Maama Sam Touches Down in Kampala City to Receive Treatment

Viewing from the top, Sam Bright MUHINDO’s influence is fast changing the lives of the entire family back in Kasese. On the fact-checking, it was her first time coming to Kampala.

Itungo Sylvia, the mother of the famous Sam Bright MUHINDO, a six-year-old dancing sensation arrived via Poko-Poko bus at 4:30 am in the wee hours of the morning.

The 35-year-old mother of 9 children has lived with keloids (scars) for many years and itching all over her body and she was booked for an appointment at Mulago Referral Hospital for a health assessment.

According to Dr. Sulaiman Ddungu, an expert from Mulago Hospital, Itungo will undergo specialized treatment to speed up her healing.

“It is a body reaction to damage, she will receive a specialized treatment and get better,” Dr. Ddungu explained.

Before arrival, Sam Bright MUHINDO had to take a break from his sleep time days after returning home from school for the holidays.

On Tuesday Sam Bright MUHINDO in the company of the Bravo Shoes Community Support team drove to Kampala to pick up his mother from the bus park.

Sam in the company of Pinky, received his mother off the bus and drove her around the city looking for a place to have breakfast.

Being too early with no restaurant open, Itungo and her son had bonding moments and her fingers could not stop pressing her phone calling Sam’s father Katsumbyo Julius to share every moment that captured her eyes.

Unfortunately, for her, it was still dark with little moments to tell back to her sweetheart.

“I will tell everyone what I have seen in Kampala. I wish they send photos on my phone.” “Yesu Mukama, vehicles are very many…Where are all these people going,” she said moments after seeing people passing around Mulago Round About.

At Café Jevas Wandegeya, Sam Bright MUHINDO and her mother together with Pinky, little by little, as night faded away, the breakfast was ready.

Sam helped the mother with the menu chart and breakfast arrived mama Sam had to taste the best from Café Jevas.

Reaching Mulago, level 4 Block G surgery department, Maama Sam was registered in the hospital records and for a couple of hours, the assessment was done and she will start to receive her treatment.

By 1:30 PM, Maama Sam was on a bus back to Kasese until 13 September.

Bakka’s Grandma Gets Empowered, Bravo connects her with the Community

Sometimes, we cry because life’s sorrows have become chronic, filling our life like unwelcome houseguests who just won’t leave. Other times, we cry because some unexpected misery lands like a meteor and carves a crater in our soul. And still other times, we cry and don’t know quite why; the grief evades description and analysis.

In the book of Psalms, chapter 30:5 says that weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

The first visit to the Ghetto land was based on a sad account now a few weeks later, the Bravo Shoes Community Support Team carried good news back to Nalunkuuma Teopista, the grandmother of Geraldine Rahim Bakka, a 4-year-old boy who trended on the social media for bad reasons.

At the age of four (4), the fatherless Bakka was in the bad books of the local authorities and the Police for allegedly participating in deadly robberies executed at night.

Bakka was probably fending for his family in which his mother Namugerwa Rebecca 24, a mother of 2 who is rotting on her sick bed in a place, now a paradise to them called the Ghetto Land situated in the wetland in Kibumbiro Busega along the Northern Bypass.

Our ardent follower, Regina Seyire through Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation (BSCSO) was the guardian angel who heard her cry.

Monday was a blissful day for grandma Nalunkuuma with a sigh of relief after receiving the capital to run her dream business.

Based on the previous experience of our first visit, Nalunkuuma raised her daughter (Namugerwa Rebecca) single-handedly in the house of a relative without a serious income.

“She has been sick for 4 months. She can’t move without aid. I struggle to get what to eat or pay school fees because I can’t live alone to look for something to work. If I manage to get some clothes to wash, it is the only way we survive,” she said previously.

Today, Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation spearheaded the revolution to change Bakka’s family, his tears were not in vain.

Nalunkuuma will now vend charcoal and serve the community which hated her most and she has since buried the hatchet and hoping to start a new chapter in her life.

Thanks go to Gadimba Fagaro, the Secretary for Environment and Development, Kibumbiro LC Zone B who has been the link between the organization and the family which is still in dire need of help.

Gadimba took Nalunkuuma and the team around the community to get a glimpse of how the business of charcoal works, she also had to do goodwill by offering free services to cater to her tomorrow’s client.

Though catching the smile of Nalunkuuma on spot takes a while, it was due when the track of charcoal arrived and the community seem to have welcomed Nalunkuuma’s new lease of life and face.

