BSCS

It was an ecstatic moment with a smiling sun at a glance, they could barely conceal their happiness, joy, and relief welled up inside of them.

Once living in disprovable life with their mentally ill mother, the 7-year-old twins hailed from the bushes of Ochero Sub County, Kagaa Parish at Acyekitoyo village in Kaberamaido district, northeastern Uganda.

Aaron Opio and Doreen Acen were a joy to watch on the Namuwaya Education Center visiting day which took place on Sunday, July 5. The twins had no idea that their lovely mum was coming.

The visibly ill mother Christine Asege with the help of Emmanuel Alega (her Neighbor back home) managed to travel a distance of 390 Km distance from Kaberamaido to Kampala and by 9:00 am, she was around Bweyogerere, Wakiso District.

On the way to the school, Bravo Shoes Community Support (BSCS) team dropped her at one of the local supermarkets around Kirinnya to grab a refreshment and also probably shop for snacks and beverages for her children.

Inside the supermarket, Asege opted for a few pick aways, a tomato source bottle, a few sodas, crisps, and ice cream. Yes, she is the mother of the 7-year-olds and probably by instinct she knew what will put a smile on Doreen and Aaron. (Note she was too naïve and ignorant about the supermarket culture in urban centers, thanks to Emmanuel for guidance).

On reaching Namuwaya, happiness is everything in life, the two warriors fully clad in the uniforms had fully adapted to the school culture and beamed with excitement and curiosity upon seeing the BSCS team. We didn’t reveal their mother first.

Bonding Moments with the Mother

Opio and Acen were smiling over the moon, you could easily tell how the school has transformed them in confidence and expression, they can speak some little English with communication gestures and they could bond well with other students at school.

“Sam, come…” Opio is heard speaking to one of his fellow students in the compound looking healthy and strong like other children.

Upon seeing her children nearly after two months, Asege hugged them and you easily read the electronic connection was loud. She pulled a rare smile to express her love and appreciation as she kept looking at her children and the BSCS team without saying a word.

Forget the crisps and sodas, the Kaberamaido mother had a surprise for Opio and Acen, she had packed the organic roasted maize and cassava back from home as she looked calm and contented while seated on the grass compound cheering with her children.

They seemingly exchanged a lot of stories back home as the little boy, Opio kept moving and coming back away from her mother while the Acen was still and kept munching on the roasted maize her mother has carried for her hundreds of miles from home.

The untold story after picking the twins from Kaberamaido

According to Emmanuel Alega the man who identified the twins in March and contacted the Daily Monitor journalist who put their plight in the limelight.

The twins hit the limelight after Daily Monitor discovered that the duo is not merely children but breadwinners.

“These children could gather rugs to find what to eat, their hygiene was not good and many times they survived like animals on green leaves and their home ignored by everyone because it could smell all the time because they had no toilet and could defecate everywhere,” he said

Alega said that when these kids were picked by the BSCS organization, their mother was not happy and started missing her children as she was always worried about what could happen to her children when she can’t reach them.

“When they were picked, the mother was not happy and she looked worried! But for us, we knew that these children lacked a lot and this was God’s calling and now I have seen our children looking healthy and happy. Their hygiene is fine and they can even speak good English!” he commended.

Alege commended all the parties who have played a big role in transforming the lives of the Kaberamaido twins and too appreciated Bravo Shoes Community Support for taking the responsibility to invite people from Kaberamaido to come and visit the twins at their school.

So far, Alega joins George Olyer the cousin of the twins, their mother to visit the twins and the district officials are also planning to visit them.

How they managed to cope with the school

After one month upon their arrival, the 7-year-old adorable twins from Kaberamaido had to endure a lot more as they tried to adapt to the environment and catch up with strange things they found in the classroom.

Despite their spirits expressing willingness to change from their past without looking back. The twins struggled to adapt to the new life in school.

It was understandable, leaving your home, family, friends and all that’s familiar to move to would be a big deal is sometimes costly.

The two children fell sick a few days after their successful report at school. The organization took care of them. It was homesickness, a feeling of stress or anxiety caused by separation from people and places that you know.

Anderson Natumanya, Coordinator BSCS at Namuwaya Education Center explained how he managed to deal with the unique situation of the two lovely children from Kaberamaido and other children taken care of by the organization.

