Oasis Amidst the Deserted
Picture an Oasis. What do you see? Palm trees set around a glistening pool? A lush place in a desert, providing hope for the weary traveller?
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Somewhere hidden in the Northern suburbs of Kampala, at the intersection of three poor communities – Mulago, Kalerwe and Kyebando - is an Oasis. There’s no glistening pool, or palm trees. The only pools around are the murky muddy ones that you have to tackle on the roads. In one sense, though, Oasis’ purpose is just the same – it’s a place of hope. Life in this part of Kampala is lived at the sharp end – basic healthcare, education, and sanitary living conditions are not a given. For children growing up there, it’s difficult to imagine how things could be different when that’s all they’ve ever known. Oasis Uganda is a Christian-based NGO that works alongside those in the community to improve the lives |
of children, young people and their families and help them not just imagine but also fulfil their hopes for the future.
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Princesses in the Desert Through a range of specially designed programmes, from ‘catch-up’ schooling to life skills training, HIV/AIDS interventions, music, drama and job skills training, Bambejja works with over 140 girls in this community, ranging in age from 5 to 20. Staff support them to grow into well-equipped and independent young women by helping them to develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. |
Home, and Half Way There
Although 88% of the girls in the core Bambejja programme are partial or complete orphans, most of them are able to live in family settings in the community with extended family members or guardians. Oasis believes that, in most cases, family care is preferred to institutional care and so they focus on working with the families and carers, training them in key areas such as basic healthcare, small business skills and parenting skills, so they are empowered to be able to take care of the children at home.
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However, for some girls, the family home is no longer a safe place - they may have faced abuse or been utterly abandoned and rejected. For these girls, Oasis aims to resettle them with loving foster families, in the meantime caring for them in a small, family-style Halfway Home. At the Halfway Home, they receive counselling to enable them to deal with past issues and prepare for new lives with foster families. Fifteen-year old Sarah* was one such girl. Sarah joined Bambejja when she was living with her elderly grandfather. Sadly, her grandfather died soon after, leaving Sarah alone. She had no knowledge of her parents and thought they were dead. She was accepted into the Halfway Home, where she flourished in confidence and grew to love school, setting her heart on becoming a lawyer. Bambejja began the process of |
tracing extended family to try to find a suitable foster home for Sarah and discovered that she did in fact have a father living in Uganda, who was happy to accept her into his family. She has settled in well to her new home and loves her school there. Of course it’s not all plain sailing starting to live with a father you didn’t realise existed a year before, but Bambejja is supporting Sarah and her father through the process.
A Journey Beyond the Desert
Steven* is 18 and lost his parents when he was still young. Consequently he, as with many others like him, never completed his secondary education. With no formal qualifications and no-one to support him or invest in his future, life for Steven looked bleak.
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Steven is exactly the kind of young person that Oasis’ Net2Work offers hope to, training them in IT and job skills in a caring and supportive environment and equipping them to find relevant employment. It’s amazing how much a young person, who has previously felt at the bottom of the pile, can achieve when someone helps them to realise their skills and capabilities. Over half of Net2Work graduates are now in full-time work and a quarter have gone back to school. “Oasis Uganda are helping to change the lives of disadvantaged people, poor people in the community like me, by offering them good computer skills, and other training skills to raise them to become better people in their communities. Please may God bless them to continue helping other disadvantaged people like me.” -Steven |
Can You Get Involved?
Oasis Uganda are keen to expand the work to reach more vulnerable children and youth. They have recently begun a project similar to Bambejja in partnership with a local church in Mbale and have partners who are running the Net2Work programme.
They would love to hear from people who are interested in exploring partnerships in order to reach other needy other communities in Uganda and also people who are able to donate financially or gifts in kind.
For more information about Oasis Uganda, please contact:
Ruth Visick-Evans 077 2446518
* Names changed to protect identities
