By Mitch Lewis | Executive Director
As a U.S. based NGO working in Africa, it is essential to have great personnel on the ground. ATEG has been very fortunate to have great teams who are dedicated to helping Africa’s most vulnerable children. One of their most important roles is identifying great NGO’s in their countries who share our vision. We have partnered with many of them and working together have increased all of our capabilities to deliver help to the large population of street children.
In Mali we partnered with Samusocial Mali, an international organization. In Bamako, since 2001, their focus is on the hardships of the 6,000 (and growing) street children who are in desperate need of health care. We will draw on their expertise as we prepare to open our free, walk-in clinic.
In Uganda we partnered with Child Restoration Outreach. They have facilities in Jinja, Mbale, Masaka and Lira. CRO contributes towards the prevention, rehabilitation, education and resettlement of street children and empowerment of their families in order for them to become productive and self reliant. Following is a story which is typical of street children throughout Africa.
Ayubu’s story
Ayubu was born in 2009 and he is the last born in a family of 3 girls and 2 boys with ancestral roots in Nanyunza village, Bufumbo, Mbale district. Unfortunately, both parents contracted HIV/AIDS and he had to live with his elderly grandmother. Disaster struck in 2015 when his grandmother turned to alcohol as a stress suppressor. Sadly, this just worsened the situation as she became so weak and ill that she could not look after him.
“Granny could come back home drunk and beat me every evening. I could starve and my feet were infested with jiggers and no one came to help,” Ayubu recollects.
Ayubu became so thin with a swollen stomach as a result of malnutrition. In this condition, he was persuaded by his peers to join the group of other children already on the streets scavenging for left overs [makombo] from garbage heaps. He could sometimes sleep on the streets as well as at home. “Surely, I was not happy with that kind of life because it hindered me from going to school.”
CRO social workers found him picking scraps around Naboa road in Mbale. He was enrolled in the rehabilitation class for psychosocial care support, learning and nutritional support.
While in the rehabilitation class, Ayubu’s has had great improvement in health, academics and social interaction. He is now a big man who can read and write the entire alphabet.
CRO social workers often visit their home and his granny has also been counseled and she has given up on alcohol. She does casual labor by washing serving dishes for people who operate local bars and kiosks and she is paid a wage that she uses to buy food and pay house rent.
The Heeling Our World program will help CRO provide shoes for street children and deliver skills training to women like granny as a source of income to provide for their families
By Mitch Lewis | Executive Director
By Mitch Lewis | Executive Director
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