Hosted by Our Lady of Africa Mbuya Parish and Reach Out Mbuya Parish HIV/AIDS Initiative, the event seeks to re-engage Ugandan communities in the fight against HIV/AIDS
12-year-old Suzan eats just one meal a day. She stays in a one-roomed semi-permanent house with her mother and four siblings in the wetland of Kasenyi-Banda. When it rains, the house often collapses.
Though Suzan is HIV-negative, her mother is positive and receives her drugs at Reach Out Mbuya Parish HIV/AIDS Initiative, a community-based NGO based in Mbuya. Suzan’s mother strives to meet the family’s needs with her small income from selling tomatoes, onions, and silver fish in the neighborhood. However, she is unable to pay school fees for her daughter, who is currently waiting to complete her Primary Leaving Examinations.
With just 60,000 UGX per term, Suzan would be able to pay registration fees for her exams and advance to secondary school, moving toward her dream of becoming a fashion designer and journalist.
Suzan is just one of more than 1,000 HIV-infected and/or affected orphans and vulnerable children that are part of Reach Out Mbuya’s program that are in critical need of education support. On 3rd December 2016, just two days after World AIDS Day, Reach Out Mbuya in partnership with Mbuya parish will hold a 6-kilometer charity run to raise funds that will help support these children and will aim at uniting the Ugandan community to empower youth in the fight against HIV.
The run has been organized jointly by Our Lady of Africa Mbuya Parish, which started the community-based NGO, Reach Out Mbuya during the height of the AIDS epidemic in 2001, striving to provide HIV/AIDS care to the poor communities living within and around the parish.
Reach Out Mbuya engages HIV-positive clients as peer community health workers who identify, refer and support clients and provide home-based care in their own communities. Over the 15 years, more than 20,000 clients have been supported with the holistic care model, which includes the needs of the body, mind, family and community. Currently there are more than 8,500 clients in care, including over 1,000 most-at-risk populations.
Fourteen percent of children in Uganda are orphans and 45.6% of these have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. Youth are especially vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and HIV has been reported as the leading cause of death among adolescents. In the 15 years Reach Out Mbuya’s existence, over 1,225 clients have passed on, leaving many orphans that lacking basic needs including education.
In 2015, Reach Out Mbuya supported 2,200 orphans and vulnerable children with education, psychosocial and legal support services. But due to funding challenges, over 1,000 OVC were recently forced to drop out of school. The funds from the charity run will therefore go towards sustaining these children.
In line with Uganda’s theme for the World AIDS Day, ‘Re-engaging Communities for Effective HIV Prevention’, the ‘Run to Stop HIV’ aims to reactivate local Ugandan communities in the HIV/AIDS response. The run will be held on 3rd December 2016 beginning at 6:30 a.m, starting and ending at the Our Lady of Africa Church Mbuya Parish grounds, with a special 2Km children’s run. Winning runners will receive prizes, and the Reach Out Mbuya Exploring Talents Club brass band and African dance troupe will perform songs and dances that create awareness about HIV/AIDS.
Tickets cost 5,000/= for children, 10,000/= for youth, and 20,000/= for adults. They are available at Our Lady of Africa Mbuya Church in Nakawa Division, Kampala District, as well as at all the Reach Out Mbuya sites in Mbuya, Banda and Kinawataka.
Success Story of a Reach Out Mbuya-sponsored youth: Enock Kanene, 22 years old
Enock Kanene’s father, a soldier who had 3 wives, died when Enock was just 1 year old. His mother, who is HIV-positive, was working as a tailor, sewing the uniforms of university children. Though his grandfather was receiving a small pension, it was not enough even for Enock’s family to pay rent, let alone school fees.
Enock’s mother, who is HIV-positive, was already receiving her antiretroviral drugs from Reach Out Mbuya. As a ROM client, she knew she could apply for her children to be enrolled on the school fees program though Enock did not want to accept any help from the organization at first. He had very low self-esteem and lacked care for himself or his future; “even when it came to the dress code, I used to wear sandals,” he said. His mother however insisted, and Reach Out Mbuya came in to pay the majority of the family’s rent and the school fees, books, and uniforms for Enock and his three siblings. Reach Out Mbuya paid Enock’s school fees from S5 through university at the Young Male Christian Institute, where he received a diploma in guidance and counseling.
“My joining Reach Out saved me so much,” Enock said. “Without Reach Out, my mother couldn’t be alive. And I have something in my head.”
After Enock completed Senior 6, he joined Reach Out as a volunteer in the Community and Social Support Department where he meets one-on-one with orphans and vulnerable children supported by Reach Out to assess their academic performance and identify any challenges in terms of security, social support, nutrition, child abuse and neglect, etc. He also helps lead sessions for the children on preventing HIV/AIDS, ending child and teenage pregnancies, and defeating stigma and discrimination. “Often, children who feel discriminated isolate themselves from others”, Enock said. He helps talk to them, teach them and if they have some problems, encourage them to open up and accept help.
One of his most inspiring moments was when he identified a child who had an STI and was able to help get him onto treatment. With another child, who had stolen someone’s bag, Enock called the owner of the bag and convinced the child to apologize to him. This child was then able to accept responsibility for his actions and remain in school. Enock also met one child whose mother was arrested and had been left alone in the house without money for rent or food. Enock helped transfer the child to the ROM Community Team Leader, who intervened to support the child with shelter and sustenance.
“I want to give back to the organization. It is good to help others,” Enock said. “You might think that having HIV is the end of life. Having HIV does not mean it’s the end of life. There are people who are HIV positive but have reached university. We try to encourage them, they especially enjoy the Christmas party where they come together to share, play games, and dance.”
In the past, Enock used to fear coming into the office to work. Now, he says he can talk to a big mass of people to share information and his experience. In the future, he wants to work in social work to encourage other youth like him not to give up, no matter their circumstances. He wants to become a donor to Reach Out Mbuya as well, to support other children like he was supported.
“Miracles can be made through hard work. I’m a winner but a winner who does the same things as other people, but I do them differently. I have a changed mind and changed brain, and I’m living a changed life,” he said.
Compiled by Annika McGinnis, Communications and Partnership Officer, Reach Out Mbuya Parish HIV/AIDS Initiative (amcginnis@reachoutmbuya.org; +256 781657099)
