Author archives: Benjamin Rogmans

In June 2011, Namutebi, a young woman living in Nansana, a dilapidated suburb of Kampala, suspected that there was an abandoned child in the house next door. She reported her concerns to the local council and the police. They initiated an investigation, but nobody was able to get a hold of the neighbor who was supposed to live there. What the investigation uncovered, though, was that there was a toddler that had been left behind in the house without care for now two months: Mark. When he was found, he was malnourished and sick.

During the process, Namutebi came across Mark’s mother, who was hiding since her crime had been exposed. She reported her to the police, who arrested her.

Since there was no known relative to take Mark in—his mother didn’t know who his father was—the police forwarded the child to Another Hope Children’s Ministries for the period of the trial. After Mark’s mother was sentenced, he stayed at AHCM for good.

Following up on the case later on, AHCM found out that Mark’s mum had been released on court bond, and then disappeared. The judge issued a warrant of arrest, which ...

No one knows how old exactly Aisha is, but she was about two or three years old when she was brought to Another Hope by a local police officer. Aisha’s parents separated in April 2011. The father left the family, taking Aisha’s older sibling with him to an unknown destination, so she stayed behind with only her mother Mbabazi. After a few days Mbabazi took Aisha to her neighbor Margaret, who makes her living by attending to children during the day while their parents are at work. That morning was the last time Aisha saw her mother. She never came back.

Parents in trouble deserting their children are a common occurrence not only in Uganda. Often hopeless, they leave their kids with friends, neighbors or sometimes even strangers. They make them believe they’ll be back soon, but then pack up their belongings and leave their whole life behind to start over somewhere else. All too often the police even finds toddlers dumped in gullies or on the garbage dump.

Efforts to trace for Aisha’s father or her relatives have failed since nobody knows any of them or the exact former place of residence of the family ...

Charles was born on the 21st of May 2010 in Kyoga village in Uganda. Charles’s parents were cohabiting and had four children, Ritah, Olivia, Yvonne, and Charles. Unfortunately the siblings are now separated. Their father is a casual laborer who survives on daily income raised from loading sand on trucks. The mother was a housewife. Charles was severely battered by his mother, tortured, and denied food. Luckily the neighbors saw this and took the matter to the police. Charles’s mother was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

The probation officer first put the children under the custody of a friend of their father to look after them now that their mother had been sent to prison. This lady could not cater for the children for long. They were too many and yet she was not working. The support she was receiving from Charles’s father was only occasional, given the nature of his job. Sometimes the children could go hungry for days. Charles was malnourished and his condition was very poor compared to his other siblings. Because of the critical condition he was in, he was brought to Another Hope so that he could receive proper ...