I informed my colleagues at Wells of Hope who swung into action to go and rescue these children .
Our interaction with the children revealed that:
They used to stay in Bugiri with their father, their mother a housemaid had died during the birth of her sister Shakira who is now 6 years old. They were staying alone with the father who used to make and sell small donuts, he used to leave them at a lady’s house whom they grew up calling their grandmother. This lady’s house is where there mother used to work as a housemaid
Angel was going to a school called Kisasi primary school located in Bugiri, dropped out because they did not have money to pay for her.
Shakira the younger sister had never been to school because they took a while to start talking and she started talking when she was 5 years old.
Their father was arrested in September 2015 for raping the older sister Angel. Angel says that her father raped her many times and told her not to tell anyone and for all the time she kept quiet but told only her friend Rema who used to stay with their Jajja and she believes that Rema is the one who told their jajja and the jajja reported the case to the Local council. After they reported the councilor told them to go to the police station and at the police station she was checked and that the doctor confirmed that she was raped. She states that all paper work relating to this was kept by their jajja in Bugiri.
After their father was arrested she says that they were told that he had been arrested for 5 years. She says that they have never seen him or even hear about him since that day.
As effects of the rape she says that she always had stomach aches and a discharge which needed a lot of medication which the jajja in Bugiri said she could no longer afford and so she decided to bring them to their paternal grandmother who was staying at that time in Lugoba, Kawempe. They said they stayed with their grandmother and her sister for a few weeks.
From their understanding they believed that their grandmother and her sister where not on good terms and were always fighting and so she decided to leave the house. She deceived them that she was going for a burial in Kawanda, she packed her clothes and since the end of February she had never come back. They said that their aunty was constantly mistreating them. Beating them and verbally abusing them for no good reason and so they decided to leave the house and go anywhere else.
She said that together with her sister they walked from Lugoba ( about 11 miles from Kampala City) until they saw a blue building (AYA brothers building) and they started following it. When they reached they noticed that they didn’t know where they were but the cross on top of All saints church was shinning as its always light at night. They decided that they could go stay at the church and while people were walking out they entered the church and that is where the church administrator found them as he was closing up the church.
The church counselor wrote a letter to the Central Police Station Kampala informing them of the situation and Wells of Hope was called to take on the children.
And immediately Wells of Hope took over the children .
Medical investigation revealed yesterday(April 19th) that Angel has ruptured veins in her private parts and discharge . Both children are traumatized; Shakira has serious nose bleeds only. Prayers are needed and sponsorship for urgent medical care and child sponsorship for both them to receive education and care at Wells of Hope .
Francis Ssuubi
Founder Wells of Hope