December 7, 2011
My names are ORISHABA WILBERFORCE ZION. Am a MUKIGA by tribe! I come from western Uganda in a district called BUSHENYI My hometown is called BUTARE and my village is KYAMUHUNGA. I was born 18 years ago by the late SALONGO SILVER and BIRUNGI ANNET. We were born three children and we are all boys and I am the second born. I was born on the 10th of October 1992. Am a street kid.
I was in primary three when my daddy died of AIDS /HIV. My father was a poor man who had no job to provide for our needs. When my father died he left my mother when she is pregnant of the last born. My mother struggled so much to see that i don’t drop out of school cause she wanted me to become a doctor in future. But because she was pregnant I sat home for one years cause i was the one to take care of her.
My elder brother used not to stay home. He was just coming back to sleep! After her giving birth she had to start working so that I get back to school and also get what to eat. I was left home taking care of my young brother.
When I finished my primary level she sent me to an expensive boarding school for my secondary level. When I finished my senior one and I was promoted to senior two, I came back home for my holidays and found when my mother was sick and she was not even working. My elder brother used to get money, but he was an alcoholic so he could not care about anything.
I started searching for a job but I was too young to be given a job, so I started picking up used plastic bags, bottles and scraps to get some money for my family to eat. That’s how I got to drop school and start a street life.
I was working with other street kids in order to get more money. On the streets we used to get more money at night than day-time. We used to grab peoples bags and run, so we used to find a lot of money in there. So I started sleeping on the streets cause I wanted to get enough money to get me back to school but whenever I could get it and I go home, I find mummy very sick so I had to spend all of the money on my mummy.
I went back to the streets again and this time I took long to go home cause I wanted a lot of money in order to live at home and to take me back to school. I got a chance and we stole a lot of money and so I went back home but my home was not there. The house was down and a lot of grass surrounded in the area. There was an old man who stayed near our home, so I went and asked him about my family. He told me many things.
My mummy had died some time ago. I cried a lot because by the time I got some good money to take care of her, she had died. I cried until I became very sick and I was taken to the hospital by the old man. After God helped me and I became well, I asked the old man about my two brothers and he told me he did not know where the elder brother was, and he told me that there was an old woman who took my young brother. So I went there and found the old woman. She told me a lot of things that happened to my mummy and the disease that killed her. I started crying while saying the disease that killed my daddy is the same disease that took my mother’s life. God.
I asked my brother of how he is living and he told me it was a hard life and he asked to go with me to the streets. I told him life on the streets is not really good, but I told him if I get some money I will send for him. So I came back to the streets and explained this to my friends and they were really concerned and they got me some small money to send to my brother. So I sent him 10,000shillings ($4) and I started again another street life. Street is the most rough and toughest place to call home, because you find all kind of diseases like jiggers, AIDS, malaria and many more. It is the hardest life in this world to stay alive.
THE CHANGE
I believe in GOD, and I know he can answer the prayers of everyone in this world! So one day I was on my job looking for spoiled scraps of food, and I saw so many guys washing vehicles and I went to them and I started asking them if I could join them and they told me that to join them I had to work for one week free, and they would be giving me food only. I accepted and I worked for the week. I started saving my money because I wanted to get myself a room and bring my brother from the old woman’s home, but as I told you God can listen. I saved some good money and I got a room of 30,000 shillings per month ($12). I thanked the old woman for keeping my brother, so when we started living together, life started changing better.
HOW I STARTED TO KEEP STREET KIDS
When I was working, one of my friends that I stayed with on the streets saw me, and I told him how life was moving! He asked to live with me. I accepted because he was a good friend of mine on the streets. He told me to go and see all the street kids, but I felt so bad when I found so many boys, and many of them were just young kids sleeping on the street. So I decided to let the young ones stay with me since I had a room. I started working with my brother and we saved money for another room because we were too many for one room. I got the next room. The biggest problem I always face is medication, because it is too expensive for me. Malaria and typhoid have to be treated.
THE TROUBLE
So I need everyone reading this story to have a word of prayer for me and my project, because the government is planning to construct a road in the area where we have been working for all that long time so we are now stopped from working.. They have poured in big stones cause it’s a swampy area and I now am having 25 kids staying with me and all their eyes are on me, and I have no job.
We are demanded rent for the last month and I don’t know how to find it. I am struggling to find what to eat but it’s so hard for a jobless man like me. When I thought there was no way, I became friends with Umar (Mr. Rebby) an ABU recording artist, and he connected me to their leader Jane Snyder. And all my kids are happy for the work she did for us. God should reward her. Me and Rebby we have finished writing a song of how life is on the streets. I always believe in God, that one day He will answer my prayers.
Yours in need!
Zion
An update to his story is that we have taken Zion and his kids into the ABU Street Ministry Kampala. We are looking for a monthly sponsor of $58 /month for him. He does a great work as a street Pastor to the older ones, and as a father, to many small children. I visit them every time I am in Kampala and invite the older ones to my hotel room for bible study. They are living as Christians in the most inhospitable environment for Christian living that I have ever seen. I honor them. Let us help. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ. They matter to HIM. They need to matter to us.
PLEASE DONATE FOR:
Pastor support (without which they will have no housing) @ $58/mo.,
or shoes (which keep jiggers from entering their feet),
blankets (the nicest thing they will ever enjoy in their day),
and some bibles (so they can become men of God, and skillful in His Kingdom).
Let us help them.
With much love and appreciation to you….. the contributors. May God’s Blessings be upon you. Jane