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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kampala Capital City Authority – KCCA has collected over 70 street children from Kampala city to provide them shelter at Nakivubo Blue Primary School.
The KCCA team headed by Kampala Central Division Mayor Charles Sserunjogi was part of the team that collected the children in Kisenyi on Sunday where majority of these children gather to be taken to the primary school.
KCCA has collected the children to at Nakivubo Blue Primary School till the coronavirus tension calms down.
Sserunjogi says they feared that these children would be exposed to the coronavirus due to their life styles on the streets. He says their survival on the streets had also become harder since majority of the shops where these children worked to earn are closed.
He says they have received 600 Kg of maize floor from government and about 150 kg of beans that children will feed on as they seek for more food. The children have been allocated two class rooms so far where they will be sleeping.
Sserunjogi says they will provide security to ensure that the children are safe and that they are kept within the school premises. The children will also be provided with balls to play in the school field.
Sserunjogi says that when the situation normalizes, they will work with the Ministry of Youth and Children to take some of these children to their homes and others to technical institutions to acquire life skills.
KCCA has put up over seven tanks of water in the school for the children to wash hands.
KCCA COVID -19 team that earlier measured the temperature of all children briefed the children on hygiene, proper hand washing and social distancing to avoid the virus among other issues.
Judith Mukaya, a member of KCCA COVID -19 health team says they will keep monitoring the children to ensure they are healthy.
Ismail known to the children as coach will work with Shule Foundation to keep the children at the School. Ismail a guard in Kisenyi has been working with the children to organise them to get support from willing groups.
He committed to be around with the children but asked government to provide them with transport to and from their homes. He also wants government to provide them with enough space such that children are not only using two classes.
Johnson Sennono, the chairman civic center parish says government should take this opportunity to organise these children so that they do not go back to the streets. He also asked that they are given enough security such that they do not escape and mingle with people on the streets lest they contract the virus.
Fifteen year old Musa Mubiru from Katwe is happy that they have been been granted shelter and food. Mubiru says he had been collecting garbage and plastic from people’s homes. He says he had been earning about Shillings 5000 a day and saving Shillings 3000.
He says since the lockdown, there has been no business as people who bought from him had closed. He says his savings of about Shillings 150,000 was almost getting finished.
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