Age: 13 Birthday: 2003 Grade: Primary, Level 4 Mercy Athieno came to Awinjo House on May 14, 2009. Both of her parents are still alive, but her father has polio and cannot walk and they have 11 children and are extremely poor. When we visited the family, we could see that Mercy was sick and had severe scabies. We asked if we could take her to Awinjo House and so she can be treated, the family agreed. And even after the scabies had been treated, Mercy stayed on. There seemed to be a curse on the family that kept Mercy from learning, but after much prayer she is doing well in school.
READ MOREAge: 18 Birthday: April 29, 1998 Grade: Secondary, Level 2 Mercy Nakayenze came to Awinjo House on January 21, 2011. Her father disappeared, and her mother is extremely poor with five other children. Mercy was staying with an Aunt in a border town, but there were eight children in one small room with the aunt, including some much older boys. The home was next to a prostitute bar, and Mercy wanted to go to a better school.
READ MOREAge: 9 Birthday: 2007 Grade: Primary, Level 2 Mercy Nyachwo came to Awinjo House on August 12, 2014. Her father died around 2008, and her mother has had many husbands, drinks heavily, and does not consistently care for all of her children. Mercy and her siblings were having to stay with a poor grandmother and grandfather who both drink, so food and education took second place to their lifestyle. She could not speak English when she first came, but has caught on quickly and went from nursery to first grade in just a few months.
READ MOREAge: 16 Birthday: June 6, 2000 Grade: Primary, Level 7 Natasha Lovisa came to Awinjo House on March 14, 2016. Natasha’s mother died of HIV in 2003, her father is unknown, and she was raised by her grandfather who is a widower. Because her grandfather could not pay her school fees, Natasha was chased away from school multiple times. She came to Tororo to live with her aunt in early 2016, but the uncle refused to help her. That’s when Natasha came to live at Awinjo House. Natasha has some health issues when she eats certain foods, but otherwise she’s healthy.
READ MOREAge: 7 Birthday: 2009 Grade: Secondary, Level 3 Obbo Hannington came to Awinjo House June 2, 2016. Obbo’s father, Okumu Fred quarreled with his wife and as a result burned their house down in 2012 or 2013, and all family records were lost. He died Nov. 2015 of alcohol abuse, and left his wife Aketch Grace and two sons, Ogol John (9 years) and Obbo Hannington (7 years). The wife took the two children to the father’s mother, Nyapendi, in January 2016, but she disappeared. Nyapendi walks about 7 miles to town and mops floors at the Town Counsel building for $45 a month.
READ MOREAge: 16 Birthday: April 8, 2000 Grade: Secondary, Level 2 Peace Nabuduwa came to Awinjo House on February 24, 2016. Her mother is Barbara Nambuya who was formerly a mama at Awinjo House, but left to get married in November of 2013. Poverty set in with the family and made paying school fees for Peace impossible. Their father is alive but drinks alcohol heavily and refuses to help with the family’s expenses. The grandmother is too elderly to work, and also cannot contribute any money toward school fees.
READ MOREAge: 16 Birthday: April 8, 2000 Grade: Secondary, Level 2 Prossy Ahero came to Awinjo House on February 23, 2013. Prossy’s mother died in a road accident, her father is unknown, and she was staying with grandparents who could not pay the school fees for Prossy and her sister Shalom. When Prossy came she had significant health issues, could not swallow, and had not eaten anything for 7 days. We treated her for that and several other minor things, and with good food and hygiene she has recovered fully.
READ MOREAge: 14 Birthday: June 25, 2002 Grade: Primary, Level 7 Rose Geno came to Awinjo House on October 16, 2013. Her mother is a senior mama at Awinjo House who was struggling to educate the last three of her seven children. A situation changed and Rose and her two sisters were alone in a fragile house in a bad part of town, so we were able to bring the children to Awinjo to protect them.
READ MOREAge: 11 Birthday: September 3, 2005 Grade: Primary, Level 5 Sarah Achieng came to Awinjo House on December 6, 2010. When Sarah’s father died, her mother remarried a man who killed her in front of the children. There are no other relatives that can help except an old grandmother who cannot pay for school. Sarah was understandably very traumatized when she came to Awinjo, but still did well in school. Of course there are effects of the trauma that she experienced, but we are counseling her through this time and believing that God will heal her of every emotional wound.
READ MOREAge: 13 Birthday: May 10, 2003 Grade: Primary, Level 4 Sharon Asio came to Awinjo House August 13, 2016. Sharon is the daughter of Victoria Nyaphono, who had married a man who was a witch doctor. Sharon’s mother did not know that the man was a witch doctor until he sacrificed one of Sharon’s siblings. Her mother also found out that the man was making preparations to sacrifice the rest of the family, so she escaped from him and moved to a local village.
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