Returning Home to Start Afresh After Dashed Kyeyo Hopes

by Francisco Xavier Ahabyona and Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

Sr. Margaret Awor meets Josephine's family in Kampala. They are the beneficiaries of Fr. John Wortherspoon's financial support.

KAMPALA June 28, 2016 – A young woman in her mid twenties approaches, smiling to a nun. We are in Najjanankumbi, a suburb south of the capital Kampala. The young woman is called Kevin.

I look on not knowing what was next. She then falls onto the shoulders of the nun- Sr. Margaret Awor. The Sister is from the Congregation of the Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi (LSOSF). Kevin holds on to the nun for a while before releasing her. She keeps looking at her straight in the face then breaks down into tears.

Her gaze at the nun indicated hope and a sigh of relief. I later learnt that she is a student at Muteesa 1 Royal university located in Kampala. She is the elder sister to other two siblings. Their mother is serving a nine year jail term in Singapore- in the Peoples Republic of China. She had been arrested on charges of drug trafficking.

About a kilometer from here, we met another woman, Sarah Twikirize. Her smile was mild, looked worried but calm and expectant. Twikirize is the mother of the 27 year old Shifa who had been deported from Singapore. Shifa had been arrested for drug addiction, jailed for four years before she was deported.

These two incidents are synonymous with Uganda, a country once hailed by the British former Prime Minister Sir. Winston Churchill as the Pearl of Africa. Uganda is endowed with a lot of riches like the natural forests, the wonderful weather, fertile soils and fresh water rivers and lakes. The discovery of oil in the Albertine graben along the western Rift Valley region opens up more opportunities for the country if this resource is put to proper use.

It is the same Uganda that is stalked by high poverty levels, hunger that leaves majority average families unable to afford a meal a day and high unemployment especially among the young generation that accounts for 75% of the 34 million population.  To this add the HIV/ AIDS prevalence whose rate is currently at 7% and the picture of destitution is complete.

The first case of HIV/AIDS was first diagnosed in 1985 at Kasensero landing site on the shores of the world’s second largest fresh water lake, L. Victoria. Today the epidemic has claimed over 3 million Ugandans leaving a generation of orphans and widows.

Survival for the fittest has become the norm. Widows must leave homes to fend for orphans, whereas young people mostly orphans or those who did not complete the school cycle and are unemployed must look for alternative ways of survival.

At the center of all this desperation, suffering and confusion is the bad governance that haunts the country since independence in 1962. Uganda has never had a peaceful change of government! Indications are that the situation will remain so for a good number of years to come.

President Museveni has been in power for thirty uninterrupted years. He captured state power after a five year bloody guerrilla war on the promise of introducing good governance, respect for human rights and rule of law and order. Unfortunately, corruption, oppression, nepotism and bad governance have characterised his reign.

In February this year, the country held presidential and parliamentary elections that passed for the most fraudulent in the country’s history. The declaration of results was immediately followed by a clamp down on the members of the Opposition as the country contested the results.

The flag-bearer of the Forum for the Democratic Change (FDC), believed to have won the elections, is in prison just like many of his supporters.

Dr. Besigye is yet to have his case brought before the courts of law. It is this type of political persecution forcing many youth to engage in criminal activities, seek employment in foreign countries and thus deny them a meaningful livelihood.

A number of poverty alleviation programmes have and continue to be introduced into the country but due to corruption, nepotism and bad governance they have not succeeded in transforming for better, the lives of the intended beneficiaries. This has brought about a whole generation of grumbling, troubled and confused youth.

The 1992 liberalisation exercise opened the country to companies that sought to take Ugandans in foreign countries for some gainful employment, with the far and Middle East countries attracting the highest percentage of job seekers.

According to one of the reports at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social development, over 3,000 young people get employment from foreign countries annually with renewals. However, the leadership and economists back home say the venture earns foreign exchange for Uganda.

This means that labour export is one of Uganda’s foreign exchange earners. Troublingly, most of the labour exported has of recent become human trafficking, a new form of slavery. The country allows its able-bodied, energetic and intellectual persons to leave the country due to poor national planning.

Although Kevin’s mother left the country and her family, the circumstances under which she left remain unclear. She sold off the family land to raise money for the air ticket and the visa processing fees.

A macro economist, Augustus Nuwagaba, refers to the current political, social and economic situation as pathetic.

“When such people leave the country to seek “greener pastures” they expect to earn between US $ 800 and 1,500 per month.

“This money when converted to local currency is equivalent to Uganda shillings 2.8 million or about 5 million which can pay for about two children at university.”

Prof. Nuwagaba says back home on average, given the scarcity of jobs in public service, a university degree graduate would earn between shillings 500,000 and 1,400,000 the equivalent of US $ 156 or 400 respectively.

He adds that some times to get employment one has to be “technically known” meaning that he or she must be a close relative to the person in public service or within the ministry or department where the job is advertised.

