IT is never too late to do something. However, learning of Evelyn Katono’s story taught me that similarly, it is never too early to do great things. While most people wait after they have grown older to start serious charity work, at 23, Katono is a mother and mentor to 10 boys at the Newstart Centre, a charity organisation in Entebbe.
She is a fourth year law student at Makerere University, who uses the knowledge she acquires and the meager income she earns from her decoration business to help former street children.
During her free time, Katono educates and helps them with home work. She has involved her family and friends, who Andrew Sserunjoji, the founder of Newstart Centre, says render great help to the project
The second born of five children says when she was young, she had a passion for children. “Whenever I met women with babies, I carried and loved them,” she adds.
How did Newstart begin? Sserunjoji, who earlier wanted to start a non-government organisation for helping street children, asked for Katono’s help. When she accepted, it was called Newstart Centre.
“In January 2008, we started a children’s camp where we gathered children from the streets of Wandegeya, rehabilitated them through art therapy, counselling, and Bible study. At that time, the number was between 25 and 30. They were trained during day and left to go back in the evenings. We later selected 10 of them to stay permanently since that was the only way we would rehabilitate them,” explains Katono.
Although they did not have enough money to take the children to school, they put them in Kyebando. Soon, they were evicted by their landlord because he did not approve of the boys’ suspicious background.
“Fortunately Focus Uganda gave us housing for the next months before we relocated to our current home in Entebbe. We decided the boys needed to be educated. But since most of them had never been in school or had been out of school for too long, they could not mix well with other pupils in school. We decided to home-school them.”
Most of the children were already teenagers which meant they were to begin from scratch.
Newstart emphasises morals and discipline of the children through bible study. Eric Magino was the main teacher while Katono stepped in once in a while.
This year in January, the children were enrolled into school from P.2 to P.7. Katono says some of them are already vying for leadership positions such as time keeper, games assistant, and class captain.
Challenges
Every house has its own domestic challenges and a house with 10 children cannot escape the test that comes with feeding.
To earn an extra buck, Katono and her partners do farming, make crafts, earrings, necklaces, art pieces and wood carving. “We send them to friends to market them. The money we used for their school interviews was got from farming,” Katono says.
She introduced this project to her family and her father offered them one-and-half acres of land to grow food crops. They use the crop yields to supplement their meals.
“We are also planting trees and are planning to build our permanent home in Entebbe. Most of the labour comes from the boys although while at school we get substitutes,” she explains.
Katono also decorates at functions and some of the boys help her out. “Moses, one of the boys is gifted in art. He paints very well and he helps me while decorating,” she adds.
It is challenging to balance academics with Newstart responsibilities. Bringing up many boys is not a cup of coffee either so she studies the book, Bringing up Boys so she can get tips on how to do it better.
“You have to be patient with them. We used Christian teachings from the Bible to impart positive attributes into them. Some were on drugs but now they have fully recovered,” she says.
At first they were typical street children who were rowdy, used vulgar language, fought each other and lived for no one but themselves.
She says it took love, patience and guidance for them to improve tremendously.
“Recently one of our neighbours applauded them for being more disciplined than her children,” Katono adds.
The future
Newstart wants to complete a chicken house they are building to generate more money for the project.
“It is our desire to help as many children as possible. We look after boys only because having children of the opposite sex in the same house poses moral risks,” Katono notices.
During weekdays, Katono attends classes and discussions while during weekends she goes to Entebbe to see her 10 sons.
“Our vision is to expand and help other hopeless children, especially the very young ones who are most vulnerable to have hope again with a new start,” says Sserunjoji.
“I feel happy that I have impacted society in my own way. Whenever I go to the project, the boys come running toward me, calling me aunt. I love it,” Katono says.
