Six Resettlement Follow-up Visits in an Afternoon!

One morning during the week, Debbie & I were very fortunate to be invited out with Vincent and Moses to go on a number of resettlement follow-up visits - essentially "check-ups" after the boys have been resettled back into their own or new families. Being on Ugandan time, we started our morning visit at 3pm. No surprise and all part of our learning. It did mean we were able to spend several hours with Vince then Moses to find out so much more about the boys, their work and how life really is for them.

However, this post is about the visits!

Jumping into the 4x4 - almost mandatory to negotiate Kampala city pot-holes, nevermind country tracks - we set off to a welding shop close to the Tigers Club. Much of Ugandan business and industry is essentially conducted in small road-side "units", ranging from the buying/selling of food, through electronics, to car/bike repairs and welding/steel working.

The boy we met had been with the welding shop for just 3 months, and though he was shy (sorry forget to write his name down) he was happy to show some of the skills he had mastered and helped weld a few pieces of metal together to create as part of an ornate window covering.

Off from there and on to a Muslim school (yes all faiths catered for by Tigers!) Tigers resettled the boy with his family and now pay for his education to keep him in school. Our entrance created a stir - four visitors and two of them mozungus (white people) - even moer so when we greeted some of them in Lugandan. Unfortunately the boy we were visiting had left for the day (he was doing exams in the morning so was now free to go home). However, we spoke to his teacher who was very proud of the boy, said he was doing well, and that he was now a really "good" boy (perhaps with the hint that that is not how he started!)

Third visit was a similar story. Although we then pressed on to the third boy's home but with no success there either. By this time we were well outside of Kampala and into the countryside. And quite obviously, white people don't travel their often with lots of staring and waves as we passed, as well as shouts of mozungu. At one point, we stopped to ask for directions (they don't really do maps in Uganda) and one of the little children by the road-side (well, muddy track side) greeted us in perfect English "Hello white people", followed by "Good-bye white people" when we moved on.

Boy 4 and another school off the beaten track. This time success and we met Gerald. Gerald had lost his father and ran away but has been resettled with his mother. Gerald, around 12/13, is also funded in school by Tigers, and Tigers also support his mother's small fruit and vegetable business, having helped her establish a source of income to keep her family. This really emphasised the holistic approach Tigers take - it is not about fnding a home for the boys - it is about understanding their family circumstances, understanding why they went on the streets, and making sure the family is supported and not just the child.

Gerald was clearly delighted to be the centre of attention and we gave him a lift home (some considerable distance). We dropped him off, waved our good-bye and Vince and Moses decided we had time for one more visit!

This time we headed off on a dirt track road anfd kept going further into the country-side surrounding Kampala. We had monkeys jump across the road, as well as more interested children - felt like the queen with all the waving. (We waved to the kids, not the monkeys, just in case anyone was wondernig.)

After turning off the major dirt road onto the minor dirt road, we found a couple of shacks (single room buildings) where Sam had been resettled with his Grandmother. This was both the point where we started to appreciate the sheer poverty in Uganda, and also that things don't always work perfectly for Tigers and these follow-up visits are essential to ensure the stability and long-term success of resettlement. It was also the point where Debbie and I, and even Moses and Vince, were shown what real faith and belief in God is about.

Sam ran away when his mother died and his father took to alcohol, and unfortunately, the beating of his children. Sam was resettled with his Grandmother - a small, lady who looked well into her 70's but was in fact only 55. This amazing woman had taken Sam as well as three other children and was now bringing them up. She had no source of income but had managed to keep her whole family going, making sure the children had food. Her response in talking to her was that she prasied God and believed he would always provide for them.

Vince explained that he had looked for ways of establishing an income stream for them - pigs, cows, chicken - but these took too much space for their small plot of land. Tigers were continuing to look to find a way to support this deeply religous and faithful Grandmother.

The bad news on the visit was that Sam had stopped going to school. He found it too far to go. Vince was clearly upset by this news - almost caring for each child as his own. He vowed to find a closer school and to get Sam back in education. A follow-up was clearly needed to support this family.

The sun was starting to drop but Vince and Moses believed we had time for "one more visit"! I thought we were on a fairly minor track but Vince managed to find an even smaller one to head off into deeopest green country-side! Eventually we found another home but alas, no Tigers boy or mother - they were off collecting fire wood, together. The family were in residence - with a Grandmother and three other children - a brother and two sisters - also their. The boy had run away and Tigers originally tried to settle him with his father - who was separated from the mother. However, the father, a ploygamous man, had no real interest in the boy and he was soon back on the streets. Finally the Tigers team located his mother and settled him back with her, and now a real success story.

Time to go home. Unfortunately, rain had hit the area about an hour earlier and the track was soft. When we jumped back in the 4x4 Vince denmonstarted that moving the car forwards and backwards a few times gets you really stuck ;-) Then trying to engaged the 4x4 drive, the gear-box completely dis-engaged and we were left with a car that wouldn't move forward or backwards.

Vince tried for a good 10 minutes to sort this out, and then decided to go under the car (yes in the mud). He had a plastic sheet (doesn't happen often, honest) and went under the car for an age. I decided that I was probably better able to help through prayer than through getting underneath as well. 20 minutes later, we had a re-engaged gearbox and Vince revved hard, managed to get the car to spin 180 degrees and we headed back to Kampala.

An hour or so later, we finally arrived back in the city and back to the guest house - just in time for dinner. I appreciate that if you have made it this far down this entry, it has been a gruelling read. It was certainly a hard trip for Debbie and I - and this is what the Tiger staff deal with day after day. Truely helps you appreciate the extent of their care for these boys and the holistic approach they take to changing their lives.

Debs & Mike xxx