Luckily, I got another mom after losing mine to HIV

It was from a total stranger that gospel artiste, George Timothy Lubega aka Exodus, found love and family, years after his mother died of HIV and his father disowned him, as he relays to Carol Nambowa.

How did you meet your mother?
I met her in 2003 at Miracle Centre Cathedral Rubaga. She used to come to preach and talk about what she had done in northern Uganda. At the time, I had just left the streets and was singing in the church choir. With time, she picked interest in me.

She also heard my story of losing my mom to HIV in 1994, my father disowning me as his son in 1996 and having grown up to live on the streets until 2002. She later told me in 2009 when she adopted me that God had been telling her to become my mother since 2003.

Was it challenging at first?
Yes, it was because I had run into a number of women who offered to help me yet they were doing so to satisfy their selfish desires. When she told me what God had told her, she said, “George, I already have 10,000 under my care but this has been bothering me every single day.” Then she continued to say , “God must love you so much to keep bothering me this much to take you on as my biological son.” Believing that she was a different woman was hard, and I was in doubt for about a year.

Was there a time she made you feel like you were not her biological son?
Never. She came into my life and became the mother I had lost in 1994. It was evidently unfolding that she was sent from above.

Were you living with her?
I lived in Kampala and she lived in Kitgum at the Irene Gleeson Foundation where she takes care of over 10,000 child soldiers.

What privileges did you gain from having her in your life?
When I met her, she took my music career to another level, it came from just music to music with a purpose and substance. She helped me focus more on contributing to the society rather than just being an artist with swag.
Later on in 2010, I was made the creative arts director and international peace ambassador for the Irene Gleeson Foundation rehabilitating 10,000 child soldiers in northern Uganda particularly in Kitgum.

Describe what kind of a mother she was to you?
She is my hero, role model and inspiration. She has taught me to live for people and not for self because she left Glory Land in Australia, sold her two beach houses and came to northern Uganda, in 1991 at a time of war, lived with the people, and rescued more than 10,000, whom she feeds to date, giving them an education, medication and water, all free, on a daily basis for 21 years now.

What is your most memorable moment of her as a mother?
It was the first day I celebrated my birthday in 2009. I neither knew what it stood for nor what birthday meant. She organised for me a party and gave me Shs2m as birthday present for me to go and spoil myself.

What did you love most about being her son?
I had never known family love but when I found her, she taught me how to be family and I did not have that growing up. She gave me a parent’s love.

What traits did she instil in you that you still hold and value to date?
Loving people like God has loved us, changing lives for legacy, loving my children. May be without her I wouldn’t have known how to raise a family. I am a married man today and a responsible one.

What message do you have for mothers that are raising children whom theyare not related to?
Love them like you would love your own children, that instills self-esteem which if one doesn’t have is like losing a part of oneself. To me self-esteem is very vital because the people I grew up with made me believe that I was a no body, a rabid dog, that my life had no future and that I was a disgrace to society.