The onus is upon her to live the life the community is over demanding from her family, luckily, there was Bravo Shoes Community Support to make this come true.

Bravo Shoes Community Organisation Support organization founder Yesigye Brian said that the organization came in to help market the business to the community.

“This lady said she can hand this type of business and our coming here was to wrap up, we go to the communities and we market and give to some of her friends to help her connect to the community. This is why we are here,” he said.

Free Bravo Tips to Nalunkuuma

According to Yesigye Brian Bravo, marketing your business is very important and today, he took her through on how to market her business.

“We are going to distribute part of it to some communities around so that they can be able to connect back with her. Because of the bad images with her, we believe everything has been made better,” he explained adding

“ I told her that whenever a customer comes here, mothers will always send children to buy charcoal, food and everything so I told her it is a small tactic when you are marketing your business, if the child comes, you are able to hand over the business to the young ones, when you give them, they are the same who come and support her,” he said.

The organization bought some of the biscuits to help Nalunkuuma to market her business.

Before we could move to the community with Nalunkuuma, her new stall had started attracting customers with anxiety and they wanted to take a sip on this free promotion.

The promotion was led by the Bravo Shoes Community Support Team and Gadimba with Nalunkuuma leading the way to her neighbors for reconciliation and business.

The gesture was received with a glance and Nalunkuuma must be on cloud nine should her business continue receiving the same welcome it is receiving at its inception.

One of the customers caught on the way expressed gratitude and happiness upon receiving free charcoal from Nalunkuuma.

“We are really grateful; we have a big challenge ahead of us but we don’t know. She was a very hard-working lady, they used to be my tenants. They left here and went down there but still, they have been under different challenges, the man left her and she raised her children alone. They have grown up with our children here,” she said.

She said many husbands have abandoned their families and women are suffering hard without help.

Amazing Girl Child Picked from Terego, Abandoned by Mother for 8 Years

Getting a girl on a random visit to this West Nile district of Terego was akin to chasing a wild deer for its safety from the fangs of the youthful lion.

It was a very hard day for Aseru Sharon the 8-year-old girl but a wonderful day and a blessing for the community and the Bravo Shoes Community Team.

Fast backward, as the team embarked on the long journey to West Nile, it started as a normal day but with a twist of events along the way including taking a divergent route away from the recommended route that goes through Murchison Falls National Park.

As the clock ticks, we embark on a 9-hour-long journey to Arua, a strategic position for our plans to storm the Terego district to execute our mission.

We were advised to take the Masindi- Packwach- Arua route through Murchison National Park, a fine road instead of the usual Hoima-Masindi-Kigumba-Bweyale-Karuma-Pakwach-Nebbi-Arua which is under construction.

From Kampala, it takes approximately 4-6 hours (305 km) to drive to Murchison Falls National Park headquarters at Paraa (85km from Masindi). The most direct route to Murchison National Park from Kampala is through the southern gates (Kichumbanyobo and Masindi South Gate).

Before we could embark on this new route recommended, nature forced us to stop at the popular junction in Masindi after River Kafu to grab something to eat still in the morning hours. We were not alone……

After reaching Kichumbanyobo and Masindi South Gate, we had to pay some fees to access Packwach through the national park.

On this smooth drive in Murchison Falls Park, you can see an abundance of wildlife such as large herds of buffaloes, giraffes, elephants, lions, elusive leopards – at times, Spotted Hyenas, Warthogs and many antelopes, such as Jackson’s hartebeest, Bushbucks, Uganda Kob, Waterbucks, and the hippos at the tributaries of the Nile welcome you on entry to Packwach among other amazing creatures.

Murchison Falls National Park is simply a great place to explore especially if you have a few days – it gives you a chance to see so much in a very short time.

The green savanna and these animals are amazing to look at, the families of baboons are spotted along the way in territories seated in family meetings.

The gigantic elephants and giraffes with their little ones spotted along the way come out from their hidings enjoying dinner and warthogs take the expediting mission watching over strangers looming over their territories every day.

Game drives last for about 2 and a half – 3 hours in length but you have the option to either keep it shorter as long as your entry permit is still valid.

Packwach district is another marvel to watch, seated is a very long hot, green-less and flat terrain land with identical architectural visibility of fine-looking huts commonly called (manyatas).

From the left to the right, the architecture was the same and their enemy appears to be the same, in this climatic threat condition, they still cut down trees to burn charcoal to survive and this looks to be the biggest export from this district.

