Roshan’s urge to help the disadvantaged

By Angela Hill

HALF-way to Zigoti, bumping along the pot-holed road, Simon Roshan starts smiling; he is almost in his hometown and back to the Village Orphans Homecare Project, where he provides a home to 83 orphans. About 14km to Mityana town, Roshan tells the taxi driver to stop near St. Mary’s Primary School, where most of the orphans go to school. It is drizzling, but some of the children have braved the rain for the five-minute walk to the main road to welcome him. Roshan greets each of them, and lets them lead the way down the gravel road to his project.

Roshan started the project in early 2007, after realising that nearly 60 children in Zigoti had lost one or both parents, and their needs were not being met. Currently, there are 83 children in the home and he plans to make room for more.

“If someone comes to the project wanting help, there is no way I am going to chase them away,” says Roshan, who is only 19.

“I want to give a chance to other children to have a life like mine.”

Roshan’s parents died in 1993 when he was only five. Although he had relatives in Mbale, he could not go to stay with them. He stayed with a neighbour in Zigoti until the family ran short of food and money. He then moved to Kampala streets.

Roshan joined children living on Nabugabo Road and spent two years looking for food, money, clothes and shelter, before he found a project that helps street children. The Tigers Club in Kisenyi gives impoverished children a place to shower, wash clothing and take a meal, but it does not give them a place to sleep.

During the six months he was with the club, Roshan looked for another project that could take him off the streets. He eventually found Children in Need, where he was fed and clothed for three years. At the end of the three years, the project managers re-unite the children with their relatives, but this was not possible for Roshan.

He returned to the streets until 2001, when he found Never Again, a project run by Rubaga Miracle Centre. The project looks after boys that want an education and will adhere to strict rules. Like in most projects, money was tight at Never Again. The children received a new pair of pants, shirt, and shoes at the end of each year and school fees were usually paid on time.

“On some days there were meals,” Roshan says. “But if it came to 6:00pm when you had not had anything to eat, you became an animal.”

And these animals were caged, as the policy of the project is to keep the boys off the street. Roshan and other boys found this very difficult, especially when there was no food. But there was an upside to Never Again and those were the basketball courts owned by Miracle Centre. A huge fan of Michael Jordan, Roshan loved playing basketball and would shoot hoops whenever he had a chance.

“The court was ours, it was owned by the church,” he said.
After completing Senior Four, Never Again registered Roshan for an arts and crafts course at the Bridges Institute near the Kabaka’s Lake. He specialised in sculpture, making bowls, statues and wooden fruits.

It was during this time that he began helping needy children. In 2004, he started allowing children without homes in Zigoti to stay in his parents’ old house. At that time, the relatives of the children brought food for them at least once a week and none of the children went to school. But, according to Roshan, at least they had a place to stay.

“No one was staying in my parents’ house. So I gave it to people who could use it,” he says. Some residents of Zigoti volunteered to look after the children, aged four to six, to help them cook and ensure they were healthy.

“I thank Roshan for looking after the children. He is really dedicated,” says Grace Babirye, a volunteer care-taker.

When Roshan completed his course in 2007, he dedicated his time to promoting the Village Orphans Homecare Project. He registered the home as a non-governmental organisation, a process he describes as being like school. He says Government officials assessed the project’s performance and granted him a certificate.

Roshan then sold half of the property, and along with the capital given to him by Never Again, bought a place in Nsambya and set up a workshop. He began making arts and crafts to raise money to pay fees and buy food for the children.

Roshan displays his materials on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in a market on Sixth Street in Industrial Area, Kampala. He also gets orders for wooden bowls, beaded necklaces and jewellery from different aid organisations. It was through these sales that Roshan met a Canadian who has since started an organisation in Canada to raise money for his project.

Roshan refers to her as Jjajja Hilda, and the money she has raised through her NGO ‘Simon’s Hope’ has allowed Roshan to send 50 of the 83 children to school, build dormitories and a kitchen and buy mattresses. The children had previously been sleeping on mats in the tiny family home.
“Jjajja Hilda wanted to know what I did and was touched,” he says.

The volunteers in Zigoti try their best to support the children. Grace Babirye, her husband, and two of their daughters spend hours at the project. They have even started a spin-off fundraiser sweet-strawberry yoghurt for sale. The yogurt is packaged in yellow and white plastic bags with the phrase A Chance for Children,/i> inscribed on them. All the proceeds from the yoghurt go to Roshan’s project.

Roshan visits the children often. On this Sunday morning, when he arrives, the children are playing in the yard, dressed in their green school uniform — the only clothing that many of them have. Others play in bits and pieces of torn clothing. Despite the light rain, they are happy to be out of school for the day, and shriek in delight when they see Roshan.

From the moment he arrives, a trail of children follow him wherever he goes. They love the red Cowboy hat, with a green leaf print, that Roshan is wearing. He has it perched on his head as he makes his rounds, checking on the buildings, volunteers and chatting with the children.
Despite his enormous responsibility, Roshan is still a young adult. His preference is hip-hop music, and he tends to punctuate his sentences with words like “cool, man” and “my hommies”.

When Roshan meets Babirye, she says despite her hard work and enthusiasm, they are always short of money. She says she sometimes gives the children tea without sugar and groundnut sauce instead of beans.

Ian Mutebi, 22, says some of the children are outgrowing their clothes, while others are getting threadbare.
“Feeding the children is difficult,” he says.
“We have the children here, but many of them keep coming to ask for help.”

Mutebi met Roshan at Never Again and the two have worked together since the project’s inception. While Roshan spends most of his time in Kampala, Mutebi stays at the project.
Roshan says he is determined to continue raising funds for the children instead of limiting their numbers.

Although Roshan is a born-again Christian, he admits children from all religions.
“If you are a Muslim, you can still be Muslim. I am not going to change you for the help I am giving you,” he says.

It is a lot of responsibility for a 19-year-old to shoulder. Apart from raising funds, he has to ensure that the school has volunteer care-takers, supervise the building construction and tend to his workshop in Kampala. But he could not be happier doing it.

“I am so happy. This is a dream come true,” says Roshan.

“I want the children to excel in life. That is what I want to see.”