If you take a rove in most of Uganda’s slums, you will encounter quite a number of single and young mothers trying so hard to make ends meet for their children who with or with no resources, will work tooth and nail to give a life to their children. However, some are forced to leave their children to the mercy of fate due to unbearable circumstances and as a result,the children end up on streets and engage in activities such as sex work, theft, drug abuse, name it.
Having grown up in Namuwongo, one of the biggest slums in Kampala where he experienced the harsh reality of growing up under the care of a single mother in a place characterised by devastation and hopelessness, Ronald Eligu, a first year student of Social Sciences at Makerere University decided to become a ray of hope and light to these young mothers and children in his slum community.
“I have been in the slum since 2004 and I have witnessed the struggles single and young mothers go through, I had never experienced such until my father passed away when I was in primary three. I had the bitter taste being brought up by a single and unemployed mother” says Eligu.
Eligu who was lucky to attain an education at a community centre in Namuwongo called Ray of Hope which pushed him up to senior six says that the circumstances that surround the youngsters who live in slums are an obstacle to them realizing their dreams and working toward achieving them.
“After completion of senior six, I came back in the slum since I had been in boarding section back at school but what I found in the slum wasn’t pleasant as all the people I used to study with at the community center had turned to sex work in Kabalagala, my sister inclusive. Most of the boys had resorted to taking drugs. I needed to bring hope.” Eligu says.
He started an organization called “Guardian Angel Foundation Uganda” based in Namuwongo to address the plight of young women and youth in slums with an intent to change their mentality about financial independence, sex life, relationships and how they can be better in life. The organization also offers academic scholarships for the underprivileged children in slums.
Consequently, under Guardian Angel Foundation Uganda as the umbrellA, ” Touch the Slum Project” was birthed as their first project to create more awareness in the community, help the people to face their challenges, empower the youth, the eldery and show the young girls that prostitution is not the only way to survive.
“We are currently offering vocational skills training to single mothers to equip them with hands on skills so that after they have acquired the skills, they can be able to start their own small businesses to make money for themselves. So far we have taught the girls how to make soap and many are progressing and we are going into micro- businesses which will involve starting up small businesses for the young mothers and empower them more” Says Eligu.
Currently, in this COVID-19 pandemic, Eligu and his team still under “Touch the Slum Project “, have managed to reach out to the elderly and the vulnerable families who have people living with HIV in Namuwongo slum which they have choosen to start with and shall spread to other slum areas.
“We have provided food to over 200 people, provided wonder bags for easy and fuel saving cooking methods, tried to provide medicine to those living with HIV and educated the communities about Coronavirus. We have taught them how to keep safe and have done this for three months now” Eligu remarks.
Eligu hopes to create an ecosystem that is self sustaining and strong enough to deal with issues not only in his slum but country wide and also to break the repeated cycle of teenage pregnancies resulting from unemployment, poverty and the youth resorting to sex work, drug abuse and theft yet there are many ways they can make money to survive. His ultimate dream is to see a generation of young mothers who can develop communities beggining with themselves.
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