Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision (Kampala) - November 20, 2002
Abubaker Mukose
But suddenly, I receive a telephone call. The caller is Sam Tushabe.
"I am sorry for the delay... but, I have been having a hectic time with orphans and widows," he apologetically says and re-schedules the interview to his office.
"I have got to clean up my desk because I will be away for a week in Holland to receive my Award," he explains, adding that he had been nominated for the Marci award, an international recognition for caring for children at risk.
Tushabe, who is the Country Director for the AIDS Orphans Education Trust (AOET)-Uganda is a young man who has dedicated his life and resources to ensure the well being of AIDS orphans and widows in the country.
"The director is quite busy, but he will be free in a short while," the secretary says, as she offers me a seat on reaching Tushabe's office located along Wanyama road in Bugembe, 4km from Jinja town.
While at the reception desk, noise from gossipy women, is heard from the back yard, depicting some activity going on there. Shortly, a group of women between 20 and 50 years of age relentlessly enter the premises and suddenly fill the entire space with laughter and ululation.
"We are late for class," one of them is heard saying as she hastily walks past the reception desk to the backyard.
"Mama Jacky, did I leave my weaving needle with you?" asks another. "It should be in the tool box. Wait and I check," replies Mama Jacky, prompting me to stroll to the back yard as I wait for Tushabe.
School-going children are yelling in excitement next to Tushabe's office. They are swinging precariously on a tree, snatching away my earlier plan to check the back yard.
A toddler with two missing front teeth gives a furious chase after his age-mate across the spacious compound, but without success. He later bows out, gasping in exasperation as he mumbles about in anger.
However, Tushabe interrupts my keen interest in the boys' next move as he invites me to his office.
"We are looking after 1,115 AIDS orphans and 645 widows country-wide. So I have to put all my senses together to ensure that these marginalised people get access to basics of life," Tushabe begins.
Born 32 years ago to Mr. and Mrs Ntabareshya in Kasese district, Tushabe says, he had always had empathy for children scavenging in garbage skips or camping on a bone-fire. This, he said, always tickled his emotions and contributed to what he is today.
"Way back in school, I used to wonder why my headmaster at Kilembe S.S. used to favour impoverished children including self. He helped me to stay in school by giving me odd jobs like cleaning the school compound because my parents could not afford to pay for my school fees," he narrates his experience while at school.
Tushabe says such experiences, coupled with his Christian up-bringing, are his drive to see how best he can help those in a situation similar to what he underwent. He is concerned especially with orphans resulting from the AIDS scourge.
"The story of AOET is a very long one. I started by helping one child as a personal initiative with no idea of starting an organisation of such a big multitude.
"One morning I met a widow who looked after eight orphans in tears because they had brought her a ninth child to look after. She had no immediate solution to how to cater for all the children. So I was forced help that child. And that's how I started," the soft-spoken Tushabe narrates as he hastily consults his archives to justify his account.
Tushabe explains that the principles he developed that morning remain the very principles, which the organisation (AOET) is, based on today.
"We don't place children in orphanages. We help them in such a way that they have to maintain a family link through creating a mother-father figure, so that if any of the caring parents dies, those children are kept in a running family," Tushabe says.
He says, they identify a family with a sizeable number of children that is stable and is willing to take up the orphaned children: "However, we encourage blood relationships and in cases of no blood relatives, we identify dependable parents," he adds.
The children are given the basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing and education, while the widows are also empowered with skills to enable them to cater for themselves and help maintain the orphans in schools.
"When the number of orphans reached 10, it went beyond my ability because the children needed school fees and clothes. So I felt I could involve some other people. I contacted many of the friends whom I had gone to school with and everybody I knew could help," he explains, adding that he received an overwhelming response and much advice, calumniating into the registration of AOET as a non-government organisation in 2000.
He and his wife Nancy have a two-year-old son. Tushabe, a staunch born-again Christian, maintains that they sensitise the widows living with HIV/AIDS through vocational training like handcrafts, tailoring and computer skills to help them sustain their orphaned children while they are in school.
The widows are given start-up funds after their training: "My husband died seven years ago. So I found it very difficult to educate and look after my four children, since I had no income. But ever since AOET took over the orphans and also trained me how to weave crafts, I find life slightly better," recounts Sarah Kirumira, a widow from Mbiiko.
Tushabe adds that apart from giving the widows start-up funds in addition to tools, AOET has gone ahead to secure a market for them, especially for crafts in the United States.
"We are exporting consignments of crafts in large quantities and the widows are reaping a lot from the business," Tushabe adds.
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