W hen Nalongo Nabumadi was living on