TRIN - Officiele reactie van de directeur van Bulamu Village over Brian

Official statement from Bulamu Children’s Village - Uganda

(Download the official PDF file)
Following the negative media reports concerning Bulamu Children’s Village, I would like to make an official statement about how things stand over this end.
My name is Joseph Lubega. I am the founder and director of the New Lease of Life for Uganda Organisation, local NGO registered by The Republic of Uganda on number S5914/7060. This is a charitable childcare organization, authorized by the Government of Uganda to take care of orphaned and homeless children.
Uganda as a country is blessed in many ways. We have the second youngest population in the whole world. More than 50% of the population of 33 million people, is made up of children under the age of 15. Of these children, more that 2.5 million are orphaned.
It is because of this fact, that I felt a burden to start taking care of orphaned children, starting with 1 young boy in 1998. By 2005, I had 26 children under my care and like everybody can imagine, the going was very hard seeing that the only source of income for our upkeep, was my monthly salary, and yet we had to eat, pay rent for the small house we were living in, and the children had to go to school.
The going had become so hard by August 2005, that I had nearly despaired, almost abandoning the children. But by divine appointment, I met Mattheus van der Steen who had come to Uganda to see how he could be of help in these circumstances.
Since that time,, we have maintained a very good relationship with Mattheus van der Steen and the foundation TRIN. Through the support of TRIN, we raised money enough to buy a large piece of land where we established Bulamu Children’s Village, where we are currently carrying out construction work towards putting in place enough infrastructures to provide total care for many children. The vision is to attain the capacity of providing care to 500 children.
With TRIN, through Project Held, we are able to put in school 345 children, ranging from the age of 4 up to University. Currently, we have 11 students in University and 3 have already graduated.
Bulamu Children’s Villlage, has attracted the support of several organizations including Kaja Foundation, Wings of Support, Achmea, Wilde Ganzen, Tear Fund Belgium, De Brug, Gloriepoort and several others. We have a very good working relationship which is ongoing and we are assured of their continuing support.
All the above organizations are working with Bulamu in a supporting role, especially by giving financial support and I the particular  case of Kaja Foundation, by adding manpower, through the work of Chris van den Berg and Jurjanne Dijkstra. The members of these supporting organizations are NOT mandated to act like equal partners with the executive leadership of Bulamu Village. They are advisers and supporters.
In regard to the process of taking in children to be looked after, all the children currently receiving help in Bulamu Village, came in after being approved by me personally in my capacity as Director. The children come into contact with us after being recommended by church pastors, the Police, Local Government leaders, social workers and other concerned citizens. There have been a few cases where we got children direct from the street. One of those who came in like this, recently graduated from university with a Diploma in Art and Industrial Design.
In regard to the recent issue where Mattheus van der Steen was moved to sympathize with the young boy Brian, he called me before bringing him off the street, and asked me for permission to allow in the child. I accepted and Brian got into his new home. On my behalf and on behalf of the community of Bulamu Village, we are very happy that Brian is now sleeping in a proper bed, he is assured of his next meal and he has a lot of hope for a decent future. My wish is that he will continue peacefully with his life and carry on normally with the life a young boy of his age can lead in these circumstances.
The Social Worker attached to Bulamu Village, went to visit the birthplace of Brian and ascertained that the young  child, who is now 10 years old, lost both parents due to AIDS, in 2002 when he was 2 years old. After living with his maternal aunt for some time, he found himself abandoned alone in the house, not knowing where the aunt had gone to. So he went into the city and started living on the street, a life he has been leading for the past 2 years.
Cases like Brian’s, are very common in Uganda. In fact, there are hundreds of thousands of such cases around us. So whoever comes in to help children like Brian, is doing a great service not only to the individual children themselves but also for Uganda as a nation.
I am not in any capacity to comment on the workings of our supporting donor organizations or the private lives of the members of these organizations. My role is to encourage them to support the work of taking care of these children and to make sure that properly account for the funds that they donate to us. Anyone who would like to see and prove the work going on in Bulamu Viillage, is free to come and pay us a visit.
Written with only good intentions by,

Joseph Lubega
JOSEPH LUBEGA
Founder and Director, New lease of life for Uganda Organization and Bulamu Children’s Village

Bron: http://www.bulamuvillage.org/