The Police in Soroti got a phone call from the Police in Moroto to check a bus that was on the way to Kampala, via Soroti. They did and they found a lady with 6 Karomajong girls, they were on the way to be employed as house girls. The Police is organizing to bring them back to their village, but they needed somewhere for them to stay till the time they will be picked.
Simon brought them to our Amun home. They were so scared, they were crying and didn't dare to enter the house. They ran off, not used to buildings. (I wonder what they would have done in Kampala??) There was one older lady with a baby, she was the one to take them, the rest of the girls were only 11-14 years old.
We got our Ugandan staff to talk to them, she is the one at the right. Some of them understand Atesso, they were still very scared, but Barbra (our staff member) got them inside and showed them where they will sleep. Simon had gone to fetch our laundry lady, who is also a Karomajong and she speaks their language.
She even came from the same village as some of the girls came from. She sat them down (Pauline is the third from the left) and talked to them, answered their question and even got them smiling. We took them to Amecet where we had food prepared for them, this helped as well, they had not eaten since yesterday afternoon! The Police is organizing their trip back home, they will deal with the fact they were trafficking the girls, and we... just give them a safe place to stay!
I hope someone is there to help them when they get back "home". The Karomajong are known for using their children to bring in money and refusing to allow them to go to school even if you offer to pay. The women and children come into Kampala to beg and they are the ones who set their babies out on the hot, dirty Kampala sidewalks, alone, and teach them to hold out their hands and beg for hours. The older girls are taught to beg from pedestrians and cars in the street. So many people l know have tried to help and failed because they prefer this way of life.
ReplyDeleteThey have a system that "works" for them and its profitable.
I know this sounds harsh but I've watched this horror for years and would love to do something, especially for those babies, but WHAT???