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| Emma |
Meet Emma (Short for Emmanuel).
He is fourteen years old and has been living on the streets of Jinja for the last four months.
Current status:
Emma is now safe and well and off the streets of Jinja! He has just moved into the S.A.L.V.E. house where he is due to
begin his course of counselling with Mike, and where he will now start to get used to his new life and home with the
S.A.L.V.E. family. A big thank you goes
to his sponsors for believing in him and for turning his life around.
Background: As
a young boy, Emma was brought up an only child by his mother and father in Entebbe, a town on the outskirts of Kampala. He
was fortunate enough to be sent to school by his parents, but life was far from happy for him. He had grown up being continually
rejected by his father who refused to believe that Emma was his son. His father had had his mother forcibly sterilized the
moment Emma was born, and since that day they had always argued viciously over Emma.
When Emma was in his fourth year
of primary school, things became too much for his mother. The arguments had escalated, and their violence left her in fear
of what might one day happen if they went too far. And so she left, abandoning Emma to the tyranny of his father, and leaving
no clue as to where she might have gone. Emma asked neighbour after neighbour if they knew where she was, but no one had any
idea. She had simply vanished. It wasnt long before Emma's father began to refuse to pay for his schooling. But Emma was so
desperate to continue his education that he made his way to the nearest police station and explained what had happened. Miraculously,
the police cared enough to force his family to pay is school fees, and Emma was able to return to his studies.
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| Emma in one of the spots he sleeps in at night. |
Two years passed. Emma desperately missed his mother. He was taunted day after
day by his father who told him to get out and go to try and find her; she would show him where his real father was. Emma lived
in hope of one day being reunited with his mother. And then finally that hope seemed to become a reality. His father announced
that he was tired of city life, and he wanted to return to the family's home village. Here at last, thought Emma, might be
his chance to see his mother again. His father sold the house, packed their belongings up, and with Emma in tow, set off for
the village. Time and again Emma asked where they were going; he had never been to the village before and didn't have any
idea about where in the country it was. But Emma's father ignored his requests and never told him where they were going.
Three
hours into the journey, Emma's father pulled over and stopped the car. He opened the door and forcibly threw him out. Before
he knew what was happening, his father had driven off, and Emma was left alone at the side of the road. He had been dumped
just outside Jinja, and now had no hope of ever being able to follow his family north. With his wise head on his shoulders,
Emma once again made his way to the nearest police station to tell them what had happened. But this time, Emma's luck had
run out. There was nothing the police could do for him. Desolate, he left the station and his last chance of security behind
him. He has lived on the street ever since.
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| Emma enjoying lunch with S.A.L.V.E. |
Education: Through
his own hard work and determination, Emma has managed to complete his education up to P6, the penultimate year of primary
school. Emma is a very bright child and he is desperate for the chance to restart his schooling once again. He enjoys learning
and studying in all forms, and his favourite subjects are social studies and art.
Life on the street:
Life on the streets never brings any rest for Emma. Every day is spent collecting bottles to sell in order to earn some money.
Unlike many street children, Emma refuses to pick through the rubbish skips looking for his next meal, and uses the small
amounts he earns to buy scraps of food to keep him going. But Emma faces threats every day. Bigger children on the street,
knowing about Emma's industrious nature, come to him demanding money from him. If Emma refuses to hand it over, he is severely
beaten.
Even away from the bigger boys, he can not escape the beatings. He lives in constant fear of the police, and
if they catch him off guard they never hesitate in raising their batons to him. Emma has never found any mercy from adults
and children alike in his time on the streets. If a younger street child is unlucky enough to do something to offend an older
child, the beatings are savage and unrelenting. Using razor blades, the children then slash at the offender, leaving deep
open wounds that later become infected. So far, Emma has managed to escape this fate, but he is terrified of the day that
it might finally happen to him.
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| A Jinja backstreet. |
The worst thing about life on the
street: There are many things that Emma has come to fear on the street. As well as the violence that he finds
it impossible to escape from, his other constant worry is hunger. There is just never enough food. Every morning he wakes
up with an empty feeling gnawing away at his stomach, a feeling that the scraps of food he finds each day simply can't satisfy.
Emma's body is also crawling with lice, a common street-child problem that he can do nothing about because he has no way of
keeping himself clean.
Future dreams:
Emma is a real bright spark, and he is eager to return to school at the earliest possible opportunity. He wants to study his
very hardest so that one day he might achieve his dream of becoming an engineer.
Back to Sponsor a Child
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© 2008 SALVE International
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