IT'S RAINY SEASON AND NAMUWONGO SLUM DWELLERS ARE DOWN IN THE DUMPS.

Namuwongo is 2^ne biggest slum in Kampala (Uganda)  that lies along Nakivubo channel.  Life in this slum can become very challenging when it rains and the channel floods to the temporary structures where the dwellers live. It is now September  and the long rainy season according to Griffiths has started. Every one that lives in Namuwongo is worried. This season is characterized of death, floods, outbreak of diseases like cholera, malaria and most families thank God every morning for keeping them alive. A slum of over 20,000 people has only 25 toilets according to the Local Council leader in charge of Hygiene in Soweto.
The time I visited the family of my friend Rebecca of Namuwongo zone A, she shed tears narrating the story of how it rained throughout the night and the entire family had to cover themselves with polythene bags while standing the whole night. This is because their house leaks. While in a literacy class at In Need Home,Rebecca was dosing the whole day and could not concentrate.
 Tears covered Rebecca's care giver’s face as she started explaining to me about the death of her son through the flood after heavy down pour that swept her one roomed wattle made house to Nakivubo channel.

Her living room is flooded and all her property including her medicine soaked

To this child, the right to play is seen as a luxury because the environment is not safe for her to play she  can hurt herself

This slum is divided into seven zones namely: Industrial Area View, Go-Down, Kasanvu, Namuwongo B, Namuwongo A,  Kanyogoga/Masengere and Yoweri Kaguta (YOKA). These zones have over 20,000 people that are living in very confined spaces, averaging a room for a family of at least 5 members.

 A child in Namuwongo is in periphery of child rights, while other children in rich man's suburbs of Muyenga and Bugolobi may access fully their rights , the children in this slum, depend on one meal in 24 hours, they are denied food sometimes because of fear to go to the toilet which costs 200 shillings which may not be there, they have no play time because the area is not safe.Accessing a toilet is almost impossible and the inhabitants resort to the use of flying toilets. 

To visit a toilet one pays 200 Uganda shillings, but most times the slum dwellers do not have the money and for children it is even more worse because they are denied food  for the fear of going to the toilet.

Living amidst heaps of rubbish is taken as the order of life. Public health issues are less addressed and preventable diseases that could be avoided remain the biggest challenge.

 
In Need Home has designed projects at the rescue of the children in adversities that live in Namuwongo slum.  There are many exciting projects which help in empowering the young and single mothers, sponsoring the out of school children, chronically sick children, children with disabilities (CWDs), abused and neglected children, orphaned children and  children off the streets and prepare them for school through provision of psychosocial support. These vulnerable children not only receive food, education and psychosocial support but also they access the facility of a clean toilet at In Need Home.

Play time is very important to every child. Children enjoying play time after a public speaking camp at In Need Home

These children are identified through community mapping and use of a detailed selection criteria (that is referred to as 5 factor selection criteria) that recruits the critically vulnerable children after which they are incorporated into the project. The child sponsorship programme pays school fees and also provides each sponsored child with a school uniform, two meals a day, and school supplies including textbooks. The children are provided with medical support, as well as emotional help to the family. The children become the entry point to the entire family.