampiringisa, and we want them to get us better places to stay other than taking them to remand homes.”

Those were some of the demands which opened the wells of mercy from the audience, in that they clapped in appreciation of every demand put across by the children.

The venue was another point of uniqueness of the day, different from what had always happened over the past years when the day was celebrated outdoors, in places like play grounds, this time, it was Serena Hotel, a renowned high profile zone. 

It was the first time for many of the present street children to come to Serena hotel, in fact one of them remarked “ I have always wanted to come to this hotel for the rich people but today  I am here, and I am so happy I feel like the rich people.”

The minister of gender who was also the chief guest, Hon Saida Bbumba justified the choice of Serena as a venue, as a step to show the street children that they are as important as the other privileged people.

“My dear children, bringing you here was to make you know that you can leave the streets and live a good life like that of Serena”

The celebrations were honoured by other dignified guests like, the of state minister for youth and children, Ronald Kibuule, the minister for disabled and elderly, Suleiman Kyeibakoze Madaada, the chairperson of the National council for children, Mrs Louise Biira Bwambale, the representatives from UNICEF and USAID, the commissioners for youth and children from the ministry of Gender, Labour and social development, and Bobi wine among others.

Through their statements to the audience, they all spelled hope for the Ugandan street children.

In his statement, Hon Kibuule pledged the readiness of government to work with the different stake holders to combat the influx of the street children especially on the streets of Kampala.

While she launched the National strategic programme plan of intervention (NSPPI 2), a five year plan to guide the operations dealing with orphans and other vulnerable children, Hon Bbumba promised the street children a better life than the one they are living now.

 “You are our children and we are your parents, we went to help you, when we call you, do not run away from us, come to us because we want to change your life” she told them “do not worry you will put on the jeans and the nice shoes and you also be like Bobi wine.” She added

And when it was Bobi Wine’s turn to inspire the children, the house was filled with applause. When he hit the platform with his song, ‘Ghetto nazigala’ in which he inspires youth to stop drug abuse, the hope could be seen in the eyes of the excited street children who got on their feet and crowded the stage to sing and dance along with him.

This year’s celebration put special emphasis on street children because of the prevalent problem of street children in Uganda and the major aim was to try to find solutions to the influx as soon as possible. Available statistics magnify the problem.

Bobi Wine entertains the children.

Some of the children presenting their memorandum to the house.

A street child during the celebrations. 

School children eagerly enjoy moments during the celebrations at serena last thursday.

The UNICEF report of 2005, indicates that Uganda has approximately 10,000 street children in towns of Uganda, 89% of these being boys while 11% being girls.

The situation is at its peak with karamoja children posing newer problems as many of them are flocking the streets of Kampala to find a better life. However, with hands joined together, the different stakeholders are determined to define a better life for the suffering Ugandan child.

tumusiimetrudy@yahoo.com

Seven old year begs for a living

Okello Chris

By Gertrude Tumusiime 

He was dressed in extremely dirty clothes, a white-brownish t-shirt and a small pair of navy blue shorts, bear footed, his face was pale as though he had been smeared with ashes, his head also looked like one crammed with flour.

He dangled his hands back and forth as he moved up hill towards the direction I was coming from. He murmured as he by passed me, and this drew my attention to him.

I wondered where such a young boy was going at this time of the night because it was coming to 7pm, and it was already dark. 

I grabbed his tiny hand and gently pressed it in my palm; I bent forward to compensate his height and I looked into his eyes, in return, his sharp white eyes looked straight into mine and then he coldly smiled. I then asked him where he was going.

 “I am going to work” he replied, I got so curious about this young boy and what he was going to do as he had said. This prompted me to go into deep conversation with him. 

When I asked him what he does and where he works, he told me he works in town, at KPC sometimes in Wandegeya. 

“How do you work?” I asked, “I go and sit there, and I do like this and they give me money” he replied as he gestured with his hand, swinging his palm up and down as if to beg. He then told me that is what he does to get money for food.

“When I get money, I take it to my father and he buys food, if I don’t bring, we don’t eat”

I now wanted to hear more of his story, it is now that I remembered to ask for his name and he told me he is called Okello Chris, he stays down in kyebando kisalosalo (a wetland between kamwokya and kanyanya) 

I asked Okello to come with me home and he kindly accepted. He is a charming and talkative boy, his conversations too are interesting.

“I am hungry “he told me as we slopped home, “I did not go to work during day, so I was going to get money to buy food” he added

I got so touched, we went home, not so far from where I had met him and here, it would be so easy and convenient for us to chat without any interruption.

When we got home, like a lost sheep okello looked at everything around as though he had never seen any of the kind. Everyone at home was wondering where I had got such a dirty boy, but I told them he was my friend I had met along the way and decided to bring him home.

A plate of food before Okello was like the biggest blessing of that day, he ate the rice as if he had never eaten before, and he even got morale to converse more.

He tells me of how, he stays with his father and tells me his mother died and then he talks about ‘my mother asks me for money’, generally; he confused me as he talked about his parents, he seemed not conversant with what  he was talking about. I even thought he was lying to me when he kept on switching from this to that.

