(Post by Nicole)
Saturday: Community Meeting
I went with some staff members to one last community meeting before the big day of taking the children, mainly domestic workers, from the slums and transporting them to a vocational school 2 hours away. The goal of this community meeting was to answer last minute questions from the employers, guardians, and children. The process of identifying child domestic workers between the ages of 14 and 17 began in July with community meetings and door-to-door interviews. It will culminate tomorrow when the first group of kids is moved to vocational schools.
The community meeting was a huge success with a much larger turnout than expected. Children, employers, guardians, task force members, the police commander, and a reverend were in attendance. The full spectrum of human emotion was present; most people were happy, some were angry, and others were worried. It was clear that we would have to tread delicately—I watched my colleague talk passionately about the importance of sending these children to school not only because they have a right to education, but also for the future of Uganda. He was incredible and managed to navigate the fine line between stressing the unlawfulness of employers sitting in the audience engaging in child exploitation while winning over their trust. I learned that sometimes killing people with kindness is in fact the best approach.
As expected, many of the employers who had initially refused to talk with our staff out of fear of being arrested, now realize our only motive is to give these vulnerable children a better life. They must have felt a bit guilty about denying their child laborer a chance for free vocational training, because some asked if it was too late to change their decision and sign consent. We explained that unfortunately, at this time, we have made preparations for only the children who had employers who consented earlier and that it would take some time for the school to be able to accommodate more kids, for buses to be arranged, for us to find more funding, etc. This resulted in a bit of chaos, some tears and a few employers trying to sneak their kids onto our already complete lists. I learned quickly that far more work goes into grassroots endeavors than I had ever imagined.
The community meeting also shed some light on reasons why some parents of domestic workers initially refused or were wary of us taking their children. Apparently there was a case of an organization in another part of Uganda that offered children free boarding school and then the children were mistreated and malnourished. Moreover, a few years ago, in this exact community, some men posing as an NGO took money from parents, promising to come back for the children who they promised to place in school and then disappeared with the money. Corruption is rampant and this type of deceit is detrimental to the work of legitimate organizations.
A big issue that needed to be addressed at the community meeting was the inability of many families to procure bedding (a small foam mattress and blanket) for the impending vocational school attendees. It was brought to our attention that many of the kids sleep on mats or share mattresses with other family members and therefore cannot bring bedding to the boarding school. We were told that the boarding school would not accept them without bedding. Our NGO is paying for everything else (room, board, exam fees and the like) but does not have a large enough budget to buy mattresses. We came to the tough resolution that children without bedding would have to wait until the following week—in the meanwhile we would scramble to find a solution.
After the meeting ended, I couldn’t help but reflect back on the whole process and wondered how we could have made this run more smoothly. Perhaps if the guardians had attended more community meetings in the weeks leading up to this one, they would have understood our intentions better and consented to allowing us to take the children earlier. With more notice they may have been better able to provide the children with bedding. As a novice in the community-organizing arena, I just don’t know—maybe getting 68 kids was success.
Monday: Busing Kids to School
Today we picked the children up from the various slums of Kampala and brought them to the vocational school. I imagined we would meet all the 68 kids at one central location, they would be packed, and we would be on our way. How long could that possible take? Surely if we start at 10:30am we’ll be on the road by noon, right? WRONG.
The children were instructed to be ready at 10am. When the six of us arrived at our first stop, the police barracks, the children were packed and ready to go. They wore their best clothes, held buckets for laundry, suitcases, and foam mattresses. Then we were told that several of the kids still had not been able to find mattresses. When we reiterated that they would be left behind until next week, they ran away up into the barracks and most came back with small foam mattresses. They likely begged friends or family and found a way to get their hands on something to sleep on. One employer gave up her own mattress so that her domestic worker wouldn’t miss this opportunity. Others weren’t so lucky. Trying times show people’s true colors—for good or for bad.
Next, we went to gather the kids from the other slums of Kampala. Several were not ready (I think they did not believe we were really coming for them.) They quickly scurried to gather belongings and piled into our van. I got lucky and was in the front seat, but others were not. In the now “clowned” van with kids and mattresses that piled in more like Jenga™ blocks one girl started to vomit (into her handkerchief) as we navigated the rutted roads of the city. As a fellow car sick soldier, I felt very sorry for this sick girl and wished I had brought my sea bands to offer her. Slowly we gathered all of the children. Eventually we had a total of 68 kids, 3 buses and a lot of stuff. For those keeping score, we left Kampala at 3:00pm.
When we arrived at the vocational school, the warden held an orientation for the kids. We registered them, photographed the remaining children, and got them settled in their new homes. While the new class was coming in I received a glimpse of their future. Behind us a group of current students were singing and dancing to gospel music while an instructor played the organ. They looked and sounded amazing. Some of our new students watched them in awe, too. It seemed the future, for now, was bright.
Just when we were ready to head back to the city feeling that the day had been a great success, six children sheepishly confessed that they did not, in fact, have mattresses. Knowing full well the rule that they were not supposed to board the bus without bedding, one began to cry. These kids certainly realized the potential this opportunity could offer them. Fortunately when we told the matron about this issue, she had a kind heart and figured out a way to accommodate all these six children. I cannot describe the relief my colleagues and I felt when this was resolved.
After all the children had hurried off to get settled in their dorms, one boy, Derrick, lingered. Eventually he approached me and said, “this place is really cool. I think I will like it.” After answering some of his questions about what I am doing here in Uganda and explaining that I would be back, likely next week, to talk about health education, Derrick said, “When you come back, I would like to share something with you. It’s personal about my life and my family.” I told him that I had time to talk now, but he insisted that it must wait until next week. I’m very curious.
We got home at 830pm—what a long day! Who knew it would take SO many hours to mobilize 68 children? I got home tired, but happy.
