I haven’t been very good at this blogging
thing, so I am a little hesitant to write this post today. I hope it
doesn’t offend anyone…
I was due to be in Uganda this week visiting The Rakai Counsellors
Association a local charity who work with children orphaned by the Aids
epidemic, but the recent British Airways strike meant flights were
cancelled; missed deadlines and other priorities in Ireland took over.
In presentations for mygoodpoints I’ve often shown photos from my
previous visit to Rakai showing some of the children I’ve met. These
photos helped illustrate how donors here in Ireland have been able to
really help some of these child headed households and have received text
messages and emailed photos back from the charity workers involved, to
let them see the real difference they are making in the lives of those
in need.
One family I was due to see was the Namuwangas – a sick, bedridden
father, trying to raise his two young children – a daughter and son.
They were poor but the Rakai Counsellors Association were helping
improve their lives: building them a new house with a tin roof so
rainwater could be harvested and helping keep the children at school and
providing food. I was able to help secure some support financial for
the family from Ireland and I really hoped when we do get mygoodpoints
up and running that we might be able to make this family one of our
first beneficiaries, that our first donors might could help improve the
lives of these children by donating their unused loyalty points online.
Unfortunately modern technology can communicate bad news as well as
good. Last night, I received a text from Uganda to say that the father
of these young children had recently died. Sadly this was not the worst
news. Last week a 25 year old man, a ‘boda boda’ driver, a local
motorbike taxi man, broke into the house where the children now slept
alone and badly raped the young girl.
The Rakai Counsellors Association helped find a local volunteer, a
woman, and she has begun to stay in the house at night with the children
and the organisation has helped pursue the case with the local police.
The perpetrator has been identified but has since fled the district
before he could be arrested.
I often say how important it is for charities to up their game, how a
ten percent improvement in efficiency could mean ten percent more
people out of poverty etc. I can’t help wondering today if I could had
taken more of my own advice, whether we could be further down the line
with our platform and raising funds online for these Ugandan children
and whether this awful crime might somehow have been prevented…
- Killian