Slums.

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I am overwhelmed right now, as I write this we are in the van on the way home from the slums in Kampala. My heart is feeling heavy for the things we have witnessed. This has by far been the most impacting thing I have witnessed in my life.

This morning after a five hour ride to Kampala thanks to a broken down van we arrived in the first slum of the day where 'Youth sports Uganda' works from. We had a beautiful welcoming from half London school, with song, dance and prayer. It was beautiful getting to dance with the children and they just warmed up to us straight away, grabbing our hands and getting us up to dance with them. We went to their school next to learn about how they learn and how the boarding school works, talked about the gaps and where the needs have been/ where they are now. Our challenge now is to come up with ways we can help, and help the most people we can. It was tough seeing the conditions these children are learning in. It was next level poverty that I can’t explain. 70 children squeezed into a 4x5m classroom, 1000 children learning in a total school grounds of roughly 40x20m land.

There is a boarding section for those in the absolute most need. When I say boarding school, I’m not talking about Christchurch boarding school, where you’ve got to be reasonably well off to be able to board. But I’m talking about housing children that have either been abandoned, orphaned or they simply can’t attend school if they weren’t boarding. This boarding school consists of four rooms, probably the size of your bathroom at home. A boys wing and a girls wing. When we entered the rooms, we saw three tiered bunks crammed into every corner. We thought sweet, they get a bed. That’s great! But..... there were only around 18 beds in each room. And there were 80 children that slept in each. I don’t know how that is physically possible, or how people can live like this. But these children do.

We were welcomed in traditional Ugandan fashion with a song before we heard a little bit more about the women’s stories. We were then taken to this beautiful women’s house, which you would not call a house. It was a 3 by 2 metre box, made of mud and sticks with a tin roof that had holes scattered throughout. We sat on her floor, which we soon found out was the space for cooking, washing, studying, eating, sleeping and everything in between. But wait, if you’re not crying already - listen to this. This gorgeous, strong woman has been living here for 25 years. 15 years ago, her husband left her to go make a life for himself in the city with his other wife. He hasn’t been seen since. He left her with 20 children - both their own and grandchildren which all live in this one square box. They take turns sleeping in shifts and when they do sleep, it is only for a brief hour or two - “just enough to take away the dizziness” she says. As she was telling her story, I could see the pain and anguish she had been through in her eyes. Her achey heart transferred straight to mine as I tried to imagine the hardship she has been through. What makes this so hard to face is that this lady is just one, of thousands in her community, of millions in her country, and all around the world that are living in absolute hardship and poverty.

After we visited their homes we came back to the meeting point and browsed through all the jewellery and things the women’s group had made. We did a lot of Christmas shopping which was cool to see that in buying these gifts, these women are getting food to eat this week and roofs over their heads. I had a really good chat to Joshua who is the head person of You sports Uganda. We talked about 90% of these woman are HIV positive. They won’t receive medical treatment because the government just neglects the slums. The government are trying to take over this land, because when they first moved all the refugees and people here and created the slums, they didn’t realise the value of high land. Now all the rich people are wanting to build on high ground and paying mega bucks. So the government are trying to push these people out who aren’t paying what they. These people live and die here. They have graves 1 metre from where they cook their dinner.

These people are happy when you see them on the street, they smile the largest smiles and you see them playing. But inside, they are dying. And their futures are going to be the same as their ancestors, unless someone comes along like us and gives them the means to change that path. The issue is, these people are so poor. There are no means for them to trade or do business, their money goes straight into food and rent whenever they get any. There isn’t the same issues here as in Lugazi. In Lugazi, you don’t see a lot of people starving for food because most families have the land and space to harvest crops. Here, there is absolutely no space. These families can’t be self sustaining food wise, therefore need a means of work that is reliable and sustainable to enable them to buy food each day.

Today we had lunch with Joshua who told us his story about how he got out of the slums by playing sport (He was on the national field hockey team). Now he’s started up a program for boys to play soccer, and for every session they have for soccer, they have a half hour session at the end to teach them how to be good, responsible men that can make a difference in their community. Saturday three of us 'football girls' got the opportunity to run a football camp for the boys of the slums. It was awesome to be able to do this for them and to see the passion and determination they have in every tackle, pass and shot. They know that if they work hard enough and get good enough, they could have a future out of the slums. Definitely a very enjoyable day for everyone involved!

I don't mean for this to sound depressing but I just wanted to share that this is real life for people. And as we sit at home living our privileged lives, maybe if you think about sending your coffee back because it's not hot enough - I hope you might think again. Keep in mind these people and keep them in your prayers.