I decided to have him go back home since it was late and made an appointment to go with him to work the following day.

Walk to work with Okello

A few minutes past 8 am, Okello was on my door, he had honored our appointment for today. He was neater now, except he was still putting on the same dirty shorts he had yesterday.

He found me set to leave home, in a few minutes, we were on our way.  Okello had told me the previous night, that he walks to work every day, unless he is going with his ‘father’ who is lame, they use a taxi. Unfortunately, today he was not going with him, it was me.

As we walked to town, to me Okello seemed like a city born, he knew almost every route, he would tell me to pass here and not there.

He talked all the way, from Mawanda road, through katego road, via Mulago until we got to Wandegeya. By the time we got to there, I was panting, but he was still strong to continue.

When we reached Wandegeya, he told me today he was going to work here with his ‘father’. He led me to the direction that goes up to Makerere university main gate. 

One, two, three steps away, Okello shouted “look there is my father” I looked to where he was pointing and could not see a man there, I asked him “where is he?” he still pointed to the same direction as we moved closer, but where he was pointing was a lame begging woman, seated down, right in front of Total petrol station.

Soon, we were standing before the woman, and Okello said “this is my father” I wondered and then remembered how he was talking about mother and father and mixing the two up. I understood it must be a problem with speaking Luganda.

An interaction with the smiling old woman Okello calls his father revealed to me that she is the Grandmother, who also begs for a living. So I got the little I had and religiously placed it in her palms and told her, I would go to see her at home.

The old woman smiled all through the conversation, she did not say a word given the language barrier between the two of us. 

Now, I asked okello to come the following evening after work to pick me and take me home.

I left them in order not to interrupt their work and moved aside, I stood somewhere around their work zone, watching Okello doing his job, begging. Some people dropped coins into his hands while others merely by passed him, he ran from one car to another asking for money, he looked sharp at his work, he ran after smart people walking at the street to ask for ‘Kikumi.’

I realised he goes through a lot to get a coin, and after collecting enough, he rushes to the grandma’s position and gives her the money to keep.

Standing and watching okello work was too tiresome, after about 2 hours, I could not wait anymore, I left and waited for him fulfill our next appointment.

Okello’s takes me to his home, I discover the source of the crawling street dwellers

Okello is a faithful boy and a good time keeper, keeps appointments because by the time I retired home the next evening, he was already waiting for me.

It was about 8pm, Okello took me through a lot of shortcuts from kamwokya, through Kifumbira slum and we finally arrived at a Pentecostal church called Passover harvest, in kyebando, kisalosalo.

Besides the church, is a very big trench, almost a small river, is carries dirt of all sorts, it is stinky, Oh God! You cannot handle standing there for much time, although this is expected of a slum.

There is a wood bridge over the trench; it helps the people cross to the other side, and soon as we cross the bridge, we are in Okello’s compound. It is a line up of many small rooms (mizigo). 

We arrive at the room in the corner; here we find the grandmother and another lame man sitting on the bed. The room is tiny and stuffy, with only two beds supported by bricks, I was told to avoid water from washing away their property in case it rains, as the place over floods.

There is a small table with a candle lighting near the wall, a charcoal stove boiling milk, clothes are hanged up around the room, ashes are kept just gathered in the corner, generally, it is a living room, bedroom, and kitchen.

Yes, they were happy to see me but we could not communicate apart from smile at each other because they do not understand English yet I do not speak any of the languages they know. Grandma kindly offered me a seat and immediately sent for someone else I did not know.

Soon, a man came in crawling, he was also lame and he spoke some English so he could help translate our conversation. Here we were engaged in a deep conversation about Okello with the grandmother, Lillian Akite as she introduced herself. The conversation was aided by the man who just came in.

“Okello is an orphan” the translator told me, “the mother died a few years go and the father was in the army, we have not heard from him for along time, we don’t know where he went” he added.

I came to know that Okello had grown up in the hands of this Akite, who is lame, a street woman and begging to earn a living. Okello has never gone to school. So I asked Akite to let me take okello and have him begin school.

She gladly accepted and asked me to see the chairman so that I can sign that I am taking the boy, it was a big relief to her, seen from the smile and excitement on her face.

All was set for me to pick Okello at a later date but when I was leaving, I started wondering what could be wrong with people here. I realized many more lame people lived in this confinement. Some sat at their verandahs to watch the beautiful moon.

When I asked, I was told they were so many more lame people staying there. But since it was late, I decided to go home and return another time to pay a visit to the community.

Okello goes to school

He had never been to school, his first day at Arena for Christ nursery school was full of excitement, it seemed as though he had been there before because he made noise and was conversant with every body even though he did not know anything. 

On his second day, Okello, escaped from school, the teachers called me, but I could not find either, as I was still looking for him, my neighbor called me and told me he had seen the boy in Wandegeya begging, he was with his grandma again.

He must have missed her, because she is his everything. I have resolved, I cannot have the boy in day school any more, I want to place him in a boarding school, he will probably transform better.

tumusiimetrudy@yahoo.com