More moms abandon own children

Nov 05, 2010

AFTER the death of her parents, Rehema Namawejje left home in Kangulumira, Kayunga district, to work in Kampala as a house maid at a tender age.

By Gladys Kalibbala

AFTER the death of her parents, Rehema Namawejje left home in Kangulumira, Kayunga district, to work in Kampala as a house maid at a tender age.

Sadly, she was impregnated by one of the home owner’s relatives, who later abandoned her. Now aged 18, she has another boyfriend and another pregnancy.

This week, she went to the Family Protection Unit at the Wandegeya Police station to report a case of child neglect. However, she left the baby in the room, pretended she was looking for a public payphone and vanished. Rebecca Araba, the head of the Family and Child protection unit at at the station on Tuesday handed over the baby to Malaika Babies’ Home in Mengo for safe custody.

CLIENT ABANDONS BABY AT DAYCARE CENTRE
Demintilia Nakimbugwe, 60, a resident of Makerere Kikoni in Kampala, earns a living by looking after babies of low income women in the neighbourhood who go to work during the day.

They pay her sh1,000 per baby each day. One day, a client, only known as Sarah, did not return to take her baby in the evening. She later learnt that Sarah was a sex worker who did not have a residence. She waited for two months, until she handed over the baby to the Police early this week.

KAJJUMBA SAYS HER STEP-MOTHER ALMOST BURNT HER
A 12-year-old girl, who says she has been chased from home, is looking for her late father’s relatives suspected to be in Fort Portal. Rachael Kajjumba says her father died when she was four years old. She says her step-mother, Rose Mbabazi of Nakulabye, has mistreated her and even attempted to set her ablaze after dousing her with kerosene.

While Mbabazi’s brother says her sister is Kajjumba’s real mother, the girl disagrees. “She has never treated me like her own daughter. Before my father died when I was four years, he told me my mother died when I was young,” she told the Police.

For the last two months, the girl has been under the care of a Good Samaritan who found her shivering on a verandah one night.

This week, Kajjumba was handed over to the Police for assistance. The Police traced Mbabazi and detained her briefly. The girl’s father was Frank Tuhaise, a carpenter, residing in Kanyamakori village in Fort Portal. After his death, the young Kajjumba stayed with her grandfather, John Sengerwa, until Mbabazi picked her from there early this year.

NABUNJE SAYS DAD ABANDONED HER ON KAMPALA STREETS
Patricia Nabunje, 7, from Kyotera, is stranded at the Old Kampala Police station, claiming her father, John Bongomin Mkapa abandoned her on the city streets. She says her mother, Josephine Nakate, operates a hair salon while the father repairs TV and radios in Kyotera. She, however, adds that they were on the way to see her mother when she lost track of her father.

MUM LEFT MUKISA IN MULAGO
A mother abandoned Mukisa at the age of eight months in Mwanamugimu Nutrition Unit in Mulago Hospital four months ago. The baby boy had been admitted for treatment of severe malnutrition.

The boy is now in good shape after the treatment and has been handed over to Malaika Babies’ Home. He has turned one year. The home’s management wants to re-unite the boy with his family so that he grows up in a home.

“We encourage local families to take up these children so that they grow up into their culture,” explained Mary Blackwell, the head of Malaika Babies’ Home. She explained that the Home, which now has 23 babies, only keeps them up to two years.

STUDENT PICKS BABY ON STREET
A student who was on the way to school on Wednesday morning in Nakulabye, Kampala, picked a crying baby, Issa Kalungi, and handed him over to the Police. The baby was found alone in Church Zone, Mutagubya.

By press time, the mother, Ruth Zubeda, from Congo had reached the station, where she explained that she had gone to the market when the child disappeared.




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