Missionaries of the Poor, giving hope to abandoned, disabled children of Uganda

Missionaries of the Poor, giving hope to abandoned, disabled children of Uganda

By: Prossy Nandudu

Pix: Prossy Nandudu

Every hour there is a child being born with a disability. The next another child is being tortured and every day many are abandoned by their parents for many reasons including disability and abnormalities.

Although the number of children with abnormalities abandoned by parents in communities, streets is not yet known the number is increasing according to Fr.Henry Lozano, head of the Good shepherd home based in Kisenyi, a Kampala suburb.

A visit to this home, run by missionaries of the poor, you will appreciate the situation.

At the Home in Kisenyi.

As soon as you enter the home, you will be greeted by sounds of children groaning, shouting, crying, and hitting poles and laughter. This is because some of these children can not ably talk or ask for what ever they want, like food, explained one of the guardians.

When you approach the dormitories, you will notice brothers cleaning children who have soiled themselves, removing oozing saliva from some elderly people, while some young girls are busy feeding some of their colleagues who cannot ably hold up their heads, on days when not in school.

While at this home, you will notice that many of these children are in need of parent love.

This is evidenced by the fact that when you are visitor, they will insist on talking to them, playing with their bags or keys or bangles or holding hands, sitting on their laps and struggling to talk to the visitors especially females but of course the visitors can only understand with the help of brothers.

These children will do anything possible to make sure that they are noticed and listened to by the visitors.

Since most of them are disabled in one way or the other, it takes courage for a visitor to stay with them for some time but to the brothers, this is a normal experience which they have lived with from the time they became missionaries of the poor.

History of Good shepherd Home

Missionaries of the Poor were founded by Father Richard Ho Lung, a Catholic priest, in 1981, in Kingston, Jamaica. As a priest and a university professor he felt that he was not really touching the wounds of Christ and so it was that after much reflection, prayer and discussions with superiors that he was given permission to leave the Jesuit order and begin the missionaries of the poor in ghettos of Kingston Jamaica.

From the ghettos of Kingstone Jamaica, missionaries of the poor spread across the world with a presence in Haiti, India, Africa including Uganda. They came to Uganda in the year 2000; they set foot in Uganda upon the invitation of cardinal Wamala who then was the Arch bishop of Kampala arch dioceses.

In Uganda we settled in Kisenyi area which was a slum with many children those born normal and those with abnormalities, explains Fr.Lozano, now the head of Good Shepherd Kisenyi, which has been in existence for the past 11 years.

Children at Good shepherd home;

The home houses normal orphaned and abandoned Children, physically disabled, mentally disabled and the elderly who have been abandoned by their families.

Some of the children are victims of the war in Northern Uganda, Somalia, DRC and victims of child abuse at home by parents, relatives from in districts across the country.

At the moment the home has more than 200 residents many of whom are children who are either orphans or abandoned.

Due to the growing number, they have constructed another home in Busega that will take in male children and those at school.

Those whoa re normal and of school age will attend the school located on the same piece of land that was acquired by the missionaries, while the home at Kisenyi will keep females and some elderly people have also been abandoned by their families.

Fr.Lozano said that amongst the children there are those with mental and physical disabilities who were brought into the home by different people.

“What we have here are children who have various mental and physical disabilities. Some are gathered from the Police, on the street, from Local leaders and others are brought to use by villagers and relatives because the parents of these children have no parents to look after them,” explained Fr.Lozano.

Those going to school at the new home in Busega are 222 from baby class primary secondary and a few in vocational courses.

“Our dream is that these children can acquire skills to will help them be able to stand on their own feet and therefore we are trying to equip them as best as we can with skills such that any time once they are grown enough they can return to society and contribute to the development and growth of our country,” he added.

Challenges

The main challenge faced by this home is feeding. The missionaries spend roughly $45,000d per year on feeding alone.

“In a months time we spend between 32 and 35 million shillings on groceries which include Pease, rice, and other foods stuffs. Vegetables are bought separately from groceries and we are looking at 2.5 million every Friday on fruits and vegetable,” explained Fr.Lozena.

Apart from feeding the missionaries are faced by the increasing number of children in society who cannot be taken in by the home due to limited space and the high cost of materials.

 “The material resource are limited .we are always in need of donations either in kind or  cash because apart from the good shepherd home we also have a feeding programme for another 300 plus children from the slums. These plus those who go to school in Busega, so the demands are great but the resources are always less,” he said.

One other challenge is that is that among the children there are those in need of medical care like anti retroviral therapy, who according to the missionary are always taken to Mulago hospital and some other ailments.

“Among these those that are found to be HIV positive are sent to Mulago hospital but these are not so many like those who have been affected by HIV like loss of their parents due to the disease and have been left orphans,” he added.

Because of the above the home is always in need of donations in terms of food items, medicine and those go in looking after them is concerned.

One other challenge is the high electricity rates which the priest appeals for assistance so that the money can be diverted into other activities that can benefit the children.

Innovations by the Missionaries of the poor

They have set up a health center three in Kisenyi, Good shepherd health center that offer free consultations and some times gives out free medicines. The center also acts as a treatment center for the children because it has a doctor in addition to visiting doctors and nurses.

The have also set up a well that serves the community around them and the home to save on the cost of paying water bills to Kampala city water.

Future Plans

According to Fr.Lozane,they plan to plant there own fruits and vegetables on a seven acre piece of land that they have acquired in Busega so as to stop spending 2.5 million shillings weekly on vegetables so the money can be used to pay electricity.

“We are putting up a farm where we are trying to cultivate some of the root crops, vegetables and are hope that eventually we ca fence off that weekly marketing we do,” he said

As missionaries of the poor they have a vow of free services so cannot charge any body for what ever services they offer so they have been limited to depending on donors, individuals and institutions such as banks that have continued to support the home.

One such bank is standard chartered ban that if giving the home cleaning detergents worth 2.5 million shillings every month in addition carrying out voluntary services like washing the dormitories,cooking,cleaning the children, as it was over the weekend.

The public relations manager of standard Chartered Bank Cynthia Mpanga said that they decided to help the home due its growing number of demands.

 “If you move around the home, you will see the dire need in this place, the children have many both physical and mental disabilities and all they need is care, and when you see the amount of clothes brothers are washing every day a lot of soap is required so, we decided to make it a monthly visit to bring the items and this has been going on for three years.

The executive director the bank, Herman Kasekende called on the press to bring to the lime light the good works of such organizations which he said are helping children who cannot be taken on by many Ugandans.

Ends.