We continued through Yumbe and Nebbi, and the journey was exhausting but we had to continue up to Arua where we finally had a stopover at Bambo Restaurant and Bar for directions to Terego where we were informed that we have to endure another 35 Km between Arua to Terego by road. Luckily, we get a guide, Papito!.

Before you reach Terego, Arua has its own story to tell, a booming city with vast opportunities for the entire West Nile region.

Transport solution to people is mainly open on cargo trucks, people risk sitting on top of trucks to access their work points.

According to Papito, these people flock from nearby districts every day to come and work in Arua, no wonder Arua city is a hub of opportunities with huge investments from the government and the private sector.

Located at the confluence of a trade route between Uganda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Arua City is a hub of trade and commerce with vast investment and tourism opportunities.

Arua City is one of the newest cities established by the Parliament of Uganda on 28th April 2020 as a Regional City for the West Nile sub-region and became operational on 1st July 2020.

It is bordered by the Democratic Republic of Congo on the west, Maracha District in the North, Terego District in the East, Arua District, and Madi Okollo District on the South and South East respectively.

Spotting Aseru Sharon

On hitting the dusty road from Arua as we were reaching Terego, a town call Aii-Vun, the same route reaches Yumbe, before the dust settles, we spot two young girls coming from fetching water, one of them sees the car and waves.

To their surprise, the car stops as they sense danger! their instincts were true, the Bravo Shoes Community Team seem to have identified a girl child from Terego. We quickly try to see where this girl was coming from.

The young girls run for their dear lives and all the water they fetched gets poured and the jerrycan gets spoilt. Very fast as they could, they live with us and we could only spot the traces of water until we reached their home.

Aseru’s grandmother Regina Azikulu was ready to defend her grandchild to the teeth, what would happen to her now yet she has been after taking care of her for the last 8 years without a single scar on her body.

Aseru has a mother but she was abandoned when she was 3 months old and never returned home, the grandmother said.

What changed the whole story, was the Bravo Shoes Support Team leader Yesigye Brian broke the news to the grandmother that Aseru is going to school until she finishes the university.

At this moment of time, the shy Aseru had smiles all over her and the story of her life has just started to change from taking care of goats at home to the regional representative of an empowered girl child in school.

The grandmother Regina Azikulu got some relief, out of the 8 (eight) grandchildren she takes care of as a peasant farmer in Terego, at least 1 (one) is going to attain a better education up to the unprecedented levels missing in the community.

However, we don’t know what is going on with her close friend Patricia Hope, a 10-year-old primary student.

We pray that someone outside there should come and rejoin these two children for a common purpose.

Earlier, the community got concerned and they raised eyebrows to the authorities. In fact, the area Youth Council Faiza Esizo called Officer in Charge (OC) to come and save the situation.

As the dust settled, Faiza and the elders commended Bravo Shoes Support Organisation for visiting their area and they wish they team could come back for more.

“Here the parents are not supportive, we are looking for partners to come and support the girl child. They look at the girl as a factory to grow tobacco. They can even raise money to buy scholastic materials,” she said.

A study of girls’ education by the International Center for Research on women in West Nile, reveals that the reasons for high dropout rates are much more complex than the commonly stated factors of child marriage and pregnancy.

The research on Women and partner organizations interviewed over 800 girls aged 14-18 in the community on questions related to conditions in their homes, education opportunities, and gender roles.

The study revealed that 30 percent of the girls surveyed had left school. Even though 25 percent of girls surveyed had already had sex, less than 50 percent knew how to prevent pregnancy.

Terego is a district in Uganda’s Northern Region. It is located approximately 360 square kilometers (140 sq mi) northwest of Uganda’s capital Kampala.

According to Papito a professional tour guide, the capital of the district is the trading center of Leju in Aii-Vu Sub-County and it has a lot of historical attachment to the people.

Terego District covers an area of 1,102 square kilometers (425 sq mi) and recorded a population of 199,303 in the 2014 Ugandan census. Terego District also hosts an estimated 168,000 refugees, mostly from South Sudan, in the Imvepi Refugee Settlement and the western zones of the Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in the district.

Popular with tobacco fields across the roads, Terego district is contiguous with the former Terego County, which was part of the Arua District until 2006. That year, Maracha and Terego Counties were separated from Arua District to form Maracha–Terego District. After nearly five years of disagreement on where the headquarters of the new district should be located, Terego County opted to return to Arua District, leaving Maracha County to form Maracha District on its own. In May 2020, Parliament approved the creation of Terego District, which went into effect on 1 July 2020.

