Maria, 20, is one of the former street children learning bakery at the Koblin Youth Rehabilitation Center in Koblin, Lorengechora town council in Napak district. She is among the teenage girls and young adults who were rescued from Kampala streets in April this year and taken to the center for rehabilitation and skilling.
Originally from Kailikong village in Lopei Subcounty in Napak District, Maria is a mother to a three-year-old boy with whom she came to Kampala in January this year in search of a job to sustain her family. She had been told by her village mates that she could secure a job in Kampala where she could earn an income to support her family.
She was living with her husband, having married off without her parents’ consent at 16- years of age. Maria narrates how hard life was in her marriage with a jobless man who could not support a family of three. The family often went without food and the basic necessities of life. She could not return to her home for she had “proven herself as an adult” having joined the institution of marriage. She decided with her husband that she comes to Kampala for work.
Maria and her husband didn’t have money to transport her to Kampala. She reached out to her mother who sought a loan from the village saving group and gave her Shillings 50,000 for transport to Kampala. In January, she left for Kampala with her baby and was received by her village mates who had enticed her to come to the city.
Upon arrival in Kampala, Maria asked where she could get a job but none of her friends had a decent offer except for the streets. Always with her baby, she immediately blended in, moving from street to street and camping at traffic junctions to beg for money from road users. She made between Shillings 1000 to 2000 a day before retiring to a shared single-room house in Katwe.
When the streets were dry and the begging business not yielding much, Maria couldn’t save enough money for rent and food. Yet thugs too didn’t spare her, often attacking the girls and beating them before they stole their money. Her friends sometimes intervened and paid her daily rent of Shillings 2000, while she scavenged dust bins at local restaurants in the suburbs for food. Her child too ate from left overs at restaurants when Maria couldn’t afford a decent meal.
Maria is one of the eleven teenage mothers of the 52 female trainees at the Koblin Youth Rehabilitation Center. She shares her story with several girls who also report poverty and insecurity in their areas as factors that prompted them to leave their homes in pursuit for survival. They are barely educated as many dropped out of school after Primary One.
Angelina Dugwa, 13, from Lolemuyek Village, Loriktae parish in Lokopo Subcounty also stormed Kampala last year in search of survival. Her neighbors who led a fairly good life since they could afford two meals a day had children in Kampala who often returned home with cereals and money.
She was inspired and asked her parents to let her travel to Kampala to fend for the family and they obliged. Her father, like Maria’s mother secured a loan of Shillings 50,000 from the village saving group to transport her to Kampala.
Dugwa traveled with her friend from the village and settled in Katwe, a Kampala suburb where they were led to by Karamojong children they met in the city upon arrival. The old Karamajong people in Katwe led them to the markets where they could sort beans and get paid at the end of the week. They made Shillings 1000 per mug of stones and undesired cereals removed from the fine ones meant for sale. Sometimes she didn’t get jobs and that’s how she was lured into the streets.
Both Maria and Dugwa are now being trained in Baking and are hopeful that at the end of their three months skills training program, they shall have acquired enough skills to start a business and earn a living. Esther Akello, a trainer at the Center, says that the several of these children have a bad attitude towards learning when they arrive but are counseled ad later appreciate the need to gain a skill.
The center offers training in tailoring, bakery, hairdressing, and masonry. At the end of the three months course, the trainees are assessed by the Directorate of Industrial Training -DIT and awarded a certificate. They are also given startup capital to enable them start businesses of their own. They also recieved rent for four months at a business premise of their choice.
But Akello says that the three months of training are insufficient as trainees are only introduced to basic principles of the course of study. She asks the government and its partners to extend the period of study to at least six months and or organize refresher courses for the trainees passed out at least after every three months.
According to Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA, there are over 1000 children on the streets of Kampala. Over 80 percent of these come from Napak District. Of the 260 children who were rescued from streets of Kampala on August 1st, 2022, only one was from central region, the rest were from Napak.
Paul Kodet, the Chairman LC 5 for Napak District, says that they have intensified the fight against child trafficking and adopted strict measures that bar children from exiting the district to travel to Kampala and other towns to beg on the streets.
The major means of transport for anyone leaving the district is by bus. Kodet says the district is working on an ordinance in, which they shall specify laws to protect the children from being trafficked or leaving for Kampala for work.
He says that children found on a bus without a caretaker shall be questioned to reveal their destination and intention for travel. Bus operators too have been cautioned against ferrying children to Kampala.
Kodet says that they are working with security and other government agencies to investigate people who send
The trainees at the center speak with a level of excitement as they look foward to completing their course in less than a month. They are confident that with the training extended, they shall be able to seek for employment or create jobs from which to earn an income that can support them and their families.
FOR MORE CLICK HERE
