When I was in Uganda in May, we visited a village deep in the heart of the Nakasongola district of Uganda. Nakasongola is one of the three districts served by the Bishop Asili Hospital. The village I visted, Kikoiro (pronounced chick-o-ee-ro) is served by one of the 11 outlying clinics that the hospital has established. Nearly every person in this village has been affected by HIV/AIDS in one way or another. Either they have been orphaned by AIDS, they are sick themselves, or someone in their house is infected. Malaria, intestinal parasites, and malnutrition also greatly affect these warm, loving people.
I didn't know her name at the time that I met her, but this little girl stayed in my heart. We had an instant connection that has carried me through many difficult moments doing this work.
This is the smile that really confirmed for me that every child is just like my child -- full of the same love, playfulness, and potential. Her name is Nyangoma Recha. She's eight-years-old and is currently in P-1 (sort of like first grade). Nyangoma means “older twin” -- in that she was the first baby born from a twin pregnancy. Her twin is dead, we're not sure why yet, but are looking to find out. Her father died eighteen months ago. Sister Ernestine, the founder of the Bishop Asili Hospital, will investigate the cause. Nyangoma lives with her mother and baby brother in a one-room mud hut.
The people in the village are very warm and loving, however, like muchof the rural community, they have been stricken hard by the HIV pandemic. Two out of three people in the village are either sick, are livng with someone who is sick, or have already died. Children suffer frequently from malaria because of a lack of bed nets and intestinal parasites because their only source of water is a large polluted lake from which they fish to earn a living.
This is the secondary school in the village of Kikoiro.
This is the school house that Nyangoma would have attended for secondary school.
The exterior of the secondary school.
Children standing outside the primary school.
When I visited Uganda again, I knew that we had to go back to Kikoiro to find this little girl with so much promise. Here we have just located her. In her hand she is carrying the immunization record for her little brother who is on her back and sick with malaria. She was just going to bring him to the clinic to see if he could receive treatment.
This is the inside of Nyangoma's home. There is one mattress on the floor that Nyongoma, her mother, and her baby brother all sleep in. There is a clothes line, and that is about it.
We gathered in the village circle to have a discussion about Nyangoma's future. The village health coordinator (left in blue shirt) is translating to Nyangoma and her mother what we are saying.
Nyangoma is a star as you can see from her brilliant smile. Through an interpreter, we told Nyangoma and her mother that Just Like My Child Foundation will support Nyangoma's education OUT OF THE VILLAGE and at a boarding school through secondary school and hopefully through university and college. There are some excellent schools in or near Kampala, the capitol of Uganda. It will be an all-girls school, giving Nyangoma the hope of avoiding sex, pregnancy, HIV infection and early marriage until she is aware enough to be able to make conscious decisions.
As Sister Ernestine told me, sending her out of the village will save her life. Most children, if they are out of school, will begin having sex as early as 12-years-old. The Just Like My Child Foundation will support a scholarship program in Kikoiro and work with a Peace Corps Volunteer to improve the education that is already in the village.
Everyone is very happy. I was concerned about how other children would react and how her mother would feel. The mother clearly was relieved to be able to have her child educated and out of the influences in the village. And as you can see, Nyangoma is pretty happy, too.
The large lake from where the villagers catch their fish and get their water.
Nyangoma's little brother with malaria.
