In January 2023, congregants flocked to Our Lady of Fatima Kayunga Catholic Parish in Kayunga Town, Kayunga District, for Mass. As is characteristic of many urban churches, this House of God fills every Sunday. However, during the Mass, a yet-to-be-identified female worshipper, who had entered the church with three children, excused herself. She asked her elder child, who was five at the time, to mind his siblings while she went out to ‘ease herself.’
The children – two boys and one girl – were aged between five years and three months. The church’s toilets are located about 100 meters away. The children waited patiently for their mother’s return. However, almost an hour later, as Rev Fr Emmanuel Walakira, the Parish priest, ended the Mass and gave the believers the final blessing, the mother was nowhere to be seen. As the congregants walked out of the church, the children were stranded. They attracted the attention of the believers, among them, Ruth Nakitto, a primary school teacher. A search for the missing mother proved fruitless.
It was later established that she had abandoned her children and disappeared into thin air. As the congregants pondered what to do next, Nakitto offered to look after the children until their mother resurfaced. ‘The other believers helped me to take the children to Kayunga Police Station, where a case of child abandonment was recorded. Then, I took them to my home in Kisaaba Village for the night. The Probation Office gave me official documentation that allowed me to look after the children as authorities searched for their mother,’ the teacher says.
The 46-year-old Nakitto is a teacher at Kayunga Girls Primary School. The three children are among the over 15 abandoned children that she has helped to take care of through the years. The children she picked up from the church are now aged eight, six, and three years. ‘I believe these children are a gift from God. They have no memory of their biological mother. I look forward to the day when she will surface again. One of them used to fall sick regularly, and we discovered that he was HIV positive. Today, the child takes the medication regularly,’ she says.
Charitable beginnings
Recently, the Rotary Club of Kayunga awarded Nakitto a certificate in appreciation for her work. The teacher’s desire to help the vulnerable started long before she qualified in her profession in 2002. ‘As a young learner at St Agnes Girls’ Primary School, Naggalama, I used to assist my fellow learners who were in need. I also remember getting food for the elderly, disabled cleaner of our school compound,’ Nakitto recollects with a smile.
Her charitable heart and discipline earned her many friends, among them the now deceased Rev Sr Ann Elizabeth, who was the headteacher. Nakitto comes from a family of over 20 children who were raised by a single mother, who is a tailor. ‘I am asthmatic, so the situation must have been difficult for my mother, who also faced challenges with paying school fees for all of us. Because I was sickly, the headteacher offered me a half-bursary,’ she says. Interacting with the nuns at her school inspired her to join religious life and serve God. Her dream of becoming a nun was, however, frustrated because of her constant sickness.
‘One cannot be allowed to become a nun with an asthmatic condition. However, I was blessed that St Ann paid for part of my secondary education. After I completed O-Level, the headteacher advised me to join a teacher training college,’ Nakitto recalls. In 2002, she qualified as a Grade III teacher from the now-defunct Rakai Primary Teachers College (PTC). In 2009, graduated with a Diploma in Primary Education from Kyambogo University. A teaching job took her to Kayunga, where she has since built her house and become a resident.
Last year, Nakitto, who does not have biological children and is neither married, took on two children whose mother had developed mental problems. The children are aged 13 and nine years old. ‘I still want to be a nun, although now it seems impossible. I do not have any plan to get married or have my own children because I have devoted my life to serving God and helping vulnerable children. These vulnerable ones are my children,’ she explains.
The challenges
Nakitto, who is a catechist at Our Lady of Fatima Kayunga Catholic Parish, singlehandedly fends for the children and pays their school fees on a meagre monthly salary of Shs450,000.’I was helped by well-wishers to become what I am today, so I have to help others as well. I am glad that we have never gone to bed on empty stomachs. I know God would reward me for my charity work,’ she notes.
To supplement her salary, the teacher operates a small retail shop in one of the rooms of her house. The shop sells sweets, bread, cooking oil, soap, and children’s toys. When Nakitto is not in class, she is at home operating her shop with the elder children. Additionally, she sells Bibles and rosaries at the church every Sunday to raise more income. Nakitto says she faces a challenge trying to instill discipline in the children because most of them come from a bad social background.
‘Sometimes, when I discipline them, they get depressed. Two of the children ran away. I have tried looking for them in vain. I am also financially constrained when it comes to meeting their basic needs. The child who is HIV positive needs to eat a balanced diet, but sometimes I do not have the money to provide it. But, I try my best,’ she explains.
Official stance
Damali Mirembe Manyindo, the founder and director of Sonrise Baby Home in Jinja District, says most of the babies and children she looks after are from Kayunga and the surrounding districts of Buikwe, Jinja, Mukono, and Kamuli. ‘Parents abandon children at health facilities, marketplaces, the roadside, and in public toilets, where they think they can easily be seen and taken away by Good Samaritans. Currently, our home is taking care of 34 babies,’ she says. However, Mirembe points out that many more are brought in, but the home does not have the capacity to contain them.
Dr Charles Iga, the director of production for Kayunga District, says poverty and domestic violence are the leading causes of child neglect in the area. ‘The government has put in place poverty alleviation programs such as Emyooga and the Parish Development Model (PDM), but not everyone has benefited. In some parishes in the rural areas, about a quarter of the intended beneficiaries have not received the PDM funds, so poverty is still a challenge,’ he says.
Collins Kafeero, the probation and social welfare officer for Kayunga District, says cases of child desertion are on the rise in the district. Sometimes, he receives two cases a month, brought by local leaders, the police, or the community. ‘When we receive a case of an abandoned baby, we take the baby to a home or orphanage. The child will be taken care of until it is five years old. If we fail to trace any relatives, we start the process of adoption, although we desire to reunite the children with their families,’ he says.
Kafeero blames the vice on domestic violence, fathers who neglect their responsibilities, poverty, mental disorders, and the death of parents. He also notes that some single mothers abandon their children when they find men who are willing to marry them. ‘My office is working closely with the Family and Child Protection Unit of the police to ensure that acts of child neglect are mitigated. We are also sensitising the public on the rights of children to have caregivers. If we find the relatives of abandoned children, we either counsel them and reunite them with the children, or arrest them and prosecute them,’ he explains.
Last year, a widow in Nawankonge Village, Kayonza Sub-county, abandoned her children, all of whom are below 11 years, to go and get married. She was arrested, but when she asked for forgiveness, she was reunited with the children. The community is now contributing to the children’s school fees. According to police statistics, 11 cases of child abandonment were reported to Kayunga Police Station in 2024, up from nine cases in 2023. The Uganda Police Annual Crime Report 2004 indicates that 3,663 cases of child neglect and 1,597 cases of child desertion were reported countrywide, while in 2023, 4,730 cases of child neglect and 1,918 cases of child desertion were logged.