KAMPALA | STREET CHILDREN | FAMMI

Over 782 street children have been identified to be among the beneficiaries of the Feed a Million Mouths International (FAMMI) project.
 
The project aimed at improving the education values sanitation, and unity among street children is to be enforced in all of Kampala’s five divisions starting with Katwe in Makindye East Division and is expected to contribute to the well-being of people in the slam areas.

 
According to Milly Bayiyana, the General Manager of FAMMI, Through Art and inspiration, they are committed to equipping youths with life skills to ensure good sanitation and eliminate diseases.
 
“Katwe was once a thriving formal settlement for mostly artisans, craftsmen, technicians, and tycoons but now it has become an incubation chamber for crime, disease, and poverty,” said Bayiyana.

In June this year, KCCA launched the Kampala Capital City Child Protection Ordinance 2022 to protect children from forms of abuse like child labor and trafficking and criminalizes children loitering in public places, begging or soliciting, vending, or hawking.

 
By September 2022 over 782 children were removed from the streets, with most being taken to rehabilitation centers, while others were reunited with their families.
 
Eng. William Nkemba, the co-founder of Dwelling Places said there are many factors driving street children away from their homes to the streets including poverty, child neglect, and peer group influence and there is need to be addressed if we are to attempt to reduce the number of children resorting to a life of begging and crime.
 
“I appreciate FAMMI for skilling Katwe youth with life skills through arts, especially in one of the most poverty and crime-stricken areas of Kampala,” Nkemba noted.

 
Mark Montgomery executive director of FAMMI, noted the initiative would blend, package, and commercialize fortified foods for At-Risk Communities in Uganda.
 
The goal is to feed one million vulnerable people in the country within 3 years and provide quality nutrition that can permanently affect a child’s cognitive and physical development.

 
“Katwe Street Art Project has helped us to identify creative talent in the community,” Montgomery said.

At the function, Katwe Central Primary School received over 500kg of soya porridge and signed a memorandum of understanding with FAMMI. Milly Bayiyana on behalf of FAMMI while Robert Masaba of the school.