Children's Prisons in Uganda!

Friday, June 3rd - Our first morning in Africa we woke up to the sounds of roosters, monkey and exotic birds!! What a great alarm clock! Our first ministry opportunity will be at some children's prisons...two words that should never be in the same sentence!!
Today we visited "M1" (cannot use real name) which was about an "hour's drive" (in Africa time) away, but after 1 hour and 45 minutes we were still driving through the countryside. We stopped along the side of the road to wait for our guide and got out of the van to talk with some of the village kids (picture above). We passed out some handbands to the girls...but the boys wanted them too!
These prisons are government-run facilities that have allowed a Christian ministry called "Sixty Feet" (that's how far down you have to dig to get clean water) to come in and help improve conditions, give medical care, teach about God and love on them!! A year ago there was only 2 toilets for 200 children and no showers!
Children (ages 12-18) are brought here because they have committed an offense or their parents want to "teach them a lesson". They can be here anywhere from 2-6 months. The first 2-3 weeks they are locked in a cell called "the Black Room" (pic below) with no shirt, no toilet (only a bucket), no bed or blanket. They will usually end up with a rash all over their body and very sick because of the filthy conditions.

When we drove up we were shocked to see so many young children running around. We soon found out that these are Karamajong children from a tribe that is "the least of the least" in Uganda. Their families are sent to the city of Kampala to beg but what happens next is unspeakable...

Because the government doesn't want the stigma of beggers in their city, they round these children up like dogs and put them in trucks and take them to these prisons and drop them off!!!! These are not orphans - they have families. Then when there are 80-100 children they load them back on to trucks and DUMP them off far away from the city along the side of the road...lost from their families!!!!!!!!!!! These are sometimes as young as 2-3 years , old and on their own. They end up back in the city looking for their families and begging to survive, but get picked back up and taken to prison to start the cycle all over again!!!

This is the boys dorm...

Please pray for these Karamajong children that are displaced and alone!!

We had a sweet worship time with these kids and they sang for us and we sang for them. One of our team members brought his guitar. Then we went out in the yard and played soccer, football, jump rope, painted nails, played drums and danced and loved on them!


I can't believe there is even a need to have a poster like this!