Standing on the cliff of Judgement

What a naughty world! Once a symbol of joy, hope, and happiness, now surrendered to the wolves in the middle of the wilderness.

His candlelight is deemed at a thread size, blown by the wind from all directions whereas his future is turning darker every day.

He was swaddled, cuddled, kissed, tickled breastfed, and covered in his baby days…..now twelve months later, he is on his own hunting to survive on his own and his family before his time.

The vultures of the world are already taking him for a snack.

His age mates are somewhere in school learning the alphabet and the right spelling of their names but Geraldine Rahim Bakka, a 4-year-old boy is trending and tossed like a tennis ball in the arena of the bully world all over the internet.

At the age of four (4), the fatherless Bakka is already in the bad books of the local authorities and the Police for allegedly participating in deadly robberies executed between 9 PM and midnight while his age mates are cuddled to grasp a quick sleep to catch up with school the following day.

He has since stood in the interrogations chambers while his mother Namugerwa Rebecca 24, a mother of 3 is rotting on her sick bed helpless in a single room with her mother Nalunkuuma Teopista in a place called Ghetto Land situated in the wetland in Kibumbiro Busega along Northern Bypass.

The Bravo Shoes Community Support team took to the field for the fact-finding mission about Bakka’s situation and why he is a victim of circumstances.

Innocent as he looks, the young soul is truly in a dilemma because neither his family nor the community is ready to transform him.

A Visit to Nateete Police Station was a day to reckon with, the busiest office probably is room 08, a family unit section with ladies being frequent visitors. One interesting case though is a lady who comes in with a baby probably two to three months.

It is alleged that the baby was abandoned in the bag and the lady was sheltering the baby temporarily, away from that,

One Police officer we shall not mention her name here confirms that the file of Bakka was entered into the police records and the investigations were going on smoothly to arrest whoever was using him to steal people. At the time, they had two similar cases including that of Bakka.

Bravo Shoes Community Support team manages to reach out to the section in charge on a call but it wasn’t fruitful. However, the good news was that he was in the right hands of authorities with another organization hoping to help him, the National Children’s Authority.

Going to Kibumbiro LC offices, we interact with the area councilor Damba Sande, he acknowledges that the video going viral over the internet was captured by someone with personal intentions.

“Someone recorded it here. He was standing here when interrogated. I could not believe whatever was said about the kid. I told the OC to use the kid to arrest the perpetrators. We have an organization called the Ghetto land. The family is ware about everything happening around this kid,” he said.

According to Ddamba, there is a likelihood that the kid is coached and trained in robbery missions by criminal-minded people because, at his age, he fears the Police.

Gaddimba Fagaro, the Secretary for Environment and Development, Kibumbiro LC Zone B explained that the family has a criminal history, and apparently the status of the family is in dire need of help.

According to Nalunkuuma, she raised her daughter single-handedly in the house of a relative and it is a huge blow to her being in such a situation and being a victim of circumstance with everything around her family.

“She has been sick for 4 months. She can’t move without aid. I struggle to get what to eat or pay school fees because I can’t live alone to look for something to work. If I manage to get some clothes to wash, it is the only way we survive,” she said.

Gaddimba later led us to the Ghetto Land where the Bakka family is situated, the swampy area located near the Northern bypass is a habitat of about 500 people with 367 claiming ownership of plots demarcated in this forbidden and guarded territory feared by many on the allegation that it houses criminal people.

In this territory, bushy and swampy it is, one cannot doubt that other creatures find pleasure in it just like these humans. Being bushy wet, you can’t doubt if someone tells you that this is yet another habitat for creatures like frogs and snakes among others.

However, Isaac Katamba the uncle to Bakka found peace in this most feared area, his current house and the future 3-storeyed mansion are a dream to come through.

Shssss!……Whispering to the Deaf!

Digging out for wealth, here lies a bunch of special people with special abilities you could ever find; dancers, farmers, engineers, doctors and great leaders.

From the fine tarmac that stretches through Ntinda to Nakawa from Kampala, opposite the fancy buildings, banks and vast supermarkets lie a dusty-quiet facility of people different from you – call them the hearing impaired persons!

Ntinda is well known to attract big shots in government, expatriates and high-income-earning Ugandans, basically, the cream in society, majorly because it has few slums but….It is also the home of Uganda School for the Deaf, the first of a kind in Uganda.

The school was established in 1959 by the Uganda Society for the Deaf at Namirembe Hill on leased land from the church of Uganda though it started in 1952 in a single room behind Mengo SS.

