Message from Roman Children and Women Initiative: "The need is overwhelming"
His Story:
His names are Ssemakula Jovan aged four (4), born in a family of two children with his brother. They were born at Kabalungi in Lwengo district. During Covid 19 both his parents died of HIV Aids. After the death of his parents, his uncle, a farmer by profession cared for Jovan and the older brother was taken by another relative. So his uncle is his guardian.
His uncle says he has never been to school and he has no hope of taking Jovan to school because of his current financial situation. His Uncle has never had a chance of going to school either. "We go on looking for people with gardens to help them dig and do housework so they can give us food to survive", said his uncle.
"I wish I could get a chance to expose this boy to education because it is the only means of survival, I wouldn’t want this boy to hustle with ignorance the way his parents did. So if you render help to him he can become a turning point for his entire family being sure that even the brother is not going to school in relation to their current status."
She is called Babirye Swabrah, aged six (6) years. She was found outside the gate with a black polythene bag that contained one dress and a letter that read as follows;
“do whatever you want to do with her so long as she doesn’t die a miserable death like her
parents…am just helping out after seeing that she was left in a house alone after the death of her parents, for more information please call me on this number…” so what they did was to call on the number that was written down and a man stated that “ her mother died when she was three months old and was left with her father who was battling with HIV aids for years. He passed on when Swabrah was six years and because we never knew any of her relatives we kept watching her as she could sleep in the grass-hatched house alone. She could eat from villagers’ homes; we sometimes gave her food and sometimes sleep on an empty stomach. When she fell sick it would be worse because she had no one to cater to her. I decided to look for a place where she could get help because am just a farmer who has a lot on my head and couldn’t add her to my family for she would be another load for me. So I decided to bring her here with the hope that she would get help and belonging to survive. That is all I know about her and please never call me again concerning her issues. Swabrah says she has never been to school and if she gets a chance of studying she would love to be just like other kids. So we believe that if we join hands together and help this girl, educate her, give her belonging she can grow up into a strong black independent woman.