Douglas Kakooza

Director of Streets Ahead

His Story

 

My name is Kakooza Douglas. I was born in the Luwero District in Uganda, I think it was in 1977, but I am not sure because my parents died when I was very young. My father was a soldier in the NRM army (National Resistance Movement) in Uganda, which fought former Ugandan president Obote. He died in the struggle to liberate the country. We were separated from my mother in the war and she might have died in a military ambush.

I was taken by the Red Cross to Murago Hospital because I had a severe skin rash and malnutrition. After a year, when I had recovered, I was taken by Save the Children to an orphanage in Kampala, were I stayed for about half a year. There was not enough food to go around so I and another three boys decided to start a new life on the street. There, we carried heavy loads for people in markets as a means to earn some money.

We were taken to Mukono Children’s home by soldiers who found us on the street, and that’s where I was given the chance to go to Primary School and then Secondary School in the same area. During the holidays, I helped in the orphanage. I had a vision to help street children though I had no idea that it would lead me to start a project. In 1996, I asked the Ugandan government to take me back to my motherland Rwanda. In Rwanda, I stayed in the orphanage home called Fred Rwigema in Rwamagana.

At the beginning of 1998, we started planning to help the children who were suffering as a result of the Genocide. My sponsor from Denmark, who supported me in the orphanage in Uganda, was very happy with my idea and they promised to continue their support. And so we started Nsinda Vocational Training Centre to help the youth by providing vocational skills but I did not work with street children, since it was far from the town and street children do not want to stay far from town.  I took three boys to the centre but they did not want to stay in the village where they could not have access to different facilities.

Then in 2002, I met two VSO volunteers, Sandra Cox and Mark Ogle, who shared the same idea and our projects began. Other people joined us and we started working in Kayonza with a few boys. As time passed, more boys and girls joined the project. Currently we have three centres, one in Rwamagana, one in Kayonza and one in Kabarondo. In total, we care for about 200 children.

We still have a lot of things to do, but when I see the children, they bring back old memories of my days as a child and I pray that God will help and encourage me to make my dreams come true.

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