However, in the 1970s, President Idd Amin Dada donated this land and laid a foundation stone. The school has 2 classroom blocks that house classes from Nursery to Primary, two side dormitories for girls and boys and the administration block.

Off the noisy road just adjacent to the main entrance, the dust was speaking very louder than the green world inside the quiet environment.

Uganda School for the Deaf is a government-aided Primary School bringing together all categories of Deaf children, including Deaf children with multiple disabilities.

Here we meet our first contact with great hospitality, Yvonne Babirye the 8-year-old who just lost her twin sister a year ago. Babirye could not hide the joy upon seeing the Bravo Shoes Community Support Team,

Flying high in the palms, uniform bubbling voices and naked smiles from the cute-looking souls

Babirye is one of the 250 students attending this school, her parents discovered that she was deaf after one year and they tried to save their daughter but in vain. She is now a student among other 25 students in a similar condition.

“Yvonne, her parents followed up after one year and proceeded to Mulago but it is always difficult to reverse and through a connection of other parents, Yvonne joined this year,” said the Head Teacher Juliet Mary Tumuhairwe.

According to Tumuhairwe, many of the students here come through connections mainly from fellow parents, schools and different non-government organisations.

“These children are all connected somehow, through parent to parent, through organisations and mosques while others are identified in ordinary schools. We send them to an audiologist in Mulago.” She said.

The school offers a special curriculum to the deaf community and additional vocational studies from Nursery to Primary Seven.

“The education to the deaf has not been in vain, they have excelled in academics and vocational and many have graduated and become responsible people in Uganda,” she said.

However, not so many have passed with flying colours and many need an extra hand to aid performance. Tumuhairwe says it is expensive because every child needs a transcriber and some students may not be able to interpret some signals in order to compete favourably with normal people in the academic spheres.

The Lip Reader

Lip-reading (sometimes called speechreading) is the ability to understand speech by carefully watching the lip patterns and movement of the tongue and face

Teacher Nakaggwa Priscilla is a deaf instructor at Uganda School for the Deaf and partly deaf since she was 13 years old, her zeal is to change the deaf community into a meaningful world using her teaching skill.

According to Nakaggwa, she was not born deaf but when she was 13 years old, she developed hearing challenges.

“My deafness was a process, I wasn’t born deaf I had learnt some words but later became deaf,” she said

Nakaggwa says that everyone is a candidate for this problem because some people get into accidents and others don’t know how they became deaf. It could be genetic from either the father or the mother.

The enthusiastic Nakaggwa never lost hope, she commands her last strength into teaching and resurrecting hope for children.

“I want to work hard to build a strong foundation for the deaf and support deaf families. There are a lot of challenges and I want to advocate for deaf children. Everything is possible with God,” said Nakaggwa.

Catherine Nantumbwe, a medical practitioner on a volunteer basis and a caretaker at the Boy’s Dormitory describes the experience with the deaf community as interesting. She says that her time at Uganda School for the Deaf has turned her into an adorable mother.

“I treat them, they come to me with thanks and asking a lot of questions like can I one day become a nurse or a doctor?…. I say you can, then they ask….can I really manage?….one day one of them asked why do you want us in class?” she explained.

Dilapidated Buildings

Over 60 years ago, the structures have since gotten tired, according to the Head Teacher Juliet Mary Tumuhairwe, the school has been serving deaf learners and deaf-blind children and it is now very old and needs a lot of rehabilitation.

“It is very old and we need a lot to rehabilitate; desks, the ceiling is licking, the dormitories and the ground is dusty in which we need walkways and the sick bay needs drugs,” she cried out.

Tumuhairwe adds that the school has additional non-teaching staff and they need logistical intervention.

She called upon parents to do more home projects that will help the students to learn other income-related activities.

Uganda has close to 2 million deaf persons making up 2.9% of the population as per the Uganda Bureau of Statistics report with 95% of adults estimated not to have been at school at all.

It is also estimated that 90% 0f the deaf are born to hearing parents where the main language is spoken language but not sign language and as a result, 80% of these children born deaf have a language first on their sixth birthday.

40% of deafness results from infection and diseases such as meningitis and malaria, among others; most of which are curable diseases.

Genetic reasons account for 5% of causes of deafness, 10% accounting for the results of accidents and physical mistreatment; damages and diseases during pregnancy and labour taking a whole 30% with 15% causes of deafness unknown

Section 7(3) (a) and (b) of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2006; require sign language to be introduced in the curriculum for medical personnel and also interpreters to be included in the hospital organisation structures. However, the above provisions have not been complied with in so many institution structures.

