Shunned by family, Mutebi found a home with the elderly
May 21, 2006
IT is over 13 years since Thomas Mutebi fell off a jackfruit tree. His condition has not improved. Mutebi is permanently paralysed and can only move in a wheelchair with the help of an attendant.
By John Kasozi
IT is over 13 years since Thomas Mutebi fell off a jackfruit tree. His condition has not improved. Mutebi is permanently paralysed and can only move in a wheelchair with the help of an attendant.
Mutebi is one of the 52 people living in Mapeera Bakateyamba Home in Nalukolongo, four kilometres on Masaka Road in Rubaga division.
As I stood by his bedroom door, I saw him curled up on his bed covered by a blanket supported by a semi-circular metal curve.
As I entered, he sighed heavily, shaking his head slowly and hopelessly. “You are welcome,†Mutebi said as an attendant ushered me in his room.
Mutebi then narrated the events of the fateful day his life changed before I had even asked him to. He said it was on Tuesday, February 18, 1992 in Nyendo-Mubanda village in Masaka. A neighbour called him to climb a jackfruit tree to check for ripe fruits. After checking, Mutebi began descending.
But within six feet from the ground, he stepped on a weak branch, which broke and Mutebi crashed his neck on a coffee tree stump. He lost consciousness.
The next day, he woke up in Masaka Hospital. None of his limbs could move, feel or hold anything. He was paralysed.
“I spent one week in Masaka Hospital before I was transferred to Mulago Hospital. My neck could not support my head and plaster of Paris was put around my neck,†Mutebi said.
Mutebi said Good Samaritans approached the Bakateyamba Home and requested to have him admitted. “My relatives could not take me on because of my pathetic condition. I cannot feed myself, walk or do anything apart painting.â€
I took a walk around the home and when I returned, I found Mutebi seated at a table in his wheelchair, spotting a plastic helmet with an art brush fastened on it. He was painting cards and portraits by moving his head. As he moved his head, beads of sweat started dripping from his forehead down to his neck. Mutebi nodded to one of the two attendants to wipe the sweat off his face.
“Initially, life at the home was hard and everything new to me. But now I have learnt to cope. The home has given me new life,†Mutebi says gratefully.
Mutebi recalls that one morning, in September 1993 a white sister, who was supervising another sister during exercises, visited him to see how he was doing his exercises. He asked the sister if there was anything he could do to occupy himself.
“She looked down at me in amazement,†he says.
The following day, the sister came with a helmet, a laptop, a marker and an art brush. She tried them out and they worked well when they were tied on the stick attached to the helmet.
“This brought joy and relief to me. Slowly and painfully, I taught myself painting and typing on the laptop,†Mutebi says. Swinging the helmet while painting is part of the exercise. After painting, Mutebi usually does arithmetic to keep his brain alert.
However, after sometime, the laptop and television set got spoilt. Mutebi was left with two options — painting and listening to radio. “I listen to Super FM. I enjoy politics and Pastor Peter Sematimba’s preaching,†Mutebi said.
“They encourage me to be innovative. Whenever I hear him preach, I try to move out of bed, but I can’t.â€
Before the accident, Mutebi didn’t like painting, but now he earns his living from selling cards and portraits to people who visit the home.
Mutebi says his relatives take up to two years without visiting him, adding that they lost hope in him. “The home has given me a lot of care and hope.â€
Mutebi says in the year that he got the accident, he was preparing to sit for his Senior Four exams.
Other people at the home also have different health and physical problems. 63-year-old Theresa Mbatudde was seated on a mattress weaving a mat. She was admitted to the home 20 years ago during the civil war in Luweero Triangle.
“I came from Nsangi on Masaka Road. I had been left home with a seven-year-old boy to look after me as people sought refuge in faraway places,†Mbatudde said. “Some kind-hearted people took me to Nabbingo parish from where I was transferred here.â€
Mbatudde says she is becoming weaker everyday. She now only sells a few rosaries.
The Mapeera Bakateyamba Home is surrounded with blooming flowers and a well-carpeted compound giving the home a cool environment.
Next to the church, stands the only remaining mango tree out of the four planted by The Rev. Father Simeon Lourdel (Mapeera). The tree is 126 years old. Behind the church is a mausoleum where the late Emmanuel Cardinal Nsubuga was buried. The church, which was built in 1924 in memory of the 22 Catholic martyrs, is known as the nucleus for Catholicism in country.
The home was the first preaching site Kabaka Muteesa I of Buganda donated by the to Catholic missionaries led by Fr. Lourdel in 1879.
“The idea to develop it into an elderly and disabled people’s home was conceived by the late Cardinal Nsubuga,†said Sister Amans Nakachwa, the assistant administrator of the home. “The Cardinal’s residence at Rubaga was crammed with people seeking shelter, food and clothing during the war in the 1980s.â€
The home began with 10 disabled people. Soon it was overwhelmed with over 100 refugees. But after the war, most people went back. The home houses people from Rwanda and Burundi, who cannot go back to their countries because they cannot trace their roots. It houses 28 men and 24 women, whose ages range from 50 to 90 years and they belong to different faiths.
The home has 30 sisters of Good Samaritans Order, but only eight were assigned to look after the disabled and the elderly.
Sister Nakachwa says that when they are able to, the disabled make mats, clean the compound, sort beans, attend to pigs and wash their clothes. “The elderly do not want to work. They think that they will be sent away when we realise that they can do some work,†she says.
Kampala archdiocese is the main caretaker of the home. But non-government organisations and individuals also contribute clothes and food.
