A 24-year-old takes care of 16 street girls
Jun 13, 2004
SHE appears to be 10. Hunger has made her face slack. She wears torn and soiled clothes. Her eyes are wearing away, exhausted, lonely and hopeless. This is Susan Aciiro.
SHE appears to be 10. Hunger has made her face slack. She wears torn and soiled clothes. Her eyes are wearing away, exhausted, lonely and hopeless. This is Susan Aciiro.
She always lingers on the streets of Kampala, but now, the heavy rains have barred her movements.
She is standing at the veranda of somebody’s house in Kawempe, Kampala and staring at Kasfa Buga with sympathy-radiating eyes.
The fatigued-looking Buga, who has just returned from Mbarara, finds a shivering young, shabby stranger (Aciiro) ‘stealing’ shelter under her mother’s house. She ignores her and enters.
About a minute later, Buga hears a gentle knock at the door. She ignores it. Aciiro knocks harder again. Buga peeps through the keyhole and her eyes meet with those of a sad-faced little girl in front of the door with five of her friends.
They all look below 10 years. “Can we sleep here tonight?†Aciiro, who hails from Lira, asks. “No, we don’t have room,†Buga replies. “Where can we go and what can we do?†Ruth Driciru, a younger girl aged about seven, asks as tears roll down her tiny chick.
“I was touched. I let them in, forgot my tiredness, and scrubbed them using my own sponge, before we had supper. The children narrated their heart-breaking stories ranging from dead parents, poverty, mistreatment by step mums, defilement by relatives, denial and abandonment.
“I am touched whenever I think about these young girls’ dreadful stories. The next morning, I had breakfast with them, and they thanked me before they returned to begging on the streets!†she says.
Buga adds that at 8:00pm, they came back. This time not five, but 11 of them. They all stayed with her for six days.
She says on the seventh day, her mother and five siblings returned from the village.
“They were shocked to find their house turned into a street kids’ centre, accommodating 16 young girls between six to 12 years.
They were playing as the noise filled the house,†says Buga. She adds that she explained to her family members until they agreed that the kids should stay with them.
Buga says she spent about sh600,000 on the street kids before she gave up.
She said she had to wish them a happy life on the streets. At 24, Buga, a counsellor at a private counselling and guidance services centre in Mbarara, says she couldn’t do much.
“I’m always haunted by the misery of these children. I am ashamed for not being able to help these Children.â€
For more information, please call: 077 980 254.
She always lingers on the streets of Kampala, but now, the heavy rains have barred her movements.
She is standing at the veranda of somebody’s house in Kawempe, Kampala and staring at Kasfa Buga with sympathy-radiating eyes.
The fatigued-looking Buga, who has just returned from Mbarara, finds a shivering young, shabby stranger (Aciiro) ‘stealing’ shelter under her mother’s house. She ignores her and enters.
About a minute later, Buga hears a gentle knock at the door. She ignores it. Aciiro knocks harder again. Buga peeps through the keyhole and her eyes meet with those of a sad-faced little girl in front of the door with five of her friends.
They all look below 10 years. “Can we sleep here tonight?†Aciiro, who hails from Lira, asks. “No, we don’t have room,†Buga replies. “Where can we go and what can we do?†Ruth Driciru, a younger girl aged about seven, asks as tears roll down her tiny chick.
“I was touched. I let them in, forgot my tiredness, and scrubbed them using my own sponge, before we had supper. The children narrated their heart-breaking stories ranging from dead parents, poverty, mistreatment by step mums, defilement by relatives, denial and abandonment.
“I am touched whenever I think about these young girls’ dreadful stories. The next morning, I had breakfast with them, and they thanked me before they returned to begging on the streets!†she says.
Buga adds that at 8:00pm, they came back. This time not five, but 11 of them. They all stayed with her for six days.
She says on the seventh day, her mother and five siblings returned from the village.
“They were shocked to find their house turned into a street kids’ centre, accommodating 16 young girls between six to 12 years.
They were playing as the noise filled the house,†says Buga. She adds that she explained to her family members until they agreed that the kids should stay with them.
Buga says she spent about sh600,000 on the street kids before she gave up.
She said she had to wish them a happy life on the streets. At 24, Buga, a counsellor at a private counselling and guidance services centre in Mbarara, says she couldn’t do much.
“I’m always haunted by the misery of these children. I am ashamed for not being able to help these Children.â€
For more information, please call: 077 980 254.