“With Doreen and Opio, the challenge at first was unfamiliar diseases, they acquired several diseases like typhoid, and walking on pavers was a problem too. Bathing tap water also became a problem and they developed skin rashes,” he explained.

However, Natumanya says he managed to cluster their weaknesses and he squarely dealt with them. He has instilled discipline and leadership among all the c

“I make sure they are all together as a family, we make sure we do activities like homework as they help each other. The twins have started writing their names and am impressed. What makes me happy is that they live as a family and share the same history together,” he said,

Natumanya called upon organizations, corporate entities, and individuals to join Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation to transform lives.

Gallery – Visitation Day 09/07/2023

Head or tail, once life is indescribable, toss a coin to strike a change. A flip to another universe of bread and butter or a toss to maintain the status quo.

The living testimony of the 7-year-old twins hailing from Kaberamaido, Aaron Opio, and Doreen Acen tells you a thing or two about life.

As you enjoy your Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) with a loved one in your comfort, there is someone chasing shadows, the two struggle to see the light during the day even when the sun moves horizontally above them.

Staying deep in the bushes of Ochero Sub County, Kagaa Parish at Acyekitoyo village, the family of fatherless 5 children living with their mentally ill mother Christine Asege found a safe haven, it requires you to move a few kilometers inside hundreds of untilled acres of bushy land before you reach on a small grass-thatched doorless hut.

Life is multifaced, we are here to tell their story and as time elapses, they will write their own story too perhaps as doctors, lawyers, or pilots.

Our two-day journey from Kampala to Kaberamaido is more interesting to tell right from Nakasongola before going through the army barracks, rushing to catch the first MV Kyoga ferry at Zengebe at Lake Kyoga was exciting.

We missed the first trip and choose to have our breakfast at the docking area waiting for the next shift, Zengebe is a business hub and so many people including women, the young, and the old survive by fetching water, fishing, and restaurants are notable economic activities.

On the ferry, the one-hour voyage was a beautiful expedition and the first time for all the members of the Bravo media team to use MV Kyoga. The trip was indeed in high spirits to connect with the twins waiting spiritually somewhere in Kaberamaido.

When the ferry touched down, we bumped on the dusty untarmacked road leading to Amolator the easy link to Kaberamaido through Dokolo.

Reaching Ochero Town Council is another town to marvel at with unique natural features and architectural creatures that caught our attention. Incidentally, our first contact with Kaberamaido was Cuthbert Ewiru the Probation Officer of Kaberamaido had staged there.

Kaberamaido is rich in vegetation, which can best be described as wooded savannah, grass savannah,  and a few forests.

The climate of the district is modified by the large swamp area surrounding it. The rainy season is March to November, with a marked minimum in June, and marked peaks in April to May and August to October. December and January are the driest months.

However, the district faces a food insecurity threat, which explains why the seven-year-olds Aaron Opio and Doreen Acen hit the limelight after Daily Monitor discovered that the duo is not merely children but breadwinners.

The two devices mean of taking care of their mentally ill mother whose daily way of life is chuckling around Akampala Landing Site in Ochero Sub-County on the shores of Lake Kyoga.

It is reported that she could sometimes take days without returning home living the two at home to man the doorless house.

According to Victor Ekesu the Kaberamaido LC 5 Chairperson, the district is grappling with multiple issues blaming men as the center of all these problems. He says that many broken families are abandoned by men and women are left as breadwinners for the families.

“Mothers start reflecting on how they can live with children and most couples come into parenthood at the early stage and can’t navigate. The boy runs away and the girl is so much strained emotionally. The mother is literally heartbroken and abandons her children,” he said.

Ekesu commended the Bravo Shoes Community Support team (BSCS) for coming to the region at a time when early marriages are rampant.

He says that the region is still suffering from the consequences of the post-Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in northern Uganda over 25 years ago.

Day 2: Picking Opio and Acen

In the evening of Thursday in Kaberamaido, reaching Acyekitoyo village was not the usual journey, the small route to the home of the destitute family requires patience and extra boots to go through a bushy route to their home.

At the time of our arrival, George Olyer the cousin of the twins had been in contact with the family and he suspects that the boy has an illness because he had been coughing for a while however, the medical scan proved that Opio is ok and had nothing to worry about.

“At first we took a test and as I was waiting for the test results, they said there is nothing to worry about and I had not received any negative feedback so far,” he explained.

