Uganda's Street Children

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Today Caroline (Mantrac HR Manager) picked me up at the hotel and took me to her house for lunch, I was really excited about meeting her family she told me that she wanted to show me how Ugandan people lived and wanted me to experience the Ugandan Sunday lunch. it was a pleasure.

On the way to Carolines house we stopped at many traffic lights, in doing so you then attact the street sellers and the beggars to the car, on this occassion some of these happened to be small children, some of them small enough to be babies in the arms of other babies and this sight cant help but pull on the toughest of heart strings. Caroline was obviously disturbed by the sight of the children and told me how she dislikes it, she explained that at night it pains her because she see's these young children asleep on the streets. Last night as Mike and I went out to the chinese restaurant I noticed other children like these sleeping on the streets as she had said and I agreed with her that it is heartbreaking.

it is tempting to open your wallet or purse on sight of these youngsters and to throw every shilling that you have at each of them, thinking that you are helping and why wouldnt it?

Street children begging is a serious problem in Uganda and the rest of Africa, and before you hand them a penny, shilling, pound or dollar you should find out why these children are begging, on many occassions the parents send the children out to beg for money, not for food but for drugs, glue and alcohol leaving the child starving - the child then turns to glue as this relieves them of their hunger pains for a short time and survivng is easier when they dont have to think about living.

Giving money is like fueling their habit, we all want to help in everyway possible when we see these children, after all they are just children who should be playing ball and fighting with their siblings. The best way to help is to give them food, fruit or bread or maybe give to a reputable charity that helps the street children.

We arrived at Carolines house, her husband has built a four bedroom house with plumbing and electricity with a high wall around it with barb wire, a house that Joe would be jealous of 😊 and inside I met her three children and her niece that age between the ages of 4 - 12, they are shy of me but come and shake my hand before scooting off outside to play with their toys blissfully unaware (as they should be) of the street children outside their high walls.

take care

Lisa

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Photos

Me in Carolines house
excuse the messy hair - no straighteners in Uganda!

Comments

[Gillian]

Street Kids
Thanks for sharing about your experience of seeing street kids in Kampala. It is indeed a horrific image and a national and international tragedy. You are right in cautioning people not to give money to these children. Unfortuantely some legitimately beg to survive however others are exploited by adults, sometimes their own parents as you pointed out, and even by other children. There are many fantastic charities working in Uganda with street kids. I'm involved with one called Dwelling Places - www.dwellingplaces.org They have a fantastic 4 step approach to their work with street kids; rescue from the streets, rehabilitation, reconciliation with parents and resettlement with their parents or family members if possible, or into foster care. They also do a lot of advocacy work, at government level as well as with communities in the hope of raising awareness of the issues and helping Ugandans to tackle these head on. Thanks, Gillian