Bashir Musaazi’s mother Nakachwa Elizabeth Beverly had a dream of rescuing every child on the streets and turning them into better and responsible citizens.
However, Nakachwa did not live to see her dream coming to pass but as the saying goes he who has produced a child, has written a letter to the next generation. Although Nakachwa had passed on, Musaazi the only letter she wrote to this generation took on the mantle to see that her mother’s dream comes to life through the Africa Children Heart Uganda Foundation.
“Being an only child, I took over this foundation after the passing of my mother who founded it. Having grown up among the vulnerable children she used to rescue from the streets, raising them up in a good environment and educating them, I thought it was best if I took it on. It was a very hard time for us when she passed but I had to keep the legacy,” Musaazi said.
As Mahatma Gandhi said ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ Musaazi himself is a real change in his community, he has not only rescued children from the streets but has impacted the community as well.
Since no one has ever become poor by giving, Musaazi’s generous and merciful heart forced the community to offer his foundation an acre of land to enable him to run different projects.
“On the acre that the community offered us, we have managed to construct a building where the children will be sleeping. We are looking at accommodating at least 90 children and why we decided to do that is because the house we have been renting for their accommodation has been small and too old. The building is almost done with just a few things like doors, windows and plastering left for it to be completed,” Musaazi said.
The Africa Children Heart Uganda Foundation has not only built a shelter for the homeless kids but has also helped the village with rural water sanitation by distributing water all over the village thus solving one of the village’s biggest challenges.
“At least most families now have clean pumped water after our initiative. We hope that by the end of this year, all the families will be catered for.”
However, Bashir Musaazi doesn’t take the credit alone for these initiatives. These projects have been successful because of the investments from a number of people including Doc, Sherry, Chris Richard and his wife Marlin as well as Mrs Ruth and her husband who have all contributed some money towards the completion of both projects.
“We had anticipated that the building project would cost us 30,000 USD which was so expensive. On downsizing, we decided to compromise. The children offered to dig sand and mould the bricks and they also built the foundation of the building while other volunteers helped us build it at cheaper costs with the reduction of the costs, we believe the project in total should take 20,000 USD,” he projected.
He added that Uncle Doc, and wife Ms Mandy Figarola, Mrs. Sherry his other mother, Richard and his wife Melanie of 4th generation caretakers of the 1905 family of Restaurants, Mrs Ruth and her husband Dr Gilbert and many others spearheaded the construction of the new Orphanage Home.
Regarding the water project initiative, Musaazi says the partners invested 3,000 USD and the rest of the things including the pump and solar panels among other things were bought by the community and so far, he says the water project is worth 15,000 USD.
Residents speak out on the projects
Charles Kai, the LC1 Sango A. expressed his gratitude and said they are very grateful for the opportunity granted to their community through Musaazi, the organisation’s coordinator, to look at the children’s affairs.
“We are grateful for the water supply and we hope you also help us with at least a clinic or hospital which will help our community. We have small clinics that lack medicine and the nearby hospital is 7 to 10km from here so if they can construct for us a hospital, we will forever be grateful all in all, his foundation has really developed the village.”
Harriet Namuyomba, a resident of Sango village also thanked Musaazi for the selfless help he has given in their community.
“We were sceptical when the foundation first came to our village. We saw them bringing children whose whereabouts we didn’t know. We asked a lot of questions because we thought these children would spoil our children but we later realized we were wrong because they had good intentions. After renting a particular place for some good years, we decided to offer them a piece of land for their projects and I am so happy that they have constructed a bigger house that accommodates them.”
Sango village secretary Musoke William, also said; “I am happy for Africa Children’s Heart Foundation Uganda which is spearheaded by Uncle Bashir for giving the children a hand in feeding, education, welfare and health among others. We are so grateful to him and the foundation because they helped us with the distribution of water which has been our biggest problem.”
He appreciated that in the past residents used to travel long distances to fetch water from wells which also led to children getting abducted, sacrificed etc. But courtesy of the Foundation residents nowadays are getting free tap water. The foundation has helped their children get sponsors and scholastic materials.
Challenges
According to Musaazi, despite the availability of water and the new building, Africa Children Heart Uganda is facing a challenge with health facilities and sanitary pads for the girls. They are now looking for a company or someone who at least can distribute them thrice a week.
“If we get more investors, we would encourage them to build a hospital for us. In the new building, I separated a room which the children will use for carpentry, sewing and other vocational jobs.”
Meanwhile, the orphanage helps vulnerable children most especially street children. “We rescue street children and rehabilitate them. Among the vulnerable include the blind, the raped, the disabled, and those living with HIV among others.”
Bashir Musaazi is a teacher and one of the directors at Buloba Royal College School and is the founder of Africa Children Heart Uganda which takes care of vulnerable children in Mpigi Buwama Sango LC1. He has been running this foundation for over ten years after taking it over from his mother.
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