By Gladys Kalibbala
Proscovia Lamwaka, 23, is looking for her mother, Mary Rasafu. Lamwaka’s relatives say Rasafu left when Proscovia was about eight months old and her brother, Isaac Utol, was two.

Lamwaka was initially named Naimaha Lahaf, before she became a Christian.
Her relatives told her that her mother was a Muslim, from Rwanda. Her father was Isaac Mohammed Ojwiyo.

Ojwiyo was a government official during Idi Amin’s regime and used to reside at Custom Corner, near Gulu town.

Rasafu was Ojwiyo’s sixth wife. Ojwiyo was arrested during the NRM war in 1986. He died in detention.

Rasafu then suffered a mental breakdown and abandoned her children.
It is suspected that Rasafu’s relatives in Makindye, Kampala, learnt of her illness and picked her from the streets in Gulu town.

The two children were raised by their step-sister, the late Gertrude Labega. She converted them to Christianity so that her family, who were staunch Christians, could take care of them.

Labega secured for them sponsorship from World Vision, an NGO, and they were enrolled at Gulu Prison Primary school.

Unfortunately, Labega died shortly after. On her death bed, she had handed the children to her brother, Peter Owinyi, a mechanic in Gulu town. Owinyi could not afford their school fees.

Labega’s daughter, Evelyn Ayero, then paid their fees at O’level. When Utol finished his S.4, Ayero could not afford fees for him for A’level and he became a casual labourer.

Meanwhile, after her O’levels, at Central High School near Areayaa village, Lamwaka sought assistance from well wishers and relatives between 2005-2006.

“I was eventually picked up by a Catholic organisation called St. Kizito,” Lamwaka said. She was then taken to Namirembe Hillside School in Kampala but suffered from asthma, which affected her studies.

“The place was too cold for me,” she said. “I only studied for one year in S5. I wanted to use the opportunity of being in Kampala to look for my mother.”

She moved to Amuca SDA School for her S6 in 2008.

An uncle, believed to have come from Kampala, went to Gulu looking for her brother. He left him a photo of their mother’s family and an address where they could be reached in Makindye.

Labega said her brother did not take it seriously and lost the address. “I have tried with Makindye LCs but none could recognise her.”

Anybody who knows Rasafu’s or her family’s whereabouts can get in touch with Lamwaka on 0779 946 405.