I had never previously visited the slums before, so when the opportunity arose to go to the slums I immediately said yes. Like everything I do, I did not really have any huge expectations, but immediately I was effected by what I saw.
First of all, the amount of children living on the streets on Kampala was huge. It seemed that none of them had any adults to look up to and were left to their own accord. The children's clothes were torn and extremely dirty and most of the children had injuries and scars from the harsh living conditions.
The two pictures above represent two of the most significant things to me, after visiting the slums. The picture on the left is of a young boy sucking on a bottle top. Now upon first glance you wouldn't necessarily think this was a terrible thing, however these bottles contains small pieces of cloth that have been soaked with petrol. many of the children inhale the fumes from the petrol as it reduces their need for food. Though this may reduce their symptoms for hunger, the petrol is highly addictive and extremely damaging to the brain. Some of the children who were doing this were as young as 7 years old which immediately struck a chord with me.
The picture on the right is of some of the volunteers with the children. Every week, the volunteers go to the slums and treat the children from their battle scars. I particularly remember many deep cuts, illnesses from drinking contaminated water and scars from dogs and other such things.
This may look like a hopeless situation, but Patrick (our guide) was a former slum child, and through his endeavours and commitment managed to get himself out of the slums. He has now created an organisation that takes children away from the slums to a rehabilitation centre ( where they stay for 3 months) and then onto higher education, to give the children a fighting chance!
Above is a picture of Patrick (Left) encouraging two of the children from the slums.