The following article was written by Frank Robinson who, along with four others from St Paul’s Church, Tervuren, Brussels visited RETRAK’s project, The Tigers Club in Uganda in June 2007.             

TIGERS  BURNING BRIGHT

“I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”     Ps 27:13

When we set off for Kampala in the middle of June (07), I doubt whether any of us were prepared for the reality of what Tigers Club has achieved.  Aiming to “rebuild the broken lives of street children, restore their dignity and help them realise their potential as human beings”, Tigers has thrillingly, inspiringly, been very successful in doing just that.  It is hard to imagine the experiences that Kampala's street boys (the Club works with boys only for the time being) have been through. From broken homes, rejection by families, abandonment, abuse, they go on to the streets to find a world of desperate hunger, violence, cruelty, struggle to survive, with predatory adults only too ready to exploit and take advantage of them.

Tigers Club was set up as a football club (Tigers FC) in 1994.  In 1998 a drop in centre was opened providing food and a safe haven, which has now expanded to cover multiple aspects of the boys' welfare and development into adulthood. There is no compulsion involved, it must be stressed, and attendance can be irregular to the disappointment of the staff, but those boys who grow with Tigers prove only too well how worthwhile and fruitful the attention and input can be.

From Day 1, when we were introduced to the staff at the Clubhouse and listened to them describe their responsibilities, it was clear that this was above all a professional operation.  From fulfilling the basic needs of food, safety, a refuge and shelter to the complex process of assessing, educating, training and monitoring the development of the boys at the same time as attending to their social welfare in fostering and resettlement schemes, the love and support and compassion and commitment of the staff - almost all nationally employed - shine out as an example of Christian faith in action.

The approach is threefold:  the initial “Reaching Out”, which includes the sports and medical care programmes, feeding, counselling and learning life skills, personal health and hygiene, literacy and numeracy;  the START (”Specially Targeted And Resourced Tigers”) programme of supported formal education, primary and secondary, plus vocational training; and thirdly, the Reintegration programme, which covers resettlement and foster care and encouragement to set up independent businesses.

Football, immensely popular in Uganda, plays an important part, as we were to see on our first morning.  A way of encouraging boys to come to the Club, it was explained to us how it helps them to work as a group, fosters team spirit, instils a sense of belonging and value as part of a team, as well as developing fitness and teaching them to look after their own bodies. There are two pitches in the grounds of the former Royal Palace, a short distance from the Clubhouse, and these are used for different age groups. The older team plays in local league and cup competitions and has a great deal of success.                                               

Lunch with the boys on that first day was an eye-opener in many ways. They formed an orderly queue, some newly arrived with haunted faces and lowered eyes, dressed in filthy rags, others more confident with laundered clothes, but all very hungry for their rice and beans.  No shouting, no fighting, no running amok.

After lunch, led by Sarah we took a Bible class on the theme of “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke1:37).  The songs, games and challenges were greeted with enthusiasm, as was our little playlet based on the Parable of the Lost Son. 

Throughout the boys were disciplined and well-behaved, showing willingness to learn and participate.  A highlight was the spontaneous applause when in our play, the father (Trevor) was reconciled with his lost son (Eleanor) in a joyful hug! We were already beginning to see how the overall, holistic approach was bearing fruit, and this was fully brought home on the second day of our visit, when we split into three groups to accompany the professionals at work.

Trevor and Eleanor went to meet several families of boys at various stages in the resettlement process, and saw the difficulties involved, while Sarah visited a boarding school housing a number of START boys and was very impressed with the facilities and the students themselves.  Christine and I accompanied Dinah, the head of foster care, on a visit to the Kamwokya Christian vocational training centre.  The Tigers boys attending the centre, who usually excel, follow one of the courses such as carpentry, leatherwork, mechanics, bricklaying, catering, art and design or tailoring at the same time as improving their literacy skills. The level attained in each section was impressive thanks to a dedicated staff and good facilities.Throughout our visit to a prospective foster carer, a grandmother who had previously taken on another Tigers boy, the very professional, skilled expertise of the social workers was plain to see. The cases involved were almost always highly complex, and the success rate very positive with few failures. Decisions were taken in group meetings of all interested parties, with the issues never clearcut, underlining the difficult nature of these matters. Candidate foster carers were always interviewed in depth beforehand to establish how genuine they and their faith were, as some applicants were more attracted by the food allowance paid by Tigers than by a wish to foster a Tigers boy.

