[ad_1]
An orphanage was sponsored by donors by Manchester-based builder Patrick Oldham
At least 60 orphanages and illegal children's homes in Uganda are funded by charitable organizations, religious groups and British volunteers, the BBC discovered.
The Ugandan government recently announced a program to close more than 500 unlicensed orphanages in the country.
The BBC witnessed the closure of a UK-funded home, where children said they were beaten and neglected.
The Ugandan government has urged British donors to check who they are giving money to.
A BBC investigation found that registered British charities financed and supported dozens of illegal orphanages on the Ugandan government's closure list.
Some said that they had not realized that the houses they were financing were illegal.
The government is closing unregistered homes to try to improve child care supervision in the country.
Volunteers from the UK also visited houses on the closing list.
"No running water"
On a heavy December morning, BBC Radio 4's 4 record went to an area in southwestern Uganda called Masaka to record the closure of an illegal home.
He was sponsored by donors through Patrick Oldham, a builder from Hyde, Greater Manchester.
Mr. Oldham spends part of the year in Uganda, going home and introducing the children to visiting volunteers. He uses social media to provide updates and attract sponsors.
Inside, 25 children sponsored by the United Kingdom lived in squalid conditions.
The toilets in the open pit latrines were flooded and there was no running water. A boy had been circumcised and was living with a painful, untreated infection.
Many other children have also had skin infections that they believe have not been treated.
After the raid, all the children were returned to their families.
Maria Nagawa, a government social worker, said the conditions in this area were the worst she had ever seen.
Social workers found tools, including an ax, lying on the floor of the orphanage
In Masaka, the BBC also met a woman – Laetitia – her real name – who is the mother of six children.
After the death of her husband, she was struggling to raise funds to cover her children's school fees when a woman working for the orphanage approached her in 2016.
Laetitia was persuaded to send her two youngest boys, then aged 7 and 5, to the house, where she had been promised a high-level education.
Last spring, the boys were repatriated to their homes by social workers worried about their living conditions.
The eldest of the couple, aged 9 now, told the BBC how his brother was beaten when he wet his bed.
"Whenever I tried to help, they beat me too," he added.
The two boys reported that beatings were common at home and that they even saw female staff members melt plastic bags and use them to burn the children.
Laeticia says that her eldest son also contracted typhoid because of drinking water at the orphanage.
A government social worker said the conditions were the worst she had seen
A Facebook group for the home, regularly updated with Mr. Oldham's publications, calls "Rock of Joy's Child Care".
The BBC investigation revealed that funds had been fraudulently collected for the home using references from a charity bearing the same name, The Rock of Joy Trust, also based in the Northwest .
The badociation also operates in Uganda.
The founders of the authentic Rock of Joy Trust said that the fact that their name is used in connection with the illegal orphanage was appalling and extremely upsetting.
A response on behalf of Mr. Oldham said: "All personal allegations are refuted, we are considering the possibility of legal action.
"We understand that some children remain and that it is important that we protect and secure their future."
An open pit latrine toilet flooded the floor on the outside of the building
The Ugandan Ministry of Children's Permanent Secretary, Pius Bigirimana, warned British donors against any financial aid to orphanages without official control.
He said: "If you want to help these children, do not just put money in an unlisted home.
"Why not help the family to look after children instead of looking at an institution?"
The UK charity Hope and Homes for Children is helping the Ugandan government to keep children in their families rather than living in institutions.
Its director, Mark Waddington, said the number of children living in orphanages in Uganda rose from just under 2,000 in the 1990s to over 55,000.
He added that orphanages were now considered "an economy".
"We see children being cheated out of their homes and persuading their parents to benefit from an education in the West," he said.
"They are used literally as merchandise to raise money."
Listen to the full File on 4 report, The Orphanage Business, here.
[ad_2]
Source link