Due to the absent mother, the twins and their siblings find difficulty in securing something to eat and mostly survive on goodwill gestures or on a good day, when there are leftovers from the meal served at the nearby community school, the custodians usher the children in for a day’s bite. That gesture is, however, rare.

“Since yesterday, we have not had any meal, we have been looking at the footpath that leads back to the house we call home, for our brother to bring something but in vain. Perhaps he has gone herding. I am hungry, and the nights can be cold on an empty stomach,” Acen told Daily Monitor in her mother tongue.

The family has been sleeping hungry on small pieces of the rugged tired mattress in a small grass-thatched house without a door in the wilderness where it is believed that someone slept with her in the dead of the night, leaving her pregnant.

Nelson Odela the Community Development Officer says that the plight of children in Kaberamaido is complex and as they make up to 60% of the population born of vulnerable families which can’t support themselves.

“The twins are just an example of what is happening in the communities caused by a number of factors including orphanhood. The government has done a lot but there is still a need. We thank Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation for your timely response,” he commended.

Odela said that the community has key pressing issues to deal with lack of food, descent education, community, and early marriages taking a toll.

From this background, we were blessed to be joined by the twins on a mission to rewrite their life story, the two will never be the outcasts anymore and they have joined the elite club of children picked by the BSCS to pursue school.

On the road, both Opio and Acen had little to say apart from staring and smiling whenever it was necessary according to them.

They kept standing and alert along the way and they were able to grab some food from the local suppliers as they were waiting for the MV Kyoga on L. Kyoga ready to cross to Zengebe in Nakasongola on their route to Kampala for the very first time of their life.

Over 10 hours on the road, the two kept their eyes wide open as they adventure through the new lease of life and grabbed rare snacks, sodas, and ice cream as the sun visibly went to rest before they could reach Namuwaya Education Center, their new home in Bweyogere, Wakiso District on the mission to brighten their future.

The two luckily found people they speak the same language and got their orientation better. Despite being 7 years old, Opio and Acen will check in baby class for better orientation and initiation.

It is official, Bravo Shoes Community Support (BSCS) has introduced skilling programs to benefit all the children taken care of by the organization to shape them to compete favorably in the future.

Recently, the gov­ern­ment rolled out the new lower sec­ondary ed­u­ca­tion cur­ricu­lum in Feb­ru­ary 2020 with the aim of cre­at­ing meet­ing the learn­ers’ needs es­pe­cially in re­gard to skills train­ing and en­hance­ment.

According to the State of Youth Re­port 2019 by Cen­tre for Pol­icy Analy­sis, it is in­di­cated that the ma­jor­ity of the youth de­manded more prac­ti­cal sub­jects and over 50% of them re­vealed that the ed­u­ca­tion they had re­ceived had not pre­pared them for the avail­able op­por­tu­ni­ties in the labor mar­ket.

BSCS Media team took a trip off Gayaza Road to Masooli, Nangabo Sub County, Wakiso District to meet and feel part of life skilling at Oaks Knit Designers, a unique vocational school and small-scale manufacturing company located 5 miles from the city center.

The school trains women, girls, and boy child to get effective empowerment in the shortest period and enrich them in employable handicraft skills and supply knitwear, and uniforms to schools, and organizations among others.

Leticia Nalwadda is a volunteer at BSCS, her humility, and love for children roots in a humble background, despite her modest educational background, Nalwadda credits skill as her low-lying gold in her life, she is able to survive and empower her siblings through skilling.

Nalwadda, currently pursuing her career at Oaks Knit Designers, acquired 3 months of training and is now multi-skilled.

“I came here with an idea only in tailoring to receive hands-on skills on a 3 months program, it took me two days to learn some of these skills. I learned knitting among other skills and I can use and operate all the machines,” she said.

In some years to come, Nalwadda sees herself as a successful entrepreneur, she commends the organization’s move to include skilling among its key programs to support vulnerable children.

Sarah Nabulime Seruwagi is the CEO and Director of Oaks Knit Designers, she recently won $20,000 from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) – NSSF Hi Innovator Women Accelerator.

Nabulime who started humbly in 2020 is a former Lab Technician at Makerere University and holds a Business Management degree. However, she took a simple decision after reading a book on how to make sweaters.

“I acquired a simple machine and in 3 months I realized that my dream belongs in the creative industry. She explained that I learned hand knitting and tailoring, and now very conversant with industrial machines,” she explained.

Nabulime has taught close to 200 women now attracting a number of clients from schools and organizations and individuals preferring customized services.

