Bududa landslides leave six children orphaned, homeless
Four of the six children who were left without mother or father. Photo by David Mafabi
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Life at stake. With their parents reported buried alive by the slipped earth, it has been a gamble since Monday evening for the half-a-dozen children to live another day
Six children have been orphaned by the Monday mudslides in Bududa and are now in urgent need of assistance after momentarily dropping out of school, local authorities here confirmed on Thursday.
District Probation Officer, Ms Beatrice Wakooli, said the affected children - aged three to 12 – lack food, clothing and shelter after the flowing debris reportedly knocked down their family houses and buried their parents alive.
“They are total orphans and in need of everything since they have nothing, not even a place to call home,” Ms Wakooli said.
It has emerged that two of the orphaned children have been taken in by volunteer teachers at the nearby Arlington Academy of Hope School; another pair sought shelter at an uncle’s place while a frail grandparent has temporarily assumed custody of two others.
Great challenge
“It is a really challenging situation,” the probation officer said as her office continued the search for additional information on other unreported cases of missing or displaced children.
There were reports that some displaced persons, among them children, sought refuge at Nalende Mosque, a few kilometres away.
Mr Martin Ngolobi, the UNICEF programme officer for Moroto area, which handles the UN agency’s operations in Bududa, reported that they registered 15 children as “separated” from their families in the aftermath of the early week tragedy.
He said they are working with the district leaders to resettle the displaced minors amid growing fears that securing for them a permanent home might prove onerous. UNICEF has offered Bududa local government 50 tauplins, 10 marquees and 100 matresses, among other household items, to accommodate the homeless, according to Mr Ngolobi.
It is not only children’s livelihood that has been disrupted. The local government officials appear dazed by the disaster and unable to aid survivors. Teaching and learning at primary schools in the neighbourhood have momentarily been paralysed, District Education Officer Betty Khainza said, because pupils have made it a habit to trek to the mudslide scene - to witness progress of the recovery effort by hoe and machete-wielding residents, soldiers and police - than attend classes.
“The immediate impact of the mudslide, Ms Khainza said, “Is that it killed some pupils and others lost their parents. This has traumatised their colleagues and schools now cannot continue to operate normally.” Candidates who take national examinations at schools in the under-resourced and remote district already have a record on posting poor results, and observers say such mid-term distraction is likely to worsen educational performance in the area.
