|
Meet Tiff
He is thirteen
years old, though he doesn’t know when his birthday is, and has been living on the streets of Jinja since May 2008.
Current
status: Tiff 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: Tiff’s life didn’t get off to a great
start. His mother and father had been married for three years before he was born, but those three years were too long for
his father to wait. His father married a second wife out of fears that Tiff’s mother was barren, which understandably
angered her, so she divorced and left him before Tiff was even born.
Tiff
didn’t meet his real father until he was seven. His mother took him to see his father because his step-father had begun
to abuse and mistreat him due to the fact he wasn’t his own son. But Tiff’s step-mother also didn’t want
to have him around.
|
| Tiff in one of the places he sleeps at night |
Tiff’s
mother earnt a little bit of money from cooking in a local café, but it wasn’t enough to feed her growing family. This
combined with the step-father’s dislike of Tiff made her decide to send him to live with his uncle.
While his uncle had money to pay for his school fees Tiff remained there, despite
the fact he was being made to do heavy chores day and night. He would normally be made to do jobs like splitting firewood
that were beyond the demands that should have been made on his young body. While living there Tiff often felt more like a
servant than a member of the family.
So
when his uncle no longer had the money to be able to send him to school Tiff decided to run away to look for his mother again.
He walked eighty kilometres searching for his mother, but he did not find her in the place he expected to. He then tried to
get on a bus, but the bus conductor stole his plastic bag that contained all the clothes and food he had in the world and
beat him up for no reason. Confused and alone Tiff met some boys who were living on the street and decided to join them as
he could see no other option.
Education: While staying with his mother Tiff managed to complete
year three of primary school. However the education he was receiving wasn’t of a good standard so when he went to stay
with his uncle Tiff had to repeat primary three again. Tiff loves going to school and is excited to be able to go back to
school and to be in year four.
Life
on the street: Tiff has found
adjusting to life on the street very hard. Every morning he wakes up and goes searching through the rubbish skips for scrap
metal and plastic bottles that he can sell. It is smelly and dangerous work as there are often sharp things hidden amongst
the rubbish that might cut the street children as they search in it. If he is lucky enough to find plastic bottles or some
scrap metal then he will sell it to get money for food, but if not he has to go hungry.
|
| Tiff and Mike who is working with the street children in Uganda |
Tiff
also offers to carry heavy luggage for people from market in exchange for a small bit of money. This is a huge strain upon
his young body and often leaves him sore and in lots of pain, but he thinks it is worth it to have something to eat. He hates
the feeling of always being hungry.
After
a long day of trying to get money for food, Tiff joins a group of seven boys to sleep behind a bank. They sleep near to the
dustbins, hoping that the stench of garbage will stop people coming to abuse them in the night.
The
worst thing about life on the street:
There are many things that Tiff has come to dislike on the street. He hates it when the older children beat him up and take
what little food or money he might have. But he also really hates the sense of not belonging and not having anyone to care
for him. When he was recently ill, the thing that he hated the most was how lonely he was with no one to care for him and
weather he lived or died.
Future dreams: Tiff is a bright boy, and dreams of becoming a teacher one day. If he was a teacher then
he would be clever, get to help children and would have a steady job so he would never have to go hungry again.
|
