A. was a one-month-old baby when his parents divorced in 2001. His mother went back to live with his maternal grandmother.
Two months later, his mother married another man, she abandoned A. to his grandmother. She took care of him until he joined primary school at the age of 5. People in the community didn’t like the idea of A. going to school and discouraged his grandmother: they felt he should be home helping them with domestic work, but the grandmother stood up for him and kept him in school.
A.: “Life hit us hard in 2013, when my grandmother passed away. She was my caretaker and the bread winner at home. Things worsened. I was in primary 5th grade. My uncles never bothered about me anymore, they asked me to stop school and to start garden work if I wanted their support. We would go the whole day working in the garden, with no single meal. I saw death coming my way.
I had no option but to go on to the street to look for survival for myself at this very young age. I was working for people for money in their farms, selling in the streets, doing house works and washing vehicles and motorcycles to survive. They could exploit me. I worked while crying but I had no option or else I would die.
Honestly life in the street was a harsh life. I could not attend school as before, I could go only 2 or 3 times a week, and my health deteriorated.
But thanks God, Rev. Sister Berocan Immaculate Mary of the Erussi Catholic Parish, Nebbi diocese, saw the life I was going through. Being an empowered person who studied and knows the values of education, she saw the potential I had and at that young age, she took me with her. That was in 2015”.
2015 marked the first year of effective implementation of a child labour free zone project in Erussi, in which UNATU played a leading role, along with other partners. Sister Berocan was one of the school principals trained by UNATU, she also became the project’s local coordinator for UNATU.
A.: “Sister Berocan mentored me, supported and counseled me psychologically, she provided for my basic needs and asked me about my ambitions. I told her I want to become a medical doctor due to the death of my grandmother before my eyes at home in 2013.
I felt at home in her home, she rescued me from the street life, she took me back to school.
I completed primary education, joined secondary school and then joined a medical school and got a certificate in Medical Laboratory Techniques. I am now studying medical laboratory technology in Kampala.
I got inspired when I reflected on how I lost my grandmother due to illness, when people in our home were ignorant about health and how they believed in traditional healers and could not afford hospital bills.
I pledged to help my community with all this knowledge that I have to improve the health of the community, empower them and be a role model to the young generation. The story above is not only mine. It’s a normal thing in my community where people are ignorant and live in extreme poverty. Most youths are and children are going through the same”.
