Buule Banagaaya Mark is a child on UCC formal education sponsorship with ambitious thoughts about his future. Mark is currently in Primary three and is doing well and very promising. Mark’s
family lives in Kampala Slums adjacent to areas that accommodate leaders of the city.
When COVID-19 lockdown was declared by the President in 2020, most people doing small businesses specially around the city were extremely affected because very few people both in the
community and passersby could manage to access their stalls to buy merchandise and food items from them. Some of the vendors doing business in such areas was Mark’s mother who was
involved in selling items like tomatoes, onions, carrots and others used in cooking of food.
Her business was in the tune of Uganda shillings 50,000/= equivalent to 12 Euros as working capital. When the lockdown went into more days, the family ended up eating all the capital due to lack of any other support and income.
Mark’s father had been unemployed for a long time and even when the lockdown was instituted it found him in the same situation. However, during the good times, he could go to the villages and
contract work with some farmers to dig for some sizeable piece of land and paid in return.
At this moment of the lockdown, this was not possible. Therefore, there was no dependable income for the family at that particular time. Both public and private transport were restricted apart from trucks that carried food items and other merchandise to use in particular areas such as construction, essential commodities and many others.
Even such trucks were prohibited from carrying passengers beyond the number permitted by government. Life became so terrible not only Mark’s family but also in other families having similar mode of work for survival. Thank God that Mark’s father managed to travel to the villages where he got casual work from which he was paid wages. He immediately got a job because farmers worked and produced food items for consumption. The only problem was how to reach there.
This action saved a lot the wellbeing of Mark’s family because the father was now able to send some money to support the family. In the same period, MEM donated funds to support some children in this period from their sponsors. This gesture was welcomed with open hands particularly by the children themselves and the families they belong.
Mark was lucky that he was among the children who received these specific donations. UCC contacted him to pass the news, after receiving it, he was very happy and sought the need to come immediately to the Centre. However, due to transport restrictions, he was unable to be brought and some other time was arranged.
UCC is grateful to Mark’s father who beat all odds to bring Mark to the Centre to receive his donation. Mark was received by UCC social worker, Violet, who did the official hand over of the
funds to Mark. Mark thanked UCC and MEM for enabling him get the money in the lockdown.
He promised to write a thank you letter expressing how happy he was feeling and to promise to be a good boy in behaviors and school performance. He said he would give some money to his
mother to help her settle some demands in the home because everyday he sees her struggling to keep him and his siblings happy.
The remaining money he would use it to buy a bicycle because that had been his longtime dream since he was a small boy. He confessed that he always admired children riding bicycles around his village. Therefore, this was a dream that came true. He promised to use it when going to the market, church and school if the father allowed him.
UCC joins Mark and his family to thank MEM and the sponsors for the generosity manifested through giving and sponsoring the vulnerable children to useful citizens of the country that will drastically contribute to community and national development.