New Kid on the Block Kigenyi Surfaces in Bugiri

A story about the bus, a beautiful woman and a white hankie. Listening to Doro-Dosa, a popular title of a song that does not live off Collin Kigenyi’s mouth.

If you are to capture a few picks away from this song, it is moderately expensive at Kigenyi’s standards; at the cost of either a chapati or a bottle of soda, you may have Kigenyi’s attention and he will give you the full lyrics of this song.

Listening to this song, a few highlights you fall in love with is a narration of how Colin meets his love on the bus and he offers his only treasure. That is a white hankie!

Colin Kigenyi is a 9-year-old boy who claims to be in Primary two at Busowa Primary School in Busowa Town Council, Bugiri District yet he has only managed to sit down in an active class a couple of times.

Like Sam Bright MUHINDO, Kigenyi also surfaced on social media singing Doro- Dosa in exchange for chapati.

The journey to Bugiri started earlier from Kampala and we needed to reach Bugiri to catch our contact a one Oluja Brian, an upcoming artist who captured Kigenyi on phone doing hi gig before we could head to Butebi, Budunduli Sub County.

Along the way, there is a lot to pick out on the resilience the people from the Eastern part of Uganda has to offer for survival. Apart from boda bodas, yards of rice, zero grazing animals and roadside glossary markets offers a grand welcome.

Besides businesses, well-structured grass thatched homesteads and subsistence farming form the greatest part of the population in many homes.

As we reached another grass thatched homestead with 5 (five) small houses, one of them was Collin Kigenyi’s home. The Bravo Shoes Community Support Team arrived and parked in the compound. It is obvious, nobody expected us home.

On reaching home, the singing bird was away, his mother Farida Nangobi was available but he had to move around looking for Kigenyi to greet his visitors from Kampala.

Kigenyi was traced a distance away from home. Yes, he is a boy! He was spotted in his black dress snacking two slices of ovacado.

“Ndemye!  Ndemye!” he said that word repeatedly upon seeing his mother with a group of strangers. After taking a while, he discovered that the strangers were not alone but also had camera with a uniform attire. He posed a bit!

Kigenyi was full of life, upon seeing the Bravo Shoes car, the young man shouted! “Aye Motoka!….motoka erimu omusadha!” admiring the children on the stickers with Bravo Shoes before everyone busted into laughter.

His first request from his visitors was a slice of chapati but wait a minute……he was trying to locate a friend called Reagan, unfortunately Reagan was not home.

“This is a car, it has chapati and shoes,” that was Kigenyi’s physical observation

However, through hours of interaction, Kigenyi had a situation which is very strange! He could hardly settle in one place. Something strange about this boy!

“Mum…. where are you, me I want to go to Bugiri with the car. Where is the soap? Let me bath we go to Busowa (nearby town) after here I will go buy chapati,” indeed Kigenyi has an unusual condition and we had to do something.

After taking bath, we asked his mother on what happened to her son, she said malaria and tetanus affected his son.

Nangobi Farida who is also a councilor representative for People with the 43-year-old mother of 12 children of which 3 have since died, took us through her days with Kigenyi.

“He was diagnosed with tetanus and malaria when he was 3 months, he started developing ceases up to now. He can hardly settle in one place. He keeps disturbing people wherever he goes, he like chapati and hardly want to eat food,” he said.

Kigenyi’s unfortunate bit is that his father Watendera abandoned the family 4 years ago leaving 3 other siblings after failing to settle with Kigenyi condition, she alleges.

Nangobi has no permanent job to feed her family and Kigenyi was at school once where his teachers also find difficulty to deal with his condition.

An elder by the names Antoni Kamwenya who is also the Secretary for PWD concluded that the boy has an abnormal condition for the time he has interacted with the family.

Bravo Shoes Community Support Team Take Kigenyi to Jinja Hospital for Assessment

Upon reaching Jinja Hospital the nearby referral hospital mental health department, Bravo Shoes Community Support Team interacted with Sam Ssabagereka the head of the mental health department and a psychological officer.

Ssabagereka examined Kigenyi and came up with the following from his assessment. He asked him a couple of basic questions about his mother.

“Do you know her?….” “Ye Farida…” he replied,

“How do you call her”  “Farida,”

Kigenyi mother explained his condition to the medical officer and he came to a conclusion.

“This man has a small brain. The brain is growing slowly at his age. He is having epilepsy and intellectual disability. He is physically ok and we can build on his physical ability to get something good out of him,” said Ssabagereka.

