How It Started
One day, a little boy named Joseph Kitimbo, found himself abandoned on the street, at the age of just 4 years old, after his parents divorced. He struggled to feed himself, but learnt all the survival skills he needed and managed for a few years alone.
Then when he was 7 years old, a family from the UK found him crying on the street and took him in. They cared for him for a few years while they lived in Uganda, but when they moved back to the UK, Joseph was left with some distant relatives. He was ill treated here and after staying a few years, finally got away and went back to the streets.
As he got older, he became a mentor and trusted ‘go to’ person for many of the children arriving on the street.
“At the age of 23, I was working as a shoe shiner on the streets in Busia on the Uganda, Kenya border. I had been a street boy since I was 4 years old and so knew the difficulties in living with no shelter or food. The local street children trusted me and started to come to me when they got into trouble or needed anything. I started then supporting them to make sure they ate and washed. Despite the fact that the children were smarter and more healthy, because they were out on the streets, they were being beaten by the police at night.”
One of the boys that Joseph looked out for was Emma. “Aged just 10 years old, he was suffering as he was very isolated. He was struggling to find food as his leg was injured and septic and smelt, so he couldn’t move around to get food and the others stayed away from him as his wound smelt. A group of us organised a fundraiser and raised enough money for Emma to have an operation on his leg, in Kenya.” Emma now has his own barber shop.
One day a Kenyan man named Simon came to help. He paid rent for a house for the boys for 3 months and the children still went out during the day to look for food on the streets, but unfortunately he couldn’t keep up the funding due to a family illness. A church pastor then tried to help too, supporting the children by housing and feeding them, but suddenly, fed up with the fact the children were not bringing in the extra income he thought his charitable effort would give him, decided his church could not look after them any more and the children were to be abandoned on the streets, yet again.
Fortunately, one of the people supporting the children at the church was a local school teacher named Jacqueline, who lived in a staff house. She asked the headmaster if she could have the children stay with her and he agreed. Now 8 children as well as the school teachers own sons, all stay at the school. Their school fees were paid for initially by Jacqueline, but we now have we have sponsors for these children.
One of the boys who went to stay with Jacqueline was Jose, the son of a tribal leader. His father was killed and mother ran away, leaving Jose on the street as a little boy. Jose’s mother came to see him for the first time, at his foster mothers house, a couple of years ago, and now they see each other regularly. We helped set Jose up with his own ‘rolex’ (rolled eggs) stall during Covid lockdown.
Joseph is now our Step Up Family Organisation outreach worker. Local police and leaders let Joseph know if they find children on the street or getting in trouble and Joseph works with them and their families to see if they are willing and able to go to school with our help.
Joseph also supports some of the older ex street boys to learn to barber and run the Step Up Family Salon.
I asked Joseph why he is still so involved in street life. He told me this …
“One day a child was taken to the police station by his father and left there. The police called me as I am well known for helping the children that end up on the streets. The boy asked Joseph ‘Can you take me? If not I am going to die’. I thought the problem was his home life, so I met with the boy’s father so that we could make a plan for him to return home. The boy killed himself.
I could not let that happen again. Now I follow up all the children who come to me. We talk and I find out about their home lives. Many children are made to leave home because their family cannot afford to feed them. Others leave due to abuse and neglect. None of these children go to school. They grow up on the street and have no education and no chance to get good jobs.”
Step Up Family Organisation became officially registered in Uganda 2015 when our little group caring for the children started to grow and we knew they needed to start to become more organised.
Since then, we have been registered as an NGO in Uganda and support many more children to stay with their families, by providing sponsorship for school fees and food at school each day. We have children currently attending over 15 schools. All schools in Uganda charge fees, the children have to wear uniforms and have to take equipment with them to start school each new term, including exercise books, pens, rulers, rubbers, sharpeners, maths sets etc and when they board, which is compulsory in the last year of primary school and also in Senior School, the children have to also take a mattress, bucket, soap, toiletries and food, before they are allowed to start. This makes it almost impossible for many families to afford to send their children to school.
We have now been Registered as a Charity in the UK too.
Perhaps you would like to help Joseph and the Step Up Family Organisation to relieve the pressure on families and help more street children go to school?
If so, please get in touch via the contact page. Thank You.
Step Up Family Organisation 