It's Tuesday and some of us had the opportunity to visit a slum area of Kampala this morning. Helen and I were guided round by Joel, a Tigers boy who began living on the street of Kampala as a 10 year old, when he found his mother couldn't afford to feed her seven children. Nothing could have prepared us for what we experienced, and the sights and smells cannnot easily be conveyed in words. There were latrines running through the slums full of excrement, food waste and general garbage, and families were packed under tiny corrugated tin roofs. One moment you were walking through an area of millet being dried, the next you were dodging chicken scraps swarming with flies.
Joel took us to one area housing hundreds of refugees from the north of the country. In most cases the men had been killed in the fighting between the LRA and government troops, and the women and children had fled the displacement camps. Disease was rife and there was a real hopelessness about these people. On a couple of occasions we were shown young children with horrendous sores or growths and felt totally helpless as their mothers stared at us longing that we might be able to help.
The street boys seek shelter anywhere they can find. Joel used to sleep alongside several other boys in a small room used as a video cinema uring the day. Others would sleep in doorways or scrap metal yards.
It was an emotionally draining experience for both of us and reminded us once again of the significance of 'Tigers club' work. They can't possibly help of all of the people living in poverty in the Kampala slums, but they can make a difference to a few street boys' lives.

Paul