Child Fund empowers children, mothers in Banda's Acholi quarters

Until October 31, New Vision will devote space to highlighting the plight of slum dwellers as well as profiling those offering selfless service to improve conditions in these areas. Today, CAROLINE ARIBA brings you the story of how children in Acholi quaters in Banda

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war in the north could be over. But the battle against poverty, particularly for those displaced by the two-decade insurgency and relocated to Kampala, is far from over. For with it came a fresh influx to Acholi quarters, a sprawling slum in Kireka, eight kilometres east of Kampala.

The slum derives its name from the residents who are predominantly Acholi from northern Uganda were brought to the area in the and to work in an Asian tea estate around Kireka. But following the of expulsion Asians in 1972, the tea estate collapsed, but many of the Acholi labourers did not go back home. With the LRA insurgency in the north, their relatives joined them in Kampala. The majority of these are now engaged in stone quarrying and other menial jobs. 

“When the war broke out in the north, we came to stay with our relatives who told us about this land,” says John Mutto Moro, the area LC I chairman. 

With a population of over 10,000 (85% Luo speaking), the slum is immensely crowded with poorly ventilated mud and wattle with structures. Women selling boiled maize, children carrying heavy jerry cans, whereas others descend down the rocky slum to the quarries are common sights. 

A tipper truck approaches and the men, women and children who were busy crushing stones all run towards it; everybody wanting to sell their heaps of aggregate, hardcore.

Child Labour

It’s a tough life for 10-year old Richard Oloya, one of the children working at the quarry. “Amitto cam,” he says in Acholi, loosely translated to mean, I must eat, when asked why he was out of school. 

Oloya had been crashing a heap of stones for a one Komakech and will be paid sh200 for every jerry can he fills. He has been crashing that heap for the past four and will embark on the second jerrycan for another four hours.

At the end of the day, he has crashed three jerry cans, just enough money for a maize cob (which goes for sh.200 ), water and might have to save a coin for his family since his mother can barely feed them with the 1000 or so she makes from a quarry not so far. He had to drop out of school because of hunger and the little fees needed in school.

Oloya is one of the examples of child labourers, not what a mother would want for her child, but with an absentee and abusive husband, her son has to help. It is for children and women like this that child fund supports Kampala Federation of Communities (KAFOC.)

Child Fund emerges

The organisation (formerly known as Christian Child Fund) was started in 1938 to support orphans and their families after the sino child-related issues by supporting a child either directly or through empowering the parents. 

“20 years of civil wars took a heavy toll on children,” says Sylver Nayonga of Child Fund. This is what intensified the organization’s programme in the country. It is estimated that as many as 26,000 children were abducted, raped and forced into military combat.

“Some of these children are now residents of this slum were some of our beneficiaries live,” explains Kassiano Kansiime, the KAFOC director.

Through Alert Project, the organization is fighting dependency by empowering the families economically through the distribution of domestic animals, particularly goats and pigs. 

“When we give these families say goats, we expect them to nurture them until they multiply so they can pay fees for the children,” explains Rita, one of the community workers. 

For the beneficiaries who cannot rear animals, they are given capital to do alternative businesses like charcoal selling. They monitor the business and reward the successful families with more stock. 

“We do this so that our children get less pressure back home,” explains Samuel Senyondo a worker. 

“We have worked with families that have been severely affected by domestic violence,” confesses Rita Ssesanga one of the development workers. It is for such reasons that the organization empowers the women to help protect their children. 

KAFOC also plans to introduce vocational training to equip the children with skills in welding and carpentry. Mothers are constantly reminded of the effects of child labor, child neglect, vices the organisation stands against!

Challenges the organisation faces 

In Uganda, Child Fund supports close to 3600 children, therefore, the slum can’t get all the attention that it is in dire need of.

“Each sponsor of these children who are selected using the criteria Deprived, Excluded and Vulnerable (DEV) contributes US $25 monthly which can only go so far,” says Senyondo.

However, the project has also resulted into domestic conflicts. “The men in the community are very insecure,” says Rebecca, a volunteer. “They think that if the women are empowered, they will rebel and overpower them.

“They go ahead to sometimes grab the little incomes these women are making for their own good. Being an urban setting, it is hard for the organisation to keep up with the beneficiaries who have to constantly be in touch with the donors. 

“We can’t do away with the slum, but we can empower the children who will later liberate their families,” Kansiime Kasisiano. The area chairman however, believes that those willing to be resettled should be helped back home.