Bwaise Slum Tour

 

Bwaise Slums, Kampala, Uganda (Feb. 22)

Salim, our guide for the slum tour and the founder of Volunteers for Sustainable Development, grew up in the Bwaise slums and started the organization when he was only 18. He has been doing slum tours for the past two years in order to fund the work his organization does in rescuing abandoned or orphaned children and sending them to school. He picked us up from our hostel in the morning and we took a boda boda (motorcycle) to Bwaise.

At first glance on the main street, Bwaise doesn't look so bad and reminds me of a typical village in Tanzania. However, as you wander off the main street and into the maze of houses that can only be covered on foot, a different picture appears.

The first thing we did was visit the different wells where the people gather cooking and drinking water. There are government taps, but the water from them is much too expensive for the majority of Bwaise residents. Many of them can't even afford to boil the well water in order to sanitize it. The smaller wells consisted of pits with a pipe coming out of the ground that feeds water into it. The wells need to be cleaned once a week as they get dirty and filled with garbage. The largest well was a bit more sophisticated with several pipes, a fence around where the water comes from, and a regular cleaning schedule. Gathered under the taps are women of all ages (some were as young as 3) with old water bottles or plastic containers collecting water.

Next, we visited the private-run schools where the lucky children are able to attend. The nearest state-run school was too far so many of the children are not able to go to school since they can not afford the private school fees. Many of the children rely on sponsors to get the opportunity to go to school. Salim was able to go to school until he was 14 years old thanks to the generosity of a neighbour who supported him. The schools themselves were basic cement or wooden buildings with hand-made learning aids hanging on the walls.

I always find it a strange experience to visit schools in Africa and despite my love for children, I don't particularly enjoy it. They generally take you through to each classroom, where the children all stand up looking wide-eyed and as if they are preparing for the greatest interview of their lives. The teachers yell at the children to say something in English or sing a song for you. There just seems to be this scramble to impress you like if they say the right thing then you will solve all of their problems for them. Their relationship to Mzungus seems to be one where they see all white people as benefactors and, it seems, somehow above them. "Look, Mzungu! Welcome the Mzungu!" Are common things you hear. But if this is what the children are learning, how can they be expected to be empowered to take responsibility for their own future. It seems like everyone has the same idea that the Africans need to be saved, but the truth is while they can use some help, they need to save themselves. Outsiders will never really be able to solve their problems for them and I think instilling that idea in young children is dangerous for the future of a country.

After some time at the schools, we passed by a shack slightly bigger than a washroom stall where a man was living. It was made entirely of scraps of plastic and wood that he had found in the garbage. Apparently, someone had donated the land to him so that he could have somewhere to live. The most shocking part for me, however, was the fact that he was a government street cleaner; he brought his uniform vest to show us. This was one of the lucky people who actually had a job and this is how he was living. What does that say for others?

 

 

The next stop was the sex workers district, which didn't look extraordinary but just had some women sitting on wooden stools in front of their shacks. Salim told us that all of the women sitting on the stools were sex workers. We were shown one of the rooms which was crammed with dirty looking beds that were separated by stained sheets. Condom wrappers were littering the ground (Salim's organization donates condoms for them to use because HIV is rampant). Next to one of the women were two small naked, crying children one of whom went into the room and was crawling on the beds. That I think was the hardest for me: seeing the innocent children amoung all of this.

But most of the women don't have any other options to support their familes. Salim said the area is filled with women with women standing by the sides of the streets at night. One sexual encounter costs 500 Ush (20 cents) and 1,000 Ush for a young girl. For an extra 500 Ush, men can have sex without a condom.

Due to the poverty in this area, the attitude of men is that it is cheaper to abandon your pregnant girlfriend and pay for sex than pay to support a family. They just can't afford to stay. This creates a cycle of single mother's needing to prostitute themselves to support their familes and the popularity of this option is likely part of the reason why the price is so low. There are also many young girls who enter the sex trade in order to pay for school. They go to school in the mornings and then go to the streets at night. It is no wonder than AIDS is such a major issue here.

Many of the children that Salim rescues and supports in his orphanage are children of sex workers that were abandoned in garbages, ditches, etc. One very frail and sad looking child they told us they had rescued from a toilet where his mother had abandoned him.

After the tour, I sat down with Salim for a drink to talk about his organization. He explained to me the biggest issue in Bwaise was education because without English, they would never be able to get any real job. It makes you realize how lucky we are to grow up in a place where even the language that we happen to speak gives us so many more opportunities globally. Salim's goal is to open his own school where they can use the money from sponsors more efficiently than paying to send the children to the private schools. However, his main goal right now is to obtain sponsors for the children of school age to ensure that they get the education they need. It's amazing when you see where he grew up and what he has been through to see that he is now dedicating his life to helping others.

They always need volunteers at the schools, especially English speaking ones, because it is so expensive for them to obtain qualified teachers and I think he still has a few children looking for sponsors as well. I will post a link to the facebook page that I am helping him to make up if anyone wants more information.