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In January 2018, we started our home for street children called Child’s Destiny Africa here in Kampala, but our story started much earlier..
đź“·Mustafa Ssekandi, Founder & Head of Department Fundraising
I, Mustafa Ssekandi, thought about establishing my own NGO for the first time in the year 2012 when I was about 18 years old. For a long time, I believed that would remain a dream. But thanks to God this changed this year!My own story started when I was just seven years old . At this time, my parents had no money to pay for my school, so they sent me to my uncle for proper education. He was living near a good school so at the beginning I was very happy that I could get what many other children couldn't get. Unfortunately, my uncle started to change. He started to beat me for any small mistake. At the beginning I thought I deserved that but with time, I got more and more beatings just for anything wrongly done. He abused me heavily every time. One day, he beat me so severely that I had to make a decision and that was, ’going to the street’.This was 2003. The village of my uncle was quite remote and I knew no other place than Kampala, our capital, where I could maybe survive. I walked a whole day and another night to reach this city which became my home up to today. Just eight years old, I was there alone and absolutely responsible for myself. At the streets, I had to look for any amount of money I could find. Mostly, I earned my food after selling scrap metals and plastic bottles. But more often, I could not even earn a single Schilling. Regularly, the trash of others was the lunch for me. I remember one bin which was next to a hair salon. Many times it saved me from sleeping with an empty stomach. One day, I found there a huge plate of posho and beans but full of hair. It was so much that I could barely finish it. This hairy meal made me the happiest I have been in a long time. This was my life for nearly six years. With roughly 14 years, I heard the first time about a charity organisation which carried out outreaches for kids like us. They played with us, taught us about God and gave us food. After a while, they opened a home for street children and came to select those who wanted to live there. I was very excited and also afraid they would not pick me as there were many other kids. Luckily enough they chose me and for the first time for many years I had a place to sleep where I was comfortable. I had enough food everyday and most importantly I could go back to school. This NGO gave me a future to believe in. They enabled me to finish my primary school and after that I could even go to a secondary school and obtain my ordinary level certificate. For six years, I had a home from where I managed to get a plumbing course.I finally could get my first own room. During all those years, I started to believe in myself and I could imagine a future for myself. The same time, my wish grew to do the same and start to help kids still living on the street. But I had no money or other means to help them, I just had a talent of music which I could share with them. After I moved out I worked the whole day and during my free time I went to the slums to play music using my guitar. I tried to encourage other street kids to not lose hope but to believe in themselves. Their life is worth to live and that they have a future. This experience helped me a lot in my career which was luckily not plumbing but Gospel music. Today I can earn a living as a Gospel Artist here in Uganda. The money I am earning I use also to support some kids on the streets, at least with water and food. Unfortunately it is not enough to give them a home. This is why I established Child’s Destiny Africa together with an old friend from the streets, James.
đź“·James Lukwago, Founder & Manager
I, James Lukwago, met Mustafa when I was just about eleven years old somewhere on the streets of Kampala. This was 2004 but I had stayed on the street since 2002 when I was around nine. I ended up here not in one step but the streets got me slowly. After the death of my father in 2001 my mother married another man. He treated me in many horrible ways. I never got regular meals nor education. I also lacked parental care and love. My mother could not help or defend me in front of him as she was also dependent on him. We were both regularly beaten by him, especially when he was drunk. Not only using his fists and feet but also sticks and metal pipes or whatever was close. Our home was in a Kampala suburb called Nankulabye, so for me the streets where very easy to reach. I made my final decision and left. Still every time I missed home or when I was too hungry I returned home. With time, I got more and more used to the life outside of a home and the periods between my stays at home became longer and longer. This was the time I met Mustafa and we tried to find food together and when we failed we sometimes had to rely on stealing from other people. Still today I somehow regret what we had to do to survive. But when one of us found food at least we could share so we became good friends and remained up to this day. When this NGO selected kids from the streets to stay at their new house luckily after Mustafa, I was chosen. Because over the years I could get some small education from my family I managed to get a bursary for a primary school. This is how I managed to obtain free education from P4 to P7. During the first two years of this bursary I still stayed on the street most of the time. I was in P6 when this NGO picked me up. Over time this home also developed as they could not provide food or education at the beginning due to little funds. But I found a safe place to sleep finally and because of my bursary I got my primary education. With time the NGO grew and attracted sponsors from Europe. They started to provide food and after some time they were able to send me to a secondary school in 2009. Luckily the support grew so today I am about to finish my Bachelor of Science in Finance. We stayed at this NGO together for nearly 7 years before we moved out. There we saw how hard an organisation life can be for kids from the street. Many of the kids who came with us from the street just went back and some are still homeless. We also witnessed mistakes done by the managers here and in many other homes. Now we have the vision to do everything better. We are very happy that the same sponsors from Germany who helped to fund the NGO which got us from the streets are trusting us enough to support our plans. Unfortunately their funds are very limited so we have to acquire more support.
Our Vision
Currently we managed to rent quite a big, cheap home in the Masajja area of Kampala. We started our home with roughly 15 boys we already know and trust. These kids are of all ages starting from 10 years.But we want to grow bigger for sure. Our home has space at least for 15 more kids, once we have the funds to provide for them. As we went to many different schools and were lucky enough to get education from good ones, we want to give this privilege also to our kids. Unfortunately this is expensive for us alone. But we want to give the same trust we were given to other kids who perform well in school and enable them to achieve what they could never imagine, just like us when we were younger.As we know what it means to be on the streets of Kampala, we know what these kids are going through and what they need. We are confident that we can give them what they need.Our goal is to be a home for children who have not had one for a long time. We want to show them that whatever led them to the streets was not their fault. We want to show them that there are people who accept and love them the way they are no matter what they did. We want these kids to prosper and to have a great future despite their past.This is the place we imagine our home to be. This is what we believe is our destiny. When we stayed at the street we always thought this is it, our destiny is decided. We believed we could not do anything in our lives. Never be able to have a family or even to have a job. Not to be able to eat everyday. But our destiny was different. We escaped the streets. We were beating all odds life had against us and changed what we thought is unchangeable. Our destiny was not bad but it was good. To change the destiny of other kids we established this home. This is Child’s Destiny Africa.
Our Work
In our future we are planning to do regular outreaches to kids on the streets. We know how much even small things like just listening or a plate of food can mean. With that program we will try to build trust and prepare these kids to start a normal life again. In our home we try to provide for everything. In other organizations kids are often not supported in a meaningful way. They get a place to sleep and some food but nothing more. The main goal for many organizations is to simply get these kids off the streets so people do not have to see them anymore. But they seldom offer a future.At our place we try to encourage kids to dream and to believe. Our plan is to support everyone as long as their journey might be. Be it university or just primary school. As kids need more than just a shelter to survive, Child’s Destiny Africa tries to be a family and a place full of love and hope. We provide our children with all necessary goods for school, healthy food, health care and even a small pocket money of 5$ a month.
đź“·Alex Opio, Administrator
Next to us two we employ Alex Opio, an experienced caretaker who we know for more than five years. He stays at the shelter all day and night and can handle all small and big emergencies a house full of boys can experience.With this team we are very confident to provide the best care possible for our children.