Learning institutions, Nuwagaba goes on; release about 580,000 graduates onto the job market for only 80,000 available jobs in public service. The Private Sector would have been another option but the local entrepreneurs are in early stages to offer reasonable salary to the graduate. Else the graduate lacks the skills for the available jobs.

The unskilled labour is paid between shillings 35,000 (US $ 10) per week, but given the high cost of living, such money can only pay for a meal in a low class restaurant for two people. This situation has forced most people to seek employment outside the country.

In most cases, people seeking employment outside must sell off their valuable property to raise money for the air ticket, the visa plus bribes in the system. They are sometimes aided by counterparts who have left the country for similar reasons.

Desperate to leave the country and start earning some meaningful income, they usually fall prey to criminals who lure them into drug trafficking.

Recently three people seeking employment in one of the Arab countries were molested by their employers and killed, prompting government to institute an Anti Human Trafficking Task Force. Coordinated by Moses Binoga, he says they have repatriated most Uganda citizens who had been engaged in odd jobs including prostitution.

All companies taking Ugandans outside for employment were summoned and asked to provide proof that they were in touch with the people they had taken outside.

Despite this, nothing is being done to help Ugandans at home. Even those who leave the country are largely on their own. To make matters worse, the embassies in the host countries are not aware of what is happening or are not bothered!

According to Sr. Margaret who is also the founder of Young Franciscans of Uganda (YOUFRA)- a youth ministry that rebuilds the morals of the youth in Uganda and also engages  prisons ministry at Luzira maximum prison, the ministry addresses gaps among desperate youth and women. She adds that most youth, due to idleness and unemployment, engage in theft or robbery, drug abuse, drug trafficking, prostitution and other vices.

 

Rehabilitated Shifa

“We are working with government in different areas to help youth regain dignity.”

She explains that the current gross youth unemployment affects national development as majority of all the country’s energetic human resource is underutilized. The sister refers to the current migration of the youth and women as a curse because most of them do odd jobs and engage in crime. These persons when they return, need rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

Twenty seven year old Shifa Kyama, now rehabilitated, went to China as a volunteer. She was being paid a reasonable amount to help her and her family of three, including her mother and two sisters back home in Zana, a Kampala suburb.

“I went to Singapore and met friends with whom we enjoyed life after work.

“Soon I was chased from work for consuming drugs and later I applied to become a refugee. However the habit of consuming drugs had caught up with me and I was arrested and imprisoned a number of times.

“I counted about 50 Ugandans in the cells who had been arrested for a similar offence. While in prison, I met Fr. John Wortherspoon from the Order of Mary Immaculate who was working in Hong Kong heading a prison ministry who talked to me and took heart and I listened to him.”

PNS spent time with Shifa in order to establish what prompted her to leave Uganda. However, her mother Sarah Kwikiriza had explained that Shifa ended in senior two and fell out of school due to lack of money. Shifa admits that her failure to complete the school cycle had affected her future.

“I chose to go for kyeyo hoping to make ends meet but I later became a victim of drug abuse.”

Kyeyo is local term used to refer to employment in foreign countries.

Although the country has mechanisms for rehabilitating such categories of people, the facilities and human resource are ill prepared for the challenge. There is chronic lack of drugs. This is compounded by the meager pay for professionals.

Most counseling services are done by non government organisations. A number of these centers visited by PNS charge from shillings 50,000 a day. This is about US $ 16 and it is far beyond the reach of majority Ugandans who would require such services.

Religious institutions have formed prisons ministries to save the souls of the inmates; they talk to prisoners at different prisons here in Uganda right from Luzira maximum prison to lower jails and cells.

According to the Prisons spokesperson Frank Baine, the religious institutions form an integral part of the prisoners’ reform process even when they have completed serving their sentence.

“We allow anybody to undertake prisons ministry as long as they are recognised institutions and state their intentions clearly.”

Indeed rehabilitation is a key aspect of helping these young people to find direction in life. Shifa is an example highlighting the importance of assuring them that it is possible to pick up the pieces and move on. The challenge is getting this support to them when they need it.

Shifa shows Sr. Margaret her shoe stall. Right is her mother. Photos by Francis Ahabyona/PNS

“I was in a prison. I was in a mess and thought that I had to be on drugs to get on in life. I had lost all hope until Fr. John assured me that all was not lost; he would help me if I returned home.

“I am now back home in Uganda, ready to work so that I can lead a decent life.

“Now I am going to open a boutique for shoes and I am sure I will be able to get customers and earn a living, decently.”

Kevin, the elder sibling to the mother jailed for nine years, is always depressed at the mention of her mother’s fate. The family living with their Centenarian grandmother, Magdalene, is being supported by Fr. John Wortherspoon who offers annual financial support to ensure that the family leads a decent life.

The funds are used to pay for food, tuition at the university as well as the fees for the Ordinary and Advanced levels students.

Josephine and Shifa’s families must consider themselves lucky; not many ever get that second chance to have a new beginning in life. Nevertheless, whoever is planning to take to drug trafficking must think twice. The consequences are dire.