NGO defrauds over 200 youth in Gulu
Jan 31, 2008
OVER 200 youth from internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps in Alero, Anaka and Koch-Goma in Nwoya county have been stranded in Gulu town for five days.
By Chris Ocowun
OVER 200 youth from internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps in Alero, Anaka and Koch-Goma in Nwoya county have been stranded in Gulu town for five days.
They were transported to the town on January 25 by officials from Faith for Action-Uganda, a vocational skill training centre.
Each of them reportedly paid the officials sh45,000 as school fees, sh25,000 for the hostel and contributed 20kg of maize and 15 of beans.
Speaking to the local leaders and the Police who visited them on Tuesday at Gulu Railway Station where most of them slept, the IDPs, some of them with babies, complained that they paid an extra sh3,000 for transport to Gulu town.
“Since we came to the centre, last Friday, some of us have not bathed because we do not have money to buy water. We are feeding on maize and beans that we came with. We are sleeping with the ladies yet they have babies,†Charles Ocen from Alero said.
Denis Olum from Anaka said they were told that the charity helps vulnerable children, but when they reached the town, they were told that it is a school.
The youth demanded that their money be refunded and they be transported back to their camps.
Janet Oroma from Koch-Goma said they were being treated like pigs by the school administration.
Mike Ocaka, a school director, said the youth who want to study should remain behind, adding that lectures would begin on Monday.
The district secretary for community services, Santa Oketta, together with the Layibi Division chairman, Walter Odong, said Ocaka should be arrested for coning the youth.
“We are against human trafficking? And you dare bring these children under these conditions? You are just after maximising profits from them,†Oketta said.
Moses Gabona, a Police constable, said Ocaka would be charged with human trafficking.
The leaders said the school had not been inspected nor licenced by the Ministry of Education.
OVER 200 youth from internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps in Alero, Anaka and Koch-Goma in Nwoya county have been stranded in Gulu town for five days.
They were transported to the town on January 25 by officials from Faith for Action-Uganda, a vocational skill training centre.
Each of them reportedly paid the officials sh45,000 as school fees, sh25,000 for the hostel and contributed 20kg of maize and 15 of beans.
Speaking to the local leaders and the Police who visited them on Tuesday at Gulu Railway Station where most of them slept, the IDPs, some of them with babies, complained that they paid an extra sh3,000 for transport to Gulu town.
“Since we came to the centre, last Friday, some of us have not bathed because we do not have money to buy water. We are feeding on maize and beans that we came with. We are sleeping with the ladies yet they have babies,†Charles Ocen from Alero said.
Denis Olum from Anaka said they were told that the charity helps vulnerable children, but when they reached the town, they were told that it is a school.
The youth demanded that their money be refunded and they be transported back to their camps.
Janet Oroma from Koch-Goma said they were being treated like pigs by the school administration.
Mike Ocaka, a school director, said the youth who want to study should remain behind, adding that lectures would begin on Monday.
The district secretary for community services, Santa Oketta, together with the Layibi Division chairman, Walter Odong, said Ocaka should be arrested for coning the youth.
“We are against human trafficking? And you dare bring these children under these conditions? You are just after maximising profits from them,†Oketta said.
Moses Gabona, a Police constable, said Ocaka would be charged with human trafficking.
The leaders said the school had not been inspected nor licenced by the Ministry of Education.