US NGO has no orphanage in Uganda

By Pascal Kwesiga                                 

The African Children’s Charities (ACC), a US-based NGO, doesn’t run an orphanage in Uganda as it claims, the internal affairs ministry has said.

According to the coordinator counter human trafficking national task force, Moses Binoga, the NGO was issued with a license on December 5, 2013 to operate for twelve months before it could be renewed.

The license was supposed to be renewed after establishing that ACC has undertaken the activities stated in the operational license.

According to ACC’s operational license, a copy of which New Vision has seen, the NGO was supposed to carry out activities in the fields of supporting children’s welfare, establishing orphanage centers, providing care to children suffering from HIV/AIDS and advocating for children’s rights.

ACC sponsored a trip for an eight-year old orphan, Mohammad Luwasi and his caretaker Joan Nakibuuka after it had reportedly solicited for funds from the American people for the former to undergo a surgical operation to correct a deformity in his back in May 2014.

The surgical procedure was performed on Luwasi by medics at the University of Arizona medical center in June 2014 free of charge.

A deformity in Luwasi’s back was caused by an under dose for tuberculosis which he reportedly suffered in infancy.

Nakibuuka picked Luwasi from his grandmother, Agatha Namusisi, in Mpigi district in 2010 so she could seek treatment for him from possible well-wishers.

ACC got to know about Luwasi’s plight through a story published in New Vision on July 28, 2010 and contacted Nakibuuka.
However, a disagreement ensued between Nakibuuka and the ACC’s president, Vikki Kattman, after the charity reportedly started running adverts in the media in the US seeking an adoptive parent for Luwasi as he recovered.

Nakibuuka had obtained a foster care placement from the Mpigi district probation officer, Annet Nabuuma, to enable her take care of the boy for three years.

She also obtained a care order from Nabweru court which was subject to renewal after three years before she and Luwasi travelled to US. Nakibuuka escaped from Kattman’s residence with Luwasi in August 2014, but the US police returned the boy to ACC because he (Luwasi) was still receiving treatment and Nakibuuka didn’t have the “capacity” to take care of him in a foreign country where she doesn’t have relations and friends.

Nakibuuka claims the organization confiscated a foster care and a care order she obtained from the probation officer and Nabweru court and that it claimed Luwasi was one of the orphans it was providing for in Uganda.

According to incident reports from Oral Valley Police Department in Arizona, the police returned Luwasi to Kattman amid protest from Nakibuuka because she didn’t have any papers on her to show she was legally allowed to take care of him.

The organization presented papers showing it had “sole powers” over Luwasi and that Nakibuuka was their care giver.

“They (ACC) claimed I was their employee. They introduced me as the organization’s care giver in the hospital where Luwasi was operated on from,” Nakibuuka said.

Nabuuma said a man who identified himself as one of ACC’s officials called her to report that Nakibuuka had snatched Luwasi from the charity before he could complete his treatment.

Nabuuma and Local council officials prepared Namusisi an affidavit in which she gave ACC “sole powers” over his grandson and stripped Nakibuuka of responsibility over him.

“They (ACC) told us they needed the affidavit from his grandmother urgently to get him (Luwasi) from Nakibuuka so that he can complete his treatment,” Nabuuma added.

Luwasi was returned to Nakibuuka following the intervention of the Ugandan embassy and the US State Department.
Nakibuuka claims that she lived with a pastor before relocating to the home of a law student, Dominick Lucien, who reportedly helped her to contact the Ugandan embassy in US.

“I don’t live in peace here. I want to come back to Uganda with Luwasi. I thank ACC for assisting him to undergo an operation but my intension was not to have him adopted,” Nakibuuka added.

She claims that ACC denied her a return air ticket and that Luwasi didn’t have a return air ticket. Kattman, in interviews she gave the local press in Arizona and the police, claimed that ACC runs an orphanage in Uganda and that Luwasi is one of the children they take care of.

Binoga explained that the NGO had not yet set up an orphanage in Uganda and that it has not renewed its license.

“The first activity it was supposed to carry out was to pay school fees for needy children and we don’t know if it did. The second activity was to set up orphanage centers but it didn’t establish any,” he added.

The government has not yet located the NGO’s office premises in Kampala. “I don’t think it has any but we are still investigating,” Binoga added.

ACC’s Uganda manager, Umar Ssemwogerere, earlier told The New Vision the NGO runs an orphanage in Kampala but he refused to disclose their location and referred this newspaper to the organization’s headquarters in Arizona for permission before accessing its premises.