ABOUT THE PYGMY/BATWA TRIBE
The Batwa were traditionally hunter/gatherers for thousands of years and supported themselves and their families by living in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. They were displaced when it was gazzetted as Bwindi Impenetrable National Park was created to protect the endangered Mountain Gorillas. The Batwa are a ‘hard-to-reach population, who live in temporary settlements outside the forest and often have to walk long distances and make difficult journeys to reach the Health Centre for health services. Batwa children are the most disadvantaged by the circumstances of discrimination, poverty and exclusion which separates them further from the rest of the society they live with. People in the community and country hold negative stereotypes about the Batwa and they often experience prejudice by some of the non-Batwa community members, (Lewis 2000). The Batwa are among the people who have the least access to health care services, and yet they are the most needy of them. The Batwa have the highest child death rates in Uganda. More than half of the children of landless Batwa die before the age of five and are killed by preventable and treatable diseases. Such diseases include malaria, dysentery, diarrhea, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI). Malnutrition, a disease of poverty, has claimed most of the Batwa lives. Many Batwa women don’t access maternity services, and other preventable diseases like TB continue to undermine the Batwa population in general
OUR FUTURE PLAN FOR THE ORPHANAGE
Hope House/orphanage is a home of 50 batwa children who have been orphaned or abandoned there lives are symbols of HOPE for the future of many children
Our plans are to make sure that EACH CHILD under our care should become a son or daughter to ( foster parents) a hope mother who raises 10 children in a home.......it is here that each child will gains identity, belonging, and love of a family. carefully attention to health care, nutrition. play and development is ensuring that each child is raised in an environment that will strengthen, encourage. and comfort,
Education that natures creativity and cultivates critical thinking skills enables each child embrace their future confidently. The orphanage will be set on an organic farm which provides children a first hand understanding of agriculture and livelihood,.........Discipleship is the key to raising the children with Godly characters,
Hope house/orphanage is the interactive example that hope can change life by investing in health, love, prosperity, and education. Our children’s homes is not an orphanage in the traditional sense. We plan to build a children’s village with homes to cater for the children who have lost their family or vulnerable for many reasons. OUR children will live in hope families so that they will learn how to love and respect their mother and siblings. This will allow them to grow up knowing the value of the health functionally family..........
OUR village will include cluster of homes, a nursery school, a kindergarten, primary school, high school, vocational training centre, water project, medical clinic, a mult-purpose hall for use as a church and a community centre. Organic farms and livelihood farms. Villages are a familiar to traditional dwelling for many ethnic groups in Africa. Each hope family shall consist of a house mother with 7 children- a number based on cultural consideration. In one house, there will be 4 bed rooms. One for the mother and three for the children. A house incorporates one communal area with dining and lounge space. The dining area will be an important tool in the creation of areal family environment
contact us for more information tugumegerald@gmail.com
