Abandoned children blessed with a new home.

From our last conversation with him, about UGX 1,500,000/= [One Million five hundred thousand Uganda Shillings] had been collected in cash and kind.

Today we share another story of generosity, driven by the power of social media through big, bold and brave giving.

A video story that was reported by BBS Tv, about the plight of household knitted together by a teenager, looking after her siblings after both parents had abandoned them, went viral on a social platform WhatsApp. In a particular WhatsApp group, A Law Development Center (LDC) lecturer, identified as Mulalira Faisal was touched and moved to tears, after viewing the clip of the teenager, struggling to shelter, and feed her siblings in the Central region of Nakaseke District.

Faisal was not the only one moved, his own peers in the group also got concerned and sought for a way to help the distressed children access basic needs such as food and shelter. The group asked Faisal to take lead in the mobilization drive, since he had previously undertaken a similar effort.  

“I was moved to tears as I watched the video,” confessed Faisal.

How Parent abandoned them.

One day, the children returned home from school only to find that their mother had left for an unknown destination. Later, their father also left for work in the city, and they have not heard from him since. It has been four years of Susan a 16-year-old teenager, caring for her siblings with the youngest being about four years of age now.

During the period, they have lived in a make-shift house made of rusty iron sheets, whose roof leaks on rainy days and nights, forcing them to stand in a corner for shelter till the rain stops. The structure they call home is very hot by day and very cold by night. They had no beddings and slept on the floor. The community they live in had given all they could and were unable to help anymore, being vulnerable themselves.

Help comes through

Counsel (as he is fondly known) Mulalira Faisal took to his social media pages to mobilize resources to construct a permanent home for the children. From our last conversation with him, about UGX 1,500,000/= [One Million five hundred thousand Uganda Shillings] had been collected in cash and kind. Beddings and food were donated to the children. The house is currently at the roofing level, meaning that soon, the children will have a decent house to call their own.   

Faisal also emphasized the need to keep the children within the community in order not to cause any emotionally daunting experiences they may face if separated from the community they are familiar with.

Special thanks went to the area Local Council Chairperson and the Member of Parliament of Nakaseke South County, Hon. Paulson Rutamaguzi for raising awareness about these children’s plight. For Faisal, this is a fulfillment of a commitment he made to himself; to take on one or two of such causes each year to give back to God in gratitude of the gift of life he still enjoys. Beyond giving them a home, he envisages getting schools for the children within the community and equipping Susan, the head of the household with income generating skills to support the family.