Soroti street children rehabilitated, resettled

A total of 22 Soroti city street children who have been undergoing rehabilitation for a period of one year have been resettled back to their respective villages in the Teso sub-region with a package worth shillings 32 million.

An organisation—Teso Children Development Foundation (TECDEFO)—in partnership with Soroti city government officials, rescued these street children and took them for rehabilitation and resocialisation at the children’s home located in West Division.

This is the seventh batch of street children to be resettled by the foundation since 2018, and a majority of them are always picked after staying on the streets for more than two years.

During the process of rehabilitation, the street children underwent counselling and technical skills training, while some returned to school on sponsorship, according to officials.

Denis Okwera, the director of TECDEFO, confirmed that they had picked 25 street children, as has been the case every year since 2018, but three escaped back to the streets for reasons known to them.

“It was around Christmas time that we realised some three children had escaped back to the street,” Okwera said.

Okwera said the 22 children who endured to the end were on Thursday, January 30, 2025, resettled with toolkits based on the technical course that each had chosen to do for survival.

The resettled children had done welding and metal fabrication, carpentry and joinery, tailoring and garment cutting, mechanics, and phone repair, while others were returned to school.

In addition, the children were also given a package comprising mattresses, bed sheets, shoes, mosquito nets, bags, as well as beans and maize flour to be eaten for two months, among other items.

“After resettling them, we do follow-ups to ensure that they cope and remain in their villages making money using the skills that they attained while with us,” Okwera said.

James Small Chemutai, the Deputy Resident City Commissioner, Soroti West Division, commended TECDEFO for complementing government programmes by identifying, picking, training, feeding, and taking good care of the street children before resettling them.

“I want you to consider yourself to have fallen at one time, and so a Good Samaritan has picked you and moved with you towards home with a number of things. Don’t sell those items again but make good use of it,” he said.

Chemutai asked the reformed street children to use their skills to help themselves and their families, adding that their story could change from a street child to a Member of Parliament.

He urged them to discourage their children from life on the streets, warning that they are often exploited by others for personal gain and later abandoned.

“Run away from that character and be good children, and if you are able to return to school, do so because the organisation has pledged to pay your fees,” he said.

A number of the street children promised to go and utilise the skills, vowing never to return to the streets again.

Charles Onguria, 15, a resident of Mukura sub-county in Ngora district, who said poverty forced him onto Soroti city streets, where he stayed for three years, and pledged to return to school.

Paul Omuge, 12, a resident of Otuboi Town Council in Kalaki district, said he ended up on the streets after failing to get food whenever he returned from school.

He pledged to return to his P3 class at Odingoi Primary School.

Joshua Orego, aged 17 and a resident of Agirigiroi in Arapai sub-county, Soroti district, said his father started beating him every day after chasing his mother.

He said he would now start his shop for repairing phones after gaining skills.

Daniel Aturo, aged 18 and from Aliakamer parish in Katakwi district, said he took off to the streets after fearing that his father would beat him seriously for losing a spanner when they were ploughing with an ox-plough.

Aturo, who is now a motorcycle mechanic, is willing to establish a workshop for repairing motorcycles in his village.

TECDEFO is a faith-based, non-profit organisation established in 2009, with a key focus on ministering to children who have been victims of abuse, neglect, and abandonment within the North, Eastern, and Karamoja regions of Uganda.