I (we) forgot the forgotten!

These are some hard times we living in; churches burning, planes falling from the sky, murder, diseases. Schools turned to war zones, even homes are unsafe leaving children abandoned and self-raised. Its time something is done for our young kids, they growing hopeless and that ain’t the way to live. This is just a little something to show them some happiness again, they are going blind.

Seeds were planted and they hatched and now there is poverty. In Uganda’s Busoga Region - Eastern Uganda there is no poverty. This ain’t poverty. It’s much more. For the affluent, poverty is defined by amount of money one has, access to health care and maybe, proper housing. Well, today the affluent will understand poverty since it’s not understood. They need to understand it. I am talking about the impact of poverty. Not Poverty!

The best investment one people can make in their lives is not Education but Health. Without proper health, all human faculties are in a way affected. In Nsinze and Ivukula Sub Counties men, women and children cannot readily access a host of services that bear into the quality of lives that they lead. There is too much money in this country. There is no way that someone should have loads of money and there are people starving in their houses. That is not idealistic, that’s just real. There is no way that people should own planes and yet people don’t have houses, pants, food. I think when there is poverty, people revolt.

I take a mug of black coffee now am strong enough to face the madness, it’s my second visit to document this issue and surely it ain't easy. On my way to Nsinze, I get a phone call from my contacts on the other side, a middle aged man just died from the effects of Jiggers! I couldn't cry, it’s a damn shame when will we ever change? It’s a simmering epidemic that will at some point stop simmering and become an epidemic. We (i) forgot the forgotten. Who has the answers? I wonder; I turn to the elders, the aged and the experienced but they can’t even tell me because they don’t even know.

Jiggers are very tiny creatures that infest human body mainly through the feet and fingers then subsequently they attack other parts of the body – private parts included! The case in Busiki is undocumented but entrenched nonetheless as such this write-up just seeks to accord justice to the affected! This menace has practically infested most households in Busiki – Kibaale, Nsinze and Ivukula Sub Counties and while deaths have been recorded in neighboring Sub Counties, in Nsinze Sub County there are cases that will soon be statistics - deaths due to these small creatures.

    

"I have been trapped since birth and i know my life is not promised. This poverty has me feeling like my death ain't far. I was raised in the rough without my mom or my father so tell me something, "if i say we have been neglected will the society look at me funny?" - 14yr old Yusuf.

Its plain to see, the seed from you and me will lead us towards bother hood  thats if we treat them right. But if we don't we will see exactly why poverty will affects the rich just as much. Currency means nothing if we (both rich and poor) still ain't free. I hope for better days and my aim is to spread more smiles than tears utilizing lessons learnt from my younger years. I have written this for all who have passed away now in cemetery buried, never got to see their dreams. They die (d) innocent; they die (d) young.