Prossy* comes from a slum area of Jinja. She is 17 years old. She was raised by a single mother where she was the eldest of 6 children. Prossy grew up with the mother and the siblings alone since her father lived an extra marital lifestyle and did not provide care for his family. Being the eldest child at home, Prossy grew up knowing that she had to take good care of all her siblings.
Taking responsibility
Prossy attended school up to primary six but since the mother had other children to take care of, Prossy dropped out of school to start looking for scrap and other metallic objects for sale so that they could have food and other essentials at home. Life became hard because each day the siblings were growing and demands became overwhelming for her and the mother as they did not have a stable income at home.
One day, Prossy was at the rubbish dump looking for scrap and one of the social workers at S.A.L.V.E. International got a chance to interact with her. Prossy opened up and narrated the whole story of her life to the social worker. Prossy and the social worker made an appointment to meet up at the Girls Drop in Centre to have more talks about her lifestyle. Tragically, within this time, Prossy’s mother passed on and she was left with the responsibility of taking care of all of her siblings.
Counselling for the future
Thankfully Prossy still attended her meeting with the social worker who provided counseling to strengthen her in this moment of grief. Prossy opened up about her dreams of being a welder and metal fabricator but she felt that it was something she could never achieve due to her limited resources and overwhelming responsibility of her siblings.
Prossy was then given an opportunity to be enrolled as an apprenticeship with Play Action International to study welding and metal fabrication because it has a strong partnership with S.A.L.V.E. International. As a female, Prossy at first thought that she could not make it because the staff at the training centre were all male but due to the encouragement from the social workers at S.A.L.V.E., Prossy finally adapted to the environment and loved the skilling program.
A bright future
Prossy could not control her joy and happiness and felt that her dream had really come true. Prossy worked so hard to learn the skills during her one year study program. After the year, Prossy had acquired enough skills and she was assessed by the Directorate of Industrial Training board. She passed her exams well and she was given an opportunity to continue working with Play Action International as a junior staff in welding. She is now happy that her dream has come true. She is working well and she can a now look after all her needs as well care for her siblings. She thanks S.A.L.V.E. for helping her to make her dream a reality.
*names are changed in line with our Child Protection Policy
0 Comments