The good news according to Ssabagereka , Kigenyi can recover from epilepsy if he sticks to the prescribed treatment. He said that he can be initiated on the skilling program and learn from there.

“His rate of learning is low, we have to put him on treatment to stop seizures everyday,” he said.

Ssabagereka said that such children are exploited and end up over working which causes seizures at night.

“Noise, overworking, anger. He has to rest such that he is not over worked,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bravo Shoes Community Support Team offered to support his treatment which was scheduled for every 28th of every month.

Kigenyi is unfortunate that he can’t find a school for people with special needs like him in Bugiri unless he can afford one in Kampala.

According to his doctor, the intellectual disability condition is permanent and advised that his parents need to understand that Kigenyi can not sit in the same class like others.  common causes of childhood epilepsy include brain tumors or cysts and degenerative disorders (progressive and deteriorating conditions, often associated with loss of brain cells). There is an important difference between something that causes seizures, such as a high fever in a young child, and something that causes epilepsy, such as a severe head injury.

Thrown in the Desert Island: How Bravo Shoes Community Support Discovered a Soul Born Out of Incest

If this was a well-kept secret, it is an elephant. Tracing the innocent young victim of circumstance and saving him from the cocoon of conservativeness and fire judgement, was not for the heart fainted.

On our journey to Budaka, roads led us to Kavule Village Kakoli Subcounty where we tracked a family with suspicions of incest incidence which led to a new unusual human being at home, let’s call him JOHN to avoid stigma.

Incest is an inappropriate sexual activity within the family. It includes relationships between the father and children, the mother and children, brothers and sisters, grandparents and grandchildren, and uncles and aunts with nephews and nieces. The average age of incest victims is approximately 11 years old, with the majority of victims experiencing their first encounter between the ages of 5 and 8. Incest is rarely a one-time incident.

It evolves over time into various types of sexual activity. Incestuous families typically lack social skills and are often isolated from contact with community organizations and other families. The parents are usually not happy with themselves or with each other.

By Ugandan standards, you would expect people to have big hearts. They are welcoming, warm-hearted, and hospitable people who not only give a place on their dining table but have loads of respect for their guests as well.

On reaching Kavule, it was the opposite, the Bravo Shoes Community Support Team was welcomed with interrogations and suspicious eyes. Usually, there is no road in the home according to the African setting but this was the opposite. Something here was not going right!

With courtesy we identified ourselves and why we had come.

“How are you,” Yesigye Bravo greeted a young man in a white sleeve with shots. Did he respond positively with an intriguing question? On why we are here!  Before Madina Nawula the 48-year-old grandmother and the head of the homestead came into the picture.

Where is John? They bring John, a 7-year-old boy!

How are you, John? Am fine, he replies

Do you want to go to school; he says yes! Before his grandmother shows up!

“Am the grandmother, his mum is not home, she got married elsewhere. We don’t know the father of John but I can’t abandon him,” she said before explaining the circumstances which forced her daughter to disappear from home.

The family of sixteen members lost a father a few years ago. It has homesteads with the main home and seven other grass-thatched houses belonging to grown-up youths.

One of John’s uncles Maki Abubakar said that his sister, Aisa Naula got pregnant between 2012 and 2013 while she was in Primary 7.

“She got at 16 years, she got ashamed because she still in school and decided to keep quiet on who is responsible for the pregnancy. She didn’t tell us, when they press her, she said she will commit suicide if they keep asking her,” Maki explained.

However, neither Madina nor Maki rule out the possibility of incest unfortunately for her according to the family, Aisa refused to speak up and went on to get married where she gave birth to 3 other children before she left that marriage to go and exile herself in Kampala.

“We left her and we chose to take care of the kid. We have never seen anyone claiming paternity,” Madina explained with concern.

Asked if the cases are common in Budaka, Madina further explained in the affirmative without ruling out that her stepdaughter could have been the victim as well.

“These cases are common here; it could be true but we have no proof yet. People here do these things,” she added.

In order to confirm this allegation, the Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation team headed to the Town Council where we caught up with the area LC 1 Chairperson Changu Yakobo.

Yakobo confirmed that in his village of over 800 people, some incest cases have been reported and some of them have been handled in secrecy within the family because people are over-congested in the houses.

“We asked the girl but she said she doesn’t know the owner of the pregnancy. We tell our families to be responsible, where we get cases like these, we punish them. I have so far handled one case in my office in the last 8 years but that doesn’t mean they don’t happen,” he said

Yacobo was happy with the BCSO gesture of taking John to school and applauded the organisation and its efforts to change communities.

