Musoke Yassin

What drives a child to leave family and home to live on the streets?

Twelve year-old Musoke’s life was torn apart when his parents split up. This triggered an avalanche of events that Musoke had no control over but that brought his world crashing down around him.

Musoke went to live with his father but after a short time his father rejected him and sent Musoke to live with his mother who had remarried. Her new husband was openly abusive towards Musoke, even threatening to send him back to his father.

In desperation Musoke’s mother asked a friend to look after him but she became abusive too, forcing him to work on her land instead of going to school. She didn’t feed him properly either and when Musoke fell sick with malaria he was refused treatment. Instead he was forced to go and fetch water from the well where he met another young boy who also had problems. Feeling sick, weak and utterly rejected, Musoke and his friend decided to runaway to the capital city, Kampala.
They walked and walked, got swollen feet and slept in ditches. Musoke didn’t realize how far away Kampala was. They hitched a lift on a truck transporting charcoal and were dropped in the Kisenyi slum area of the city.

There he was, a twelve year old boy in a big city where he knew no-one, hungry with nowhere to sleep. After a week Musoke asked a man if he could use his shelter to sleep in at night. The man said he could if he collected scrap metal for him to sell, a common practice for street children.

One morning Musoke and a friend came across a lot of scrap metal which they started to carry away. Suddenly, a man shouted “bring back my scrap”. Musoke replied that he didn’t know it was his, but before he knew it the man was beating him and even cut off part of three of his fingers as a punishment for stealing.

He went into shock. His friend took him to a medical clinic in the slum but they refused to treat him. Some other boys advised him to go to Tigers Club. In the Tigers Club clinic he was treated by the nurse and he was allowed to stay at the emergency refuge as he recovered.

The Tigers Club social workers visited Musoke’s mother to see if it would be possible for him to return home. Unfortunately, they found that the circumstances that drove Musoke to run away had not changed so it would not be in his best interest to go back.

Musoke is now enjoying life at Tudabujja, Tigers Club’s halfway home, where he is one of the best behaved boys. The Tigers Club staff are hoping to place Musoke with a foster care family. This may be difficult for him because he has suffered so much abuse by those who should have been caring for him.

We hope and pray that once within a caring, secure family Musoke will reach his full potential.

Latest Update - July 07

Musoke continued at Tudabujja until 29 June 2007 when he went to live with his new foster family. He had visited them a few times and previously spent a week with them. He had really enjoyed his stay and left full of excitement to start a new stage of life. Musoke now lives with a lady who also looks after her grandson and another boy fostered from Tigers Club who has spent five very happy years in the family.

Musoke very quickly settled into his new home but has faced a number of challenges because of his background of rejection and abuse. He was still fearful of some adults.
On his way to school one day he realised he had forgotten a book belonging to a friend. He returned to fetch the book but then was so worried about being punished for being late that he didn’t return to school or home. He also found the school work difficult having been out of mainstream school for so long and found no encouragement in the teachers.

Thanks to the ongoing follow-up visits by Tigers Club’s social workers, Musoke was able to share these difficulties with Dinah the senior social worker, who was then able to talk to his foster mother. She is a trained teacher and so did not hesitate to talk to Musoke’s school to ensure he is given the encouragement he needs to catch up. His foster brother is in the same class at school and also offers Musoke much needed friendship and practical help. We hope that this support will encourage Musoke to become more open and comfortable with his new family.

In the time that Musoke was at Tigers Clubhouse and at Tudabujja, he grew enormously in confidence, especially through the football programme. He was able to open up to his house mamma and was a great example to the rest of the boys in his behaviour. Hopefully this experience will help him, over time, to express himself with his new mother. Similarly the lessons he attended at the Clubhouse and Tudabujja Learning Centres helped him to stay academically active so that, with the encouragement from his family, he should be able to catch up with his peers very soon.

Musoke and his foster family will continue to be supported as part of the Tigers Club’s Informal Foster Care Scheme, and will receive monthly follow-up visits from the social workers as well as attending annual foster care retreats and camps.