By Mulengera Reporters
Founded in the early 1990s chiefly to support vulnerable mothers and HIV Aids-orphaned children, Uganda Women’s Efforts to Save Orphans (UWESO) has never stopped positively responding whenever called upon to come to the rescue of Uganda’s children.
Founded by First Lady Janet Museveni as a locally-resourced organization to extent charity, UWESO has several homes scattered across the country from where such vulnerable children are catered for and gradually rehabilitated into mainstream life.
This has turned many would-be wasted such children into constructive and productive citizens of Uganda to the extent that many of them are now holding positions of responsibility with some holding elective positions including being MPs.
So, it was in that same spirit that UWESO recently responded positively when KCCA, which ceaselessly struggles to manage the never-ending problem of street children, reached out proposing partnership. Like they have always been doing, UWESO opened its doors wide open and accepted to let in a total of more than 250 children who had just been rescued by KCCA enforcement officers from the streets of Kampala.
It turned out majority were from Karamoja sub region, though several others had come from Busoga, West Nile, Kyazanga, Luwero and a few other parts of Buganda. Some were also established to be hailing from communities comprising of the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area. It emerged clearly that poverty and deprivation in financially vulnerable homes were the major drivers pushing children onto the streets of Kampala were they are herded in search for better survival opportunities.
KCCA officials say that some of the children were picked for hanging along the streets to vend cheap merchandize in baskets on their heads, instead of taking advantage of the GoU’s free education programs to keep in school. The children were aged between 2 years and more. Some were as old as 15 years and more. There are some aged 17 years and more.
A larger number was rescued from the streets during that last month’s operation, and a few mothers were held too. Yet only around 250 were deposited at UWESO’s Masulita Children’s Village (MCV) which is located in Wakiso, outside of Kakiri Town Council. Others had to be deposited elsewhere because UWESO’s MCV has limited capacity and can currently not hold more than 400 children in total, as per the Gender Ministry’s guidelines.
At the Masulita-based MCV, the children were booked into UWESO’s Rehabilitation Centre that is on site and is well-enclosed and supplied with all the relevant amenities such as running water, electricity and appropriate beddings-and feeding. The centre has social workers who besides participating in the screen of the children, also ensure they are given the phyco-social support they require to gradually re-integrate back into normal life.
Street life changes them into something complex and there is need to be enrolled on a rehabilitation program which always lasts not less than 3 months. On arrival at the MCV, the children are assessed and screened to understand their respective individual needs and this informs management to design the appropriate interventions to begin on their rehabilitation.
They speak different languages, which is why the UWESO social workers have to be assigned to each child depending on the language spoken. Some speak Luganda, others Alur, Karamajong language, English etc. The social workers engage them into individual and group sessions which are aimed at understanding their respective needs and where possible even reasons why they came to be on the streets and how they came to be there. Such information guides on how to help them moving forward.
Once they regain their senses back to normalcy, the children are asked about the possibility of tracing their parents, guardians or next of kin. Where its possible and found to be desirable, and in the best interest of the child, such children are reunited with their parents and facilitated to go back home and re-integrate. The child also gets to be asked or consulted on whether he or she prefers to stay at MCV or to be sent back home to rejoin his or her family.
Those who choose to stay are asked to give reasons and once verified to be appropriate, they are permitted to stay. Those whose next of kin can’t be traced are permitted to stay and now MCV becomes their permanent home. Those who stay are transferred from the Rehabilitation Centre to live with the rest of the resident children once their rehabilitation has been concluded. They continue to enjoy the good care available including having access to decent health services available at the MCV clinic, good meals (breakfast, lunch & supper) and support from the social workers and care givers permanently employed at Masulita. They also often get supported by volunteers who UWESO permits access to come and cheer them up.
The children are also enrolled in the schools around the MCV and some even get the opportunity to be enrolled in boarding schools. After assessing the child’s need and area of interest, a decision is made whether a child is taken for formal schooling or vocational training.
They are vocational training institutes (mostly attractive to those who join the MCV past 15 years) which UWESO works with to have such children trained in practical skills. The organization secures the admission, pays the school fees and meets all the other requirements as demanded for by the school where such a learner has been enrolled.
Ms Janet, who serves as the Coordinator for the Masulita-based Children’s Village (MCV), says that the children are well looked after because that is the mandate of UWESO. She is thankful to the local partners and organizations which contribute material support to enable them provide decent care for the children at MCV.
She further explains that upon arrival at the Rehabilitation Centre; the children get examined to assess the health problems and challenges they might have encountered while living and operating on the streets. All these are treated at the organization’s well-equipped and staffed clinic at MCV. Among the 250 that were recently brought by KCCA, some had fractures and required specialized medical attention which UWESO has had to facilitate them to access away from it’s Masulita Clinic.
In the last three weeks since they were brought at MCV, the children have had to be screened to establish how many of them require medical intervention and how many are ready to be resettled and reunited back to their families. Some few have been reunited and this resettlement, Janet explains, takes time because some children don’t immediately become comfortable opening up to give information regarding how their next of kin can be contacted.
She also explains that even those who get resettled back to their families say in Karamoja or any other part of Uganda, UWESO remains open and willing to help pay their schools fees from schools and training institutions of their choice and that are nearer to their homes.
This has been happening for all these decades UWESO has been in existence and officials say this will continue to happen because the need to help and support the rehabilitation, re-integration and moulding of Uganda’s children will always be there.
UWESO top leadership recognizes that this is an ongoing need and the organization is prepared to keep its doors open to help out. And indeed, UWESO receives requests to render similar rehabilitation, reintegration and resettlement interventions not just from KCCA but from many other organizations.
Sometimes, such needy children are referred by the LC Chairpersons closely collaborating with probation officers scattered in different districts and other local government units of Uganda. UWESO often positively responds by taking on such children who end up being supported through enabling them have access to decent home care, education and other provisions.
It could be a child in crisis (say mothered by a mother who suddenly becomes mentally disturbed and unsafe) getting referred to UWESO which quickly intervenes to secure and get the child out of the eminent danger that might be prevalent at that point in time.
In holidays, the children at the MCV or any other UWESO home are made to participate in all activities that a normal child is expected to be exposed to when living at the home of his or her parents. They participate in activities like sports, socialization besides learning other life skills such as taking part in livestock and crop growing activities. This is possible because at each of these homes, UWESO has facilities to facilitate farming activities, which is an opportunity for the children to have early exposure.
There is also plenty of spiritual nurturing and nourishment because prayerfulness is emphasized as an important virtue at all UWESO’s children’s homes. Ms Janet talks about the need to support the child to grow in a holistic manner encompassing the physical, spiritual and emotional aspects. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
