Daniel's Story - Part One

Editor’s Note:  An abbreviated version of the following story was featured in our recent newsletter.  This is the full story.  At Empower African Children, we place a high priority on maintaining the dignity of the children we serve.  As you read Daniel's story, we hope you will feel proud.  Proud of what Daniel has overcome, proud of his accomplishments, and proud to be a part of his future.

When you see the children of Spirit of Uganda on stage — with their bright smiles, exuberant dancing, and obvious joy — it’s hard to imagine the stories of their lives. It’s easy to forget that many of them are orphans, and that they’ve grown up in hardship that many of us can hardly fathom.

Daniel is one of these children. Now an energetic teenager, Daniel was born in Mitoma, a village in the southwestern corner of Uganda, in 1993. He lived in a two-bedroom house along with his mother and father and a younger sister, protected from the elements by walls of thatched grass and metal sheeting. His father was a car mechanic. His mother grew sweet potatoes and cassava in a small garden. They lived entirely off the land.

Then, when Daniel was around four years old (his sister was two), a drought hit the village. The family garden — along with the village’s well — dried up. The neighboring village of Rusoroza still had water, so Daniel and his mother began walking several miles each day to draw water for cooking and drinking. “My mother always went to dig for food in other people in their gardens,” Daniel remembers. “In turn, they gave her food from their garden which she brought home.” The family could subsist on that food for a few days at a time. “But even then, it wasn’t enough,” says Daniel.

Before long, the distance between the villages became too much of a burden for Daniel’s parents, so the family moved to Rusoroza. Daniel’s father left his mechanic job to grow tomatoes in a friend’s garden, selling them for posho (corn flour). His mother continued digging in exchange for food. They worked from 6 a.m. until 1 p.m., often leaving Daniel and his baby sister at home alone. “We never usually had any breakfast,” he says. “There was never enough food.”

When he turned five, Daniel began primary school, where he was taught math and English along with 100 other students in mud houses with dirt floors. The young children sat on mats called obulagos, because only grades 4 to 7 had benches for sitting. Everyone was poor, but some children wore a uniform of khaki shorts and blue shirts. Daniel went without because his family was unable to afford a uniform. All the students were barefoot. “There wasn’t a single pupil in the school who wore shoes,” Daniel recalls. “Even now, you would never find a child with shoes in that school, because all the children come from poor families.”

Check back later this week for part two of Daniel's story. 

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