“I encourage young girls and boys to acquire these skills, this skill can easily be passed on to other children in over 10 schools and we target ages from 13 -50 years old for the period of 3 months,” she said.

She commends Leticia for high alertness and vigilance and is very optimistic of her that she will be successful with all the skills she has acquired.

“She has acquired numerous skills and she will be successful on her own,” she commented.

BSCS is also blessed to introduce Dala Skills, a skilling program under Supporting Minors to Improve Life (SMILE).

Gloria Musinguzi is the CEO of Dala Skills also joined hands with an offer to make skilling a reality with the children under the BSCS organization.

Under SMILE, the children will have training every month of December at their place in Manyangwa, she said after gifting all of them with neck warmers knitted by SMILE.

“We always have a camp in December where we give soft skills, the children have training. We realized there is a need to have skills for the next generation.

Musinguzi added that the main purpose of this program will be to create employable skills and competencies relevant to the labor market on top of educational certificates. It will embrace all Ugandans in need of skills, including but not only primary and secondary school leavers.

The government strategic Plan titled ―Skilling Uganda, denotes a paradigm shift for skills development in Uganda.

The BTVET system is expected to emerge from an educational sub-sector into a comprehensive system of skills development for employment, enhanced productivity, and growth. The main purpose will be to create employable skills and competencies relevant to the labor market instead of educational certificates. It will embrace all Ugandans in need of skills, including but not only primary and secondary school leavers.

One of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG4), by 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education, including university, and substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship

By 2030, the UN hopes to eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children in vulnerable situations

The phrase “it takes a village to raise a child” originates from an African proverb and conveys the message that it takes many people (“the village”) to provide a safe, healthy environment for children, where children are given the security, they need to develop and flourish, and to be able to realize their hopes.

We know how critical a parental figure is to the development of a child. Children, especially girls, who grow up with an absent father, are more likely to be subjected to higher poverty rates, experiment with drugs, and experience teen pregnancy.

With the compounded problem of a global pandemic, support from community members, teachers, friends, and family is critical.

The world has now turned a global village, it had to be Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation (BSCS) to put Leila Hayati in the limelight of hope, a girl child from Aii-vu Subcounty, Terego District in West Nile region over 500km from Kampala.

What Sharon Aseru, the 8-year-old girl abandoned by her mother to grandmother at 3 months old in the villages of Aii-Vu Subcounty missed, Leila got it and now she a brilliant student of Namuwaya Education Centre.

Aseru was picked randomly by the Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation team on their mission to pick a girl child from West Nile, unfortunately, she could not break the shell out of primitive thinking.

Luckily, Aii-Vu Subcounty is the same community Leila is coming from living with his aging father and mother who have lived with a dream of educating their girl child at a given standard and the community will watch Leila cruising up to the university, thanks to Bravo Shoes Community Support.

The letter to Dawn Adams

Dated 26^th March, 2023, Leila reaches out to her guardian angel with utmost humility,

                                                                                          Namuwaya Education Centre

                                                                                       P.O.Box  36257, Kampala – Uganda

                                                                                                                26^th March 2023

Dear Mum Dawn Adams,

I send greetings to you in the name of the almighty God Hope you’re fine and your relatives. I have written this letter to say thank upon the support you are giving to me.

Thank you for the scholastic materials and school fees you give me. May God continue to bless the work of your hands, blessings follow you; my lovely mum

                                                                                                                 Your Lovely Daughter

                                                                                                                        Hayati Leila, P.5

See the Scanned Copy of the Letter

It was on her school’s visiting day 26^th March Leila also got to speak to Adams on a video call from UK, the soft-spoken Leila was relived upon speaking to her and promised greater performance in class.

Leila was also blessed to receive her eldest sister Jamila on the same day, she expressed gratitude to the BSCS activities and the role played in the transformation of her sister’s life.

“I stopped school in senior five and I was unable to continue because the situation was not favorable enough for me to continue in school. I am happy for works of this organisation in the life of my little sister and I pray to God to bless you abundantly,” she said.

She added; way back people used to lough at our family, at first where Leila was studying, we could not afford anything even buying her shoes.”

Her class teacher Charles Ewajo said that Leila has considerably transformed, she used to struggle with handwriting and comprehension.

“When Leila had just joined, even constructing a sentence was a problem. She is now doing well and her handwriting has greatly improved,” said Ewajo.