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| Ronald Wesonga |
Meet Ronald.
He is 13 years old though he doesn't know when his birthday is. He comes from eastern Uganda, near to Torroro. Currently,
he is living on the streets of Jinja, where he has been for the past three months.
Current status:
We are very pleased to be able to say that, with the support of his sponsor, Ronald is no longer living on the streets. He
went through an acclimatisation period in February 2008 during which he lived with Mike our Regional Director, helping
him to adjust to life off the streets.
Ronald is now enjoying being a boarder at Joy Emmanuel Oasis
Primary School, and is currently in Primary Three. We are very excited about what the future holds for Ronald now. He is so
happy and grateful to be given this chance to go back to school.
Background: Ronald
is one of seven children. His mother sadly died in 2002 of an unknown sickness leaving him and his siblings with his father.
Not long after his mother's death, Ronald's father remarried. Ronald's new step-mother had four children of her own who moved
into their house. Ronald's five sisters were given to various other relatives to be taken care of, leaving Ronald and his
elder brother in the house with his father and new step family. The step-mother hated the two boys, and from the moment she
set foot in the house she began to abuse them terribly. They were to do all of the house chores and if even the smallest thing
was found to be remiss, she would beat them. Ronald suffered beatings almost every single day.
Since his father remarried,
Ronald's step-mother wanted her children to go to school rather than the children from her husband's previous marriage. Due
to this, Ronald has spent the last five years at home doing the chores whilst his step siblings went to school. He finally
ran away from home last year out of fear for his life; the beatings were becoming so bad that that he realised that his step-mother
might one day kill him. He has been back home once since living on the streets, but he was unable to see his father and feared
his step-mother too much to wait for him to return from work, and returned to the streets immediately.
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| Ronald and Moses at school. |
Education: Ronald
has only completed school until the end of Primary 2. He did the first term of Primary 3 but his step-mother took him out
of school so the money for fees could go towards her own children. He says he loves to study and when he was at school he
loved science. Despite everything he's gone through he dreams of being able to go back to school. He has been out of education
for the past five years (since 2003) but is very enthusiastic to go back again.
Life on the streets:
Ronald lives with his best friend Moses on the streets who he met at the taxi park as he was searching for a way of getting
a free ride to Torroro. They do everything together and are very loving and caring towards each other. They seem as close
as real brothers, and there is a strong mutual dependence as each looks to the other for their safety and wellbeing.
They
spend their days together trying to earn a small amount of money so that they can afford their food for the day. They are
very enterprising boys and they earn their money in several different ways. They can be found picking through the rubbish
to find plastic bottles to sell for a pittance (half a dozen bottles earns them 3.4p), carrying water for people, or ferrying
heavy loads to and from the market. Some days they make their way to the offices of CRO, an organisation in Jinja that works
with street children. Here they occasionally get given food, but CRO can offer them no other help, and provides no solution
to their current situation.
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| Ronald in one of the spots he used to sleep in at night. |
The worst thing about being on the street is the nights. They sleep on the pavement
in a semi-secure place outside a shop. As well as the fear of being rounded up by the police, the nights bring with them the
constant worry of the cold and the mosquitoes, and the plastic sheets they use to cover themselves certainly don't bring much
comfort. It has been months since either of the boys have had a full night's sleep as one of them always has to be on the
alert, keeping a look-out throughout the night. If the police do catch them off guard, they demand money from them. But with
no money to their names, there is never any way to appease the police. The boys are rounded up and taken to the police cells
where they spend yet another sleepless night as they are made to do heavy cleaning work. But the dangers don't stop with the
police. Drunks and passersby frequently beat the boys for no reason other than for being street children. There is never any
rest for these two young 13-year olds; they are always on the alert to the dangers that surround them.
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| A Jinja backstreet. |
A lot of children on the streets turn to drugs as a way of coping with their hard
lives on the street. Ronald and Moses have wise heads on their young shoulders though. They understand the danger of drugs
and how easy it is to fall into this way of life. Together they have shunned the pervasive street culture of drug-taking and
have instead turned to each other to help them cope with the pain and difficulties of being on the street.
The worst thing about life on the
streets: For Ronald the worst thing about life on the street is the nights he has to sleep without even a
plastic sheet to cover himself. On those nights the mosquitos particularly disturb him and stop him from being able to sleep.
Future dreams:
Because he loved science so much when he was at school, Ronald dreams of studying hard to hopefully be able to become a doctor
in the future.
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