Stopping child abandonment in Uganda

The Ewafe Project, launched in 2013, supports abandoned and at risk children in the slums of Kampala. The Ewafe home offers a safe place to stay when a child has been rescued from an emergency situation. It offers them a place to call ‘home’. At the home, our staff work with the children offering them all the support they need. This includes providing counselling to overcome trauma, giving each child individual, case-focused care to ensure for the best outcome for that individual. The staff work towards reuniting the children with relatives or reintegrating them with a love family wherever possible. This year, with the COVID-19 crisis, chronic poverty has only been further exacerbated. This puts children under a greater risk of abuse, exploitation, homelessness and abandonment as well as a higher risk of families breaking apart. The effect the pandemic has had is distressing. This has just increased the need for the work we do in Kampala. Below, Sophie* narrates her own story of how the Ewafe project helped her in her time of need.

I was only 8 years when our mother passed on. My young sister was 4 by then was taken to my maternal grandmother. I had to start staying with my stepmother and my father who had formerly abandoned us. Having lost my mother, I thought that my father would treat me well, but he and my stepmother tortured me so much.I would wake up early every day to do all house chores, prepare my step siblings and then after head to school. Though I was going through a lot, I was happy that I was in school. When I completed first term in primary four in 2018, my father said that he could no longer afford my school fees and the only option was to drop out of school. Then I had to stay home every day all day doing my usual chores.

In 2019, I remember it was around the month of March, my father started asking me to sleep with him because he claimed that I was old enough and good looking.

I got very scared because I never imagined that my real father would say such things to me. Every time he asked me, I said no to him because I feared that I would even get HIV or pregnant. One night my father came into my room in the middle of the night and slept with me forcefully. He did this more than six times and he said that if I told anyone about it, he would kill me. 

I was lucky that, one day everyone was away from home; I went to our neighbours and told them everything that I was going through. They hid me for some time, registered my case with police and also reported my father to the police and he was imprisoned. 

I am now 15 years old. I am so grateful to the Ewafe project because they provide me with everything I need.

We eat and sleep well; we are given time to play and pray. We’re raised to be good children and treat others good. While here at Ewafe, I have also been taught how to make tablecloths, bracelets and sponges and other activities. I want to study very hard such that in future I am also able to help out children who are suffering. (*name changed)