One day I
went to get my hair braided by a woman in the market of Kampala. My eyes rested
upon this other woman, selling food while caring for her little baby. The litte
baby looked so small and frail, and I would have guessed it to be no more than
3 months old. When I later asked about the child’s age I learned that it was 11
months old, and I remember my heart sank.
This was
the brutality, - I realized, - for many struggling mothers working long hours
in the local market with minimal income. They could not afford to leave the
child in a day care center, and they could not afford to stay home, taking care
of the child. As bringing their child to the market would lower their chances
of making money, their only solution was to leave their children at home during
the day, often locked up in small, dark spaces. This was done by loving mothers
with the purpose of protecting their children, but with woeful result of the
child being undernourished and under-developed, and often seriously or even
fatally ill.
A great
desire to help encouraged me to create an organization to help found a day care
center for the children of mothers working at the market. I founded an
organization, found a place with an affordable rent close to the market and
engaged people who were willing to help me run the day care. I was now eager to
finally welcome my first child, who I wanted to be that little baby I had seen
on the market that day.
When I returned
to the market, excited to give the mother the uplifting news and a promise of a
better future for this child, I learned that the baby had died few days ago.
It was too
late for this child, but there were many children still to be saved.
Seeing this
little baby with its mother on the market that day was the inspiration that
initiated the Miles2Smiles wellfare center. This little angel in the market of
Kampala set out the course for many, many children to come.
-
story told by the founder of Miles2Smiles, Catherine Kitongo, re-told by project1uganda.blogspot.no
