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Ugandan Children's Lives
This description of a day in the life
of a Ugandan child is typical of the lives of the children of Kyabirwa Primary
School.
The lives of Ugandan
children are not that much fun. They aren't like those expected for children in
the west. There's very little in their lives but work. Every day is much the
same. Get up in the morning and work, work all day in different ways, work in
the evening and then go to bed late. It would be good if the day started with
breakfast, but it doesn't. Most children don't have lunch either. Supper is late
in the evening after chores and before the next ones.
A
typical day for a rural primary school child in Uganda
- 05:15am Go to
collect water from the well or bore hole – may be half a mile or more away
- 06:00 am Clean the compound at home, take the animals to
graze
- 06:15 am Most children don’t have breakfast. If
they do, it’s bread and blue band.
- 06:30 am Start the walk to school (some set off before this as some
 children have a 6 mile walk)
- 07:00 am Arrive at school
- 07:15 am Clean school compound
and class rooms
- 07:40 am School assembly and prayers
- 08:00 am Go to class for lessons
- 01:00 pm Lunch break – most children don’t have
lunch
- 02:00 pm Back to class for lessons
- 03:00 pm Classes end, start work in school garden, clean classrooms, compound and latrines
- 04:00 pm School ends, start walking back home
- 05:30 pm Take off school uniform and change into work
clothes
- 06:00 pm Go to the well of collect water, get the
animals back, collect firewood from the forests -risking snake
bite, dig fields
- 08:00 pm Back home. Clean up and
start home work
- 10:00 pm Help to wash dishes, do the washing etc
- 10:15 pm Finish home work by candle light
So you can see that our children's
lives are not what your children are used
to!
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Thank goodness it's not all hard. We can play!
Children and adults follow British
football! Where someone in the village has a radio, they all gather
round to
listen to commentaries on British football matches. Most boys have their
favourite team and possibly even a poster for Manchester United, Arsenal,
Liverpool or Chelsea! They also pay a small fee to watch it on TVs at trading
post communities. Ugandans are avid supporters of British football.
Even
though they don't have televisions or newspapers, they have seen pictures and
odd advertisements, film posters, perhaps even a flash of a television screen as
they're passing some tourist hangout. So they do know that there's a wealthy
world out there where people have undreamt of wealth and where of course, there
perception is that there aren't any problems.
Despite all this, our children are
remarkably cheerful. On Monday mornings, if you ask them how their weekend has
been they will answer that it had been good because they had had more sleep, or
meat to eat or that ‘nothing bad had happened’.
Responsibility for child care can start at an even earlier
age than this. Children have to care for their younger siblings while their
parents work in the fields or are busy with other work.
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Maintaining the school grounds after school
After school, at weekends and in the 'holidays'
or when you can't afford school because you
don't have money for uniform, pens or paper.
How do you smile when it's 10 o'clock at night
and you're carrying 20kgs of water, 10 of which
is on your head? 20kgs is an airline
luggage
allowance! | |
| But, we do have fun sometimes!
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