Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision (Kampala) - October 10, 2005
Arthur Baguma
He started school at the age of 13, after toiling as a child labourer on a farm. Five decades later, he is helping children across the globe to avoid going through his childhood woes.
Nine weeks in Uganda and tears welcomed him. On his first day in office, Fikru was met by the image of a flabby orphaned girl wrapped in rags at his office in Namirembe. She burst into a convulsive torrent of uncontrollable tears when she saw a muzungu. Fikru looked on in shock as he helped her up from the floor.
"I led her into my office and listened to her sad story... now she is in one of our schools, studying. I know what it means for a child without hope," Fikru, the new country director Christian Children's Fund (CCF), says.
The 54-year-old shares a similar childhood with many of the needy children in conflict areas that CCF is reaching.
After serving in famine prone Ethiopia, his latest destination is Uganda - where thousands of children are orphaned. "I have closely worked with children in rural settings. Their problems are similar and many are orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS. I am here to see Ugandan children have a chance to live a normal life," Fikru says.
Fikru literally came out of no where - a remote village in famine-hit Ethiopia to be precise - and rose to the top as a humanitarian advocate.
When I visited CCF offices in Namirembe, two children in company of a guardian and a member of parliament were waiting at reception to meet Fikru. One of the children, Akello from Soroti had come to seek help for her orphaned siblings. An elderly woman was there to thank CCF for enabling her child to finish university education.
The member of parliament has a big problem in his constituency and wants CCF to help. "I have a big problem of orphaned children, I hope to get a CCF project established in my area."
Fikru cuts a simple pose. The small, tall brown man spots flecks of grey hair and speaks in a high-pitched tone. When Akello looks at him swinging in an armchair, her eyes glow. She is optimistic her future lies in this building. But when Fikru looks at this child aged only seven, his mind races back to Ethiopia where millions of children have been orphaned and are in need of help.
"In Ethiopia, 13% of the population is affected by HIV. This has left thousands of orphans with no future," he says.
Fikru could also have been like this girl. Had it not been his grandfather's resolve, he would never have seen a black board. Now, he has traversed the globe helping needy children.
"As a child, I experienced poverty. My dream since childhood has been to see the disadvantaged children and rural communities in the world develop," he says.
The first time Fikru stepped in Uganda is still vivid in his mind. He had come to set up the first African Soil Society at the invitation of Makerere University in 1984. He says Uganda was impressive then but today environmental degradation is ruining the beauty of the Pearl of Africa.
"There is a lot of charcoal burning in forests. Unless we aggressively replant trees, Uganda might become like Ethiopia and Lesotho which have lost their natural resource base to environmental degradation," he notes.
He has visited children in the disadvantaged areas of the north.
CCF spends $8.5m annually on emergency programmes in the country and in the next five years, the project will inject $45m as part of problematic response to emergency programmes in the north.
Fikru was born in 1952 in a poverty-stricken family, to Yifru Abebe and Mulunesh in Debrezeit village, central Ethiopia. He is married with five children. The first born in a family of 14 is Orthodox by religion.
Before coming to Uganda, he was responsible for coordinating overall operation and management of CCF in Ethiopia, an international American Based Development NGO, with its headquarters in Richmond, Virginia USA.
CCF started activities in Uganda in 1980. It supports over 33,000 enrolled children and over 250,000 other children from over 25,000 households in 54 communities.
"Helping the needy is good. If I had not been assisted, I wouldn't be what I am today. That is why helping other people has become my mission," Fikru remarks.
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