Donning a tired trouser that has since lost its original colour and shape – Paul Salamu,a 10 -year-old boy in Namalemba village, Luuka district wears a sweet, innocent face. He is one of the millions of children in Uganda living in poverty.
Salamu lives with his parents and 6 siblings in a small, semi-permanent, one bedroom-house. At night, he humbles his little body on a papyrus mat and covers himself with his mother’s ‘gomesi’ to catch some sleep. In a conversation, his siblings narrate to us how they often survive on one, insufficient meal, a day.
At 9, Paul is is in primary five at kiyunga Parents Primary school where most of the orphans at HOOL school from. Before the existence of this organization, Salamu totally had no hope to attend to a better school and was hopeless about his future purely lost hope about his future.
Under such circumstances, there is no doubt he faces treacherous obstacles to success in life. Paul’s life is that of millions of children in Uganda where 57% of the population is below 18 years of age. They are born into broken social structures that condemn them to the consequences of child poverty. We fail them.
Child poverty is more than just money. It is about deprivation of two or more of the following basic child rights: Access to nutrition, health, water, education, shelter, sanitation, information and child protection.
Although child poverty in Uganda has reduced significantly in the past 10 years, skewed income distribution has resulted in the rich getting richer and the poor, poorer.
And as usual, it’s the marginalized in rural areas and urban slams who bear the brunt, and yet, they ask not for much. At the hands of disparities and lack of equitable opportunities, children in rural areas Namalemba are 3 times more likely to live in extreme poverty than their peers in urban areas.
A recent joint situation analysis of child poverty and deprivation in Uganda by UNICEF Uganda and the government revealed nutrition is the most common form of deprivation accounting for 33% of stunting in children. 36% of children walk an hour’s return trip to fetch water, and 15% of school-aged children have never attended school. Behind these percentages are real lives and hopes of a generation.
This stress is toxic to the ideal environment under which children are supposed to develop. The good thing is we know what we need to do to address this absurd situation. The Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy is quite complex.
Under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); eradicating poverty, in all its forms, is Goal number 1. There can be no more persistent poverty than poverty that ravages the most vulnerable – children especially in remote areas.
All said and done, if we are to lift all children out of poverty – I goal we know we can achieve – it cannot be business as usual. We cannot do the same thing over and over and expect different results.
It is our moral obligation to provide all our children their basic rights and access to equal chance in life. We cannot do that without targeting the vulnerable and marginalized. We owe it to them and to the future of this country
Hope for Orphans Organization-Luuka is hand in hands with the locals leaders to improve knowledge of its beneficiaries in practical skills and education that can make them entrepreneurs as well as empowering the youth who have got little or no chance of formal education with basic technical/vocational skills.
We remind you that Our Mission is empowering Orphans and other vulnerable children and the Youth out of social marginalization, isolation and discrimination through income generating initiatives and formal education with basic technical/vocational skills.
Sponsor a child at HOPE FOR ORPHANS ORGANIZATION-LUUKA today and be part of the incredible story. –END-
