Meet Moses.

 

He’s ten years old, although he has no idea when his birthday is. He comes from Bugembe, which is a village just outside Jinja.

 

Current status: Moses is currently living on the streets of Jinja, industriously collecting metal everyday. It is a hard life for a child, so we hope you can offer to help this young boy to leave the streets for good and have a better life. Please get in contact with us at S.A.L.V.E. and help Moses to have a bright future.

 

Background: Moses has lived all his life in the Jinja area, as he was born and grew up in Bugembe, which is only fifteen minutes away by bus from the main town. He is the second to last child of eight children, though sadly two of his siblings have died, leaving him as one of six. He grew up with both of his parents, but it was his mother who really used to love, care and provide for him, giving him clothes, food and school fees when she could afford it from what little she made digging vegetables. His father didn’t work but instead used to drink away what money he could get his hands on. His mother found a mysterious lady digging in her garden one day in late 2007, and they started to quarrel over whose garden it was. Later that evening his mother grew very sick and died of unknown causes very suddenly. After his mother died his father informed him that he could no longer go to school. Still heartbroken about the loss of his mother, and seeing no reason to stay in a house where he wasn’t wanted or cared for by his father, Moses took to the streets of Jinja where he has lived ever since. Even now when discussing the death of his mother, Moses cannot help but cry from the loss of the one person who ever looked out for him in life.

 

Education: Moses went to school until late 2007, by which point he had reached Primary Three. But it was at this point that his mother died and his father told him he would no longer be educated. Moses loved going to school and his favourite subject was maths. He also loves to play football and supports Manchester United.

 

Life on the street: Moses began his life on the streets of Jinja in late 2007 when he left his home in Bugembe. Now he sleeps just away from the main street in the town where every morning he is woken by the call of the mosque calling people to prayers. For him it is the call to get to work, and day after day he will root through the town’s rubbish bins, trying to find scrap metal for him to sell. This is his only source of income and it is a difficult one, for it is not easy to find scrap metal in Jinja. Few people throw it away and even when they do, he is just one of many street children who are on the look-out for it. He is only ten years old and small for his age, leaving him with no hope if he has to compete for the metal with children who are older and stronger than him. If he does manage to find metal he will then sell it for food to eat, but if he can’t he will then go to an organisation in town that is sometimes able to give him some lunch and to let him wash himself. In the evenings Moses will go and look for shops that sell TVs and sit outside on the street watching them, dreaming that he was living a different life, away from the street and all of its worries and threats.

 

Moses doesn’t really have any friends on the street. The other children know that he is industrious and tries to get lots of scrap metal, so they often will beat him, and will try to take his money or food. He is wary of the many children he shares the streets with and no longer wants to make friends. So far he has been lucky that the authorities haven’t got their hands on him and beaten him yet, but he lives in fear of the day that they might.

 

The worst thing about life on the street: For Moses the worst thing about life on the streets is seeing the effects of drugs on the other children. Drug-taking is very common amongst street children, as it is a way for them to forget about their desperate situations. However, Moses has never taken drugs himself, and finds it very distressing to see how much they damage the children around him.

 

Moses also doesn’t like to sleep in a group at night, as although he would like the protection it would offer him, he fears what happens under the cover of darkness. There have been times when some of the older children have forced themselves on the younger boys and as only a small child, he knows he could never defend himself from this

 

Future dreams: Right now Moses’ main dream is just to go back to school, but once he has finished his education he wants to be a ‘big and important person’ so that he would never have to resort to life on the streets again. Ultimately, Moses would like to become a bank manager.