To be welcomed into a foster carer's home and receive her generous hospitality was a memorable, humbling experience.  God bless you, Priscilla.

Simon Basoga, the Director of Tigers, invited us to the weekly Monday morning staff meeting, at which each member had to report on the week's work and activities.  He underlined the need for increased accountability and close justification of expenditure.  We were each made to feel very welcome and asked to say a few words, all kindly received.  The atmosphere was excellent, with constant applause and mutual encouragement.  The staff (at the meeting) totaled 16 (there are 22 staff in total) , and all seem highly motivated;  frequent courses/workshops and training days are organised to increase their knowledge and skills, and their performance is under constant appraisal.  Simon later told us that the expansion of Tigers and the receipt of a grant from central government have brought a need for increased accountability by staff and even closer assessment of their activities.

That afternoon we were taken to Banulule School for orphans (several from Tigers), where Maura Jeffrey recently spent 2 years as headmistress. The present Head, Vanessa, is a BSB (British School of Brussels) alumna and runs a first-rate school despite the limited space for 195 pupils in 7 classes in all age ranges up to 16-17. Particularly striking was her assurance that the literacy classes teach the children English from zero to a reasonably fluent level within 2 years, and this was borne out by the delightful end-of-term plays and dramas the children put on during our visit.  It was good to see the children, who were all staying with relatives or others often in trying circumstances, so happy-looking and willing to participate. The growth of Tigers and its formal establishment within RETRAK have brought a need for more support staff, and a new accountant has just been appointed.

The necessary Government requirements accompanying its granting of funding have meant a greater workload, more paperwork by staff and management alike, and thus more expenditure.  This was inevitable - all expanding organisations must cope with increased demands of this sort.

And so to Tudabujja, the Tigers' halfway home for 27 boys, run by Jen and Nathan.  This is a working farm, with a wide range of crops and farm animals (pigs, rabbits, cows and 700 chickens!). A residential home, where boys spend 4-6 months preparing for a return to family life, is divided into 3 cottages, each under the supervision of a Housemother.  A new Housefather had just arrived that very day.  The setting by Lake Victoria is just stunning and an atmosphere of peace and faith, of contentment in productive work,  pervades this God-blessed place. The farm manager, young but experienced and highly qualified, supervises and teaches the boys as they work in the fields and with the animals.  The farm is self-sufficient, sending what it does not use back to the Clubhouse and selling off its surpluses in the market to gain extra income for Tigers.

Lessons and lunch are held in a beautiful, typically African thatched gazebo, where I ate with a lad whose knowledge of English Premier League and European football was of Mastermind proportions - all, he said, from the newspapers he read!  This bright, engaging boy and the evident popularity of football among all the boys seemed to confirm how much on the right track Tigers is. My mind went back to that Sunday morning's service at a local Kampala church, when we met 2 former Tigers boys and could see how God's work and God's word had been triumphantly fulfilled. Before us were two self-confident, articulate young Christian men, smiling, polite, sociable, on their way to becoming independent adults with a stake in society.  This was truly a joy to see, and a most shining example of how a vision, putting into practice the word of God, can bear such tremendous fruit. It is hard to put across just how heartwarming, eye-opening, humbling and ultimately inspiring our experience of Tigers was. 

The ambitious, holistic approach, the faith, compassion and commitment, the sheer professionalism in a truly God-centred context, all showed how much can be achieved through vision, hard work and love.  There are plans to expand in the future, to set up a separate centre for girls, to reach out into the country and identify those in need, to extend the work among refugee children.  All will require more and constant funding, and I can only urge everyone reading this, to support wholeheartedly this true example of faith in action.  A thrilling, stunning achievement.

Frank Robinson