PCA's work with Current and Former Street Children

Background Info:
Throughout the week we have been touring NGOs with Centurio to look for potential sites to volunteer at. As part of our program, we're required to conduct research usually by working with an NGO. The project I designed is independent of NGO work because I'm investigating the current status of bioethical issues in Uganda through a series of interviews and conversations with Makerere University Medical School faculty and students along with other leading Ugandan bioethicists. So, while the NGO visits have been really interesting, I went to each one with the mindset that I was just visiting and not looking to volunteer there.

The Story:
After classes on Friday we went to Peace for Children Africa (PCA)- an NGO that works directly with current and former street children from the slums in Kampala. To explain our experience with PCA as amazing would be an understatement. The kids we met and the people that are dedicated to helping them are unlike anyone I've met yet here in Uganda.

We toured their home, where 23 former street children live. Some of the children are orphans and others ran away from abusive or otherwise broken homes. They mainly came from the largest slum in Kampala called Kisenyi. At the home, they are provided food and funding to go to primary and secondary school. They have a garden where they can learn to grow fruits and vegetables, a wood working shop where they learn how to make crafts to raise money, and various instruments and props to perform music, dance, and drama.

After touring the house we went to Kisenyi, where PCA performs outreach every week to provide basic medical care, education, and socializing with current street children. We toured some of the slum, saw where they live and what kinds of things they do to raise money for themselves. We then went to a community hall where we interacted with current street children. Some spoke a lot of english (meaning they probably went to school for several years) while others only spoke a slang version of Luganda. I got to sit with several kids and ask why they left home while Paul, a PCA leader, helped translate. It was heart-breaking to hear stories of their parents, some of whom were abusive and/or drug dealers or drug users. Other parents simply abandoned their children or sent them off to find another parent with instructions that they were somewhere in Kampala. So, these kids live on the street. They don't go to school and perform odd jobs like collecting plastic bottle or metal for minimal pay to survive. PCA works with these kids to try to get them to go to the PCA house or an orphanage if they don't have space. According to Paul many of them don't want to leave the streets because they would rather make money than go to school. So, PCA works with them to help them as best as they can to provide services for them in hopes that eventually they'll want to move off the streets and have the right mind set to get an education.

We headed out of the slum to go back to the PCA house to meet all the children that live there as they were coming home from school. As soon as we drove up, the kids came up to introduce themselves and wanted to interact with us. Some of them taught us how to play traditional drums, others tried to teach us some dance moves (I'm admittedly an awful dancer), and others just hung out with us. It was an amazing experience just spending an afternoon with these kids. They were so loving and welcoming despite not really knowing us and coming from such difficult pasts. I think we all walked away from that experience smiling and trying to plan the next time we could come back. For me, having planned a purely academic project, I decided to downsize my project so I can be at PCA as much as possible.

Location: Kampala, Uganda