A Serene Dwelling Place for Benjamin

Benjamin was left under the care of his maternal grandmother when he was three months old. After his parents had separated, his mother moved to Kalanga, Uganda to search for greener pastures. While staying with his grandmother, he started stealing from her. ¨I would always regret stealing from my grandmother because every time I would steal I would go back to the streets and when the money is done I get stranded and would wish I had not stolen,¨ Benjamin recounted. After staying with his grandmother for a while, his mother returned and lived with them. This marked the beginning of trouble for Benjamin. His mother would beat him mercilessly and not even his grandmother’s intervention would restrain her. When it was too much to bear, Benjamin decided it was time to leave home. 

They say east or west home is best. After a while Benjamin returned home since life on the streets was tougher than he thought. He found a few things had changed while he was away. His mother had remarried and stayed at a slum in Kibuli with her new husband. The twelve year old boy joined the family and soon learnt the atrocities of his new environment —the slum. Here, young people indulged in drugs and the crime rate was high. It didn’t take long before Benjamin succumbed to the influence. He would spend time both at home and on the streets. At home, the situation worsened day by day. His mother, a drug addict, would punish Benjamin and his sister so badly that one day she broke her daughter´s arm. This forced him to run to the streets because he felt unloved at home.

Benjamin joined the street family in hopes of experiencing change —a different life from the ill treatment he was subjected to at home. Little by little, Benjamin began applying the ideas he had learnt from his peers. He started stealing from his family and everytime he would commit this crime, he would escape to the streets to hide. He once stole his uncle’s phone and disappeared. When he showed up at home again, his mother thoroughly beat him and he left for the streets again. This time round, he ran away for good.  Unfortunately his survival there grew harder and harder. He sold scrap metal and would make approximately 0.25 Euros to 0.50 Euros. It was a difficult activity to engage in since there was always too much to do with little results. Being a child, it was even worse and he was exploited in the process. 

Benjamin was identified during a joint outreach conducted by Dwelling Places and he was rescued from the streets in June 2021. After two weeks of quarantine at a school, Benjamin and other children were taken to Wakiso District for rehabilitation for two months. Dwelling Places continued the rehabilitation in August 2021. During this process, he was offered guidance and counselling, catch-up education, health care, life skills lessons, nutrition support and other basic services, including clothes, shoes, bag among others.