“The biggest challenge the home faces is the escalating medical bill. The sisters sacrifice half of their salary to meet the home budget. The home also has no income generation activity. Construction of the Mapeera House that was proposed to contribute to the running of the home never took off because of lack of funds to develop it,†Nakachwa said.
IT is over 13 years since Thomas Mutebi fell off a jackfruit tree. His condition has not improved. Mutebi is permanently paralysed and can only move in a wheelchair with the help of an attendant.
Mutebi is one of the 52 people living in Mapeera Bakateyamba Home in Nalukolongo, four kilometres on Masaka Road in Rubaga division.
As I stood by his bedroom door, I saw him curled up on his bed covered by a blanket supported by a semi-circular metal curve.
As I entered, he sighed heavily, shaking his head slowly and hopelessly. “You are welcome,†Mutebi said as an attendant ushered me in his room.
Mutebi then narrated the events of the fateful day his life changed before I had even asked him to. He said it was on Tuesday, February 18, 1992 in Nyendo-Mubanda village in Masaka. A neighbour called him to climb a jackfruit tree to check for ripe fruits. After checking, Mutebi began descending.
But within six feet from the ground, he stepped on a weak branch, which broke and Mutebi crashed his neck on a coffee tree stump. He lost consciousness.
The next day, he woke up in Masaka Hospital. None of his limbs could move, feel or hold anything. He was paralysed.
“I spent one week in Masaka Hospital before I was transferred to Mulago Hospital. My neck could not support my head and plaster of Paris was put around my neck,†Mutebi said.
Mutebi said Good Samaritans approached the Bakateyamba Home and requested to have him admitted. “My relatives could not take me on because of my pathetic condition. I cannot feed myself, walk or do anything apart painting.â€
I took a walk around the home and when I returned, I found Mutebi seated at a table in his wheelchair, spotting a plastic helmet with an art brush fastened on it. He was painting cards and portraits by moving his head. As he moved his head, beads of sweat started dripping from his forehead down to his neck. Mutebi nodded to one of the two attendants to wipe the sweat off his face.
“Initially, life at the home was hard and everything new to me. But now I have learnt to cope. The home has given me new life,†Mutebi says gratefully.
Mutebi recalls that one morning, in September 1993 a white sister, who was supervising another sister during exercises, visited him to see how he was doing his exercises. He asked the sister if there was anything he could do to occupy himself.
“She looked down at me in amazement,†he says.
The following day, the sister came with a helmet, a laptop, a marker and an art brush. She tried them out and they worked well when they were tied on the stick attached to the helmet.
“This brought joy and relief to me. Slowly and painfully, I taught myself painting and typing on the laptop,†Mutebi says. Swinging the helmet while painting is part of the exercise. After painting, Mutebi usually does arithmetic to keep his brain alert.
However, after sometime, the laptop and television set got spoilt. Mutebi was left with two options — painting and listening to radio. “I listen to Super FM. I enjoy politics and Pastor Peter Sematimba’s preaching,†Mutebi said.
“They encourage me to be innovative. Whenever I hear him preach, I try to move out of bed, but I can’t.â€
Before the accident, Mutebi didn’t like painting, but now he earns his living from selling cards and portraits to people who visit the home.
Mutebi says his relatives take up to two years without visiting him, adding that they lost hope in him. “The home has given me a lot of care and hope.â€
Mutebi says in the year that he got the accident, he was preparing to sit for his Senior Four exams.
Other people at the home also have different health and physical problems. 63-year-old Theresa Mbatudde was seated on a mattress weaving a mat. She was admitted to the home 20 years ago during the civil war in Luweero Triangle.
“I came from Nsangi on Masaka Road. I had been left home with a seven-year-old boy to look after me as people sought refuge in faraway places,†Mbatudde said. “Some kind-hearted people took me to Nabbingo parish from where I was transferred here.â€
Mbatudde says she is becoming weaker everyday. She now only sells a few rosaries.
The Mapeera Bakateyamba Home is surrounded with blooming flowers and a well-carpeted compound giving the home a cool environment.
Next to the church, stands the only remaining mango tree out of the four planted by The Rev. Father Simeon Lourdel (Mapeera). The tree is 126 years old. Behind the church is a mausoleum where the late Emmanuel Cardinal Nsubuga was buried. The church, which was built in 1924 in memory of the 22 Catholic martyrs, is known as the nucleus for Catholicism in country.
The home was the first preaching site Kabaka Muteesa I of Buganda donated by the to Catholic missionaries led by Fr. Lourdel in 1879.
“The idea to develop it into an elderly and disabled people’s home was conceived by the late Cardinal Nsubuga,†said Sister Amans Nakachwa, the assistant administrator of the home. “The Cardinal’s residence at Rubaga was crammed with people seeking shelter, food and clothing during the war in the 1980s.â€
The home began with 10 disabled people. Soon it was overwhelmed with over 100 refugees. But after the war, most people went back. The home houses people from Rwanda and Burundi, who cannot go back to their countries because they cannot trace their roots. It houses 28 men and 24 women, whose ages range from 50 to 90 years and they belong to different faiths.
The home has 30 sisters of Good Samaritans Order, but only eight were assigned to look after the disabled and the elderly.
Sister Nakachwa says that when they are able to, the disabled make mats, clean the compound, sort beans, attend to pigs and wash their clothes. “The elderly do not want to work. They think that they will be sent away when we realise that they can do some work,†she says.
Kampala archdiocese is the main caretaker of the home. But non-government organisations and individuals also contribute clothes and food.
“The biggest challenge the home faces is the escalating medical bill. The sisters sacrifice half of their salary to meet the home budget. The home also has no income generation activity. Construction of the Mapeera House that was proposed to contribute to the running of the home never took off because of lack of funds to develop it,†Nakachwa said.