John will be taken care of by the Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation team and the school will be identified soon. He dropped out of school during Covid 19 lockdown and he has since not been able to return to difficulties surrounding him.

Recently media reported, a family in Mbale -Eastern Uganda was in turmoil following allegations of incest between a prominent sheikh and his daughter.

Mariam Nagudi accused her husband Sheikh Abdul Karimu Ssemakula of neglecting her and shifting his affection to his 17-year-old daughter Halima Namakula (not a real name).

Under Section 149 of the Penal Code Act, incest is an offence punishable by 7 years in prison. however, if the other person is below 18 years old, the sentence is life in prison. The section stipulates that a person commits incest if they have sexual intercourse with another person with whom, they are biologically related.

The 2014 Annual Police and Traffic Report shows that in 2014, there was an increase of 25 cases of incest compared to 2013. 57 cases were reported in 2014 and 32 in 2013.

In 2017, Police has recorded up to 13 cases of incest in its office in Namutumba district in Eastern Uganda. However, elders say that many of these cases are not reported to the police.

 

Pinky, Sam Bright MUHINDO’s Best Friend Swears in as new Head Girl at King Solomon Junior School

Blessed with a morning shore, Friday 24th was a day to cherish, the Bravo Shoes Ambassador took to the pulpit and made a historical oath to take a charge of over 600 students at King Solomon Junior School in Bulenga, Mityana Road.

Charlene ‘Pinky’ Irunga Kwikiriza a Primary 5 student sworn in as the new incoming Head Girl in the warm company of Sam Bright MUHINDO, the Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation (BSCSO) Education Ambassador, who was a special guest of honor.

“I, Charlene Irunga Kwikiriza, solemnly swear to serve as a prefect, performing my duties without fear or favor. I will abide by all the school rules and regulations as well as act as a good example to all my fellow pupils, so help me God.” She signed out.

They say that leadership comes from God, this teaches that legitimate leaders have authority, in the sense of a right to direct others regardless of their weight or height.

The story of King Solomon in the Bible, book of 1st Kings is interesting, it demonstrates how seemingly a personality and character can transform someone into a responsible person.

According to 1 Kings 3:7-12, “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern these great people of yours?”

The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.  So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice,  I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.

This is the character of Pinky, a 9-year-old charming loving girl, with the embodiment of a distinguished leader and a selfless unselfish being flowing in her veins and blood.

Name someone who cares deeply about others’ well-being but not for their own? I will bring you Pinky

“Specifically, Pink is a person whose only purpose is to help others, not caring about what happens to herself (physically or otherwise), though without actively seeking pain but feeling the pain of others,” said Anne Kaka, the mother of Charlene as she described Pinky.

There are no words that can describe her gratitude towards her daughter but through this essay, I will describe some of the characteristics that make her own role model.

Pinky has already shown this by raising Sam Bright MUHINDO as a young brother by holding his hand from the dungeons of life Bwera- Kyasenda, Kasese District in Western Uganda.

It was an important day in the history of the school and in the life of young Pinky and the day attracted the cameras from KSTV, a local television station.

Sam Bright MUHINDO as a guest of honor had the best gift for his elder sister, he gave his signature dance tune and left the students in amazement with a crowd chanting with imitations.

Sam Bright MUHINDO did not stop at that but he gifted his friend with a customized water bottle bearing a picture of Pinky. It was such a surprise! Before he took snacks in the spirit of appreciation and congratulating his hero.

“Pinky is my best friend, her school is King Solomon Junior School and my School is Namuwaya Education Center, end of quotes Sam Bright MUHINDO told his South African-based friend on a what’s App call after the event.

Charlene ‘Pinky’ Irunga Kwikiriza said that former Woman Member of Parliament Kasese District and NTV’s Farida Nakazibwe her role models who inspire her a lot and hoping to meet Nakazibwe one day after getting a chance to meet with Hon. Winnie Kiiza.

Pinky was able to gift her best friends Christine and Samantha and the Head Prefect with a pair of Bravo Shoes each a gesture that left them speechless.

Her best subject is Science and when it comes to food, KFC is her favorite at any time.

How to Overcome Death, Stigma as an Albino Child in Uganda

On World Albinism Day, Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation was dissecting reports of stigma and witchdoctors in East Africa that have often been linked with the killing and dismembering of albinos for their body parts, for charms. It is alleged that they use parts of the bodies to make charms that they believe can make … Read more