In Ugandan slum, an oasis for children

Community center satisfies young minds, and hunger

(Catherine Reznikoff photo)
In the Kamwokya slum, it is common to see children roaming the muddy roads.

Catherine Reznikoff, a resident of West Falmouth, is a professor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin Medical School. She recently returned from a trip to Uganda.

By Catherine Reznikoff

Jan. 13, 2009

KAMPALA, Uganda -- Kamwokya is one of the poorest slums in Uganda’s capital with a heartbreakingly low standard of living and teeming with 73,000 people. I arrived here this month with a check, 15 handmade quilted sewing kits for the vocational college, clothing for the slum children, and a huge suitcase full of sandals –- the seventh bag I’ve brought here so far.

And yet, I know all of this will hardly be enough.

One bright spot in this place is the Kamwokya Christian Caring Center, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization founded 20 years ago by community leaders. The center helps the sick, the poor, and the marginalized, especially orphans and other vulnerable children as well as 9,500 people affected by HIV/AIDS. It now serves tens of thousands through its medical clinic, grammar school, vocational training college, community youth center, many foster homes, and other programs.

Up close, I could see this is a place of hope.

I discovered the center on a visit to Kampala in 2007. When I returned home to Massachusetts, I sought ways to help the the center. A presentation I made at my Anglican parish, the Church of the Messiah, in Woods Hole, along with the help of my family and friends, resulted in enough funds to later send 77 children to the center’s grammar school. In addition, women at my church donated much-needed sewing supplies to the vocational college. Later I was invited to give a talk sponsored by the Women’s Forum of the United Nations Association of Greater Boston, whose mission is to address issues facing women in developing countries. Donations collected at this talk were for buying sewing machines in Uganda for the vocational college.

I returned to the center in Kampala this month to present all of the donated money and supplies and to meet the children we had helped sponsor.

Charles Sserunjogi Musoke, one of the founders of the vocational college, drove me through the village to the college. Riding through the slum, I was overwhelmed by the poverty. The abodes are hardly even shacks. The children, barefoot, dirty, and wearing rags, ran through the muddy roads. Women carrying babies and heavy baskets walked purposefully through the streets, and the men more often sat listlessly in front of what passes here for homes.

At the vocational college, the staff assured me that the donations would be used responsibly. The programs include carpentry, bricklaying, leatherworks, catering, art and design, and tailoring. A tour of the facilities showed the quality of the work, as well as ongoing needs in every program. For example, the leatherworks program needs a heavy-duty sewing machine to replace one that broke. The carpenter needs more tools for his growing class, and the entire staff expressed hopes for more computers -- they share one. I also learned that while 80 percent of the incoming students couldn’t read or write, all are enrolled in the adult literacy class and most are literate by graduation. And all the youth are counseled on safe sex practices.


(Catherine Reznikoff photo)
Children in Kamwokya greeted Catherine Reznikoff and Charles Sserunjogi Musoke, director of the vocational college.

Later I met Stephen Kiwanuka, headmaster of the primary school. It is a sturdy concrete and iron structure. The school staff proudly showed me each cheerfully decorated classroom. The largest class, first grade, squeezes 96 children into the room and the smallest, seventh grade, has 56, still a tight fit. Most of the students are Kamwokya's orphans and vulnerable children –- like the children I saw running in the streets. Also attending are many orphans rescued from the streets. How hard it must be to turn children away because of lack of funds and space.

In the cooking hut, two meals are prepared on school days for the 557 students. The children get a bowl of hot porridge in the morning. At noon they are served a balanced meal. This is the only food that many of them eat. They also receive uniforms, books, and school supplies. Shoes are required, so it was wise of me to have lugged the sandals. The headmaster told me that the children come running into school on Monday mornings and leave reluctantly on Friday afternoons. Truancy is not a problem here.

At the end of the day, Headmaster Kiwanuka and I talked about our greatest worry, sustainability. He gave me a folder of photos and “write to us” notes for me to give to friends back home from children who need support to continue school.

In this time of world economic crisis, donations are down. But President Obama has called us to greater sacrifice, generosity, and service. The hopes and the needs of the children in the Kamwoyka slum are enormous.

For more information on the Kamwokya Christian Caring Center, contact director Francis Mbaziira at kamccc@kamccc.org. To learn how you can contribute to the Passport blog, contact the Globe's assistant foreign editor, Kenneth Kaplan, at k_kaplan@globe.com.