A child's life in Kamwenge

Last week when Geoff was reading The Argos on line (web site of the local paper in Brighton that he reads to keep up with his football team), he noticed an article which stated that 1 child in 10 in Sussex is considered to be neglected. There then followed the usual letters asking if that meant the child was lacking in food or a mobile phone! Having been in Kamwenge for a year now, I thought I would write on the blog about what life is like for the majority of children in rural Uganda.

If a child and his/her mother survive the birth process, then they are very fortunate. Giving birth is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do in the developing world and, in a district like Kamwenge that has no hospital, it is even more dangerous. Most women give birth in their villages attended by a TBA (traditional birth attendant). These are untrained women who also lay out the dead and prepare them for burial.
TBAs have little knowledge about hygiene and many women and babies die from infections. If the labour is obstructed, then both mother and child die.

The baby will spend most of his first year tied on to his mother’s back whilst she attends to all her tasks, such as digging in the fields, fetching water, looking for firewood, preparing meals etc. He is exclusively breastfed. By the time he is about 1 year, he will be given some porridge made of maize flour and millet and will be spending more time on his older sister’s back. His mother will probably be pregnant again.

From about 18 months he will be looked after by older brothers and sisters, often only a couple of years older themselves. He will spend a lot of his time playing in the dust or mud, depending on the season. His toys will be sticks, rubbish and anything that is lying around. His food will be small portions of posho (maize) probably shared with his other brothers and sisters. His diet will not contain the protein or vitamins that he needs. It is unlikely that he sleeps under a mosquito net, so he will have repeated attacks of malaria. In this area 1 child in 4 does not reach his 5th birthday and, throughout Uganda, a child dies every 5 minutes from malaria.

By the age of 3 he will be out with his brothers and sisters looking for firewood, which he will carry home on his head. He will also be going out to fetch water, often walking long distances with his small jerrycan. As he grows, the size of the jerrycan he is expected to carry gets larger. As soon as he is old enough to help with digging and planting (about 5 years) he will spend much of his time out in the fields helping the rest of his family to grow the food which is essential for their survival.

At 5 years he may be enrolled at his local primary school where he will sit in a classroom with up to 200 other children. The condition of the room will be very poor and his teacher, who is poorly trained, will struggle to teach with few resources. During the planting season, or whenever it rains, his parents will keep him at home to continue with the essential task of food production. In Kamwenge district 82% of children enroll in primary school but only 42% complete. Education is not always a priority in an area where only 40% of people are food secure.

If he is one of the fortunate ones who complete primary education he may have the opportunity to go to secondary school although only half of the 42% completing primary school will go on to secondary school.

The rest will carry on being subsistence farmers and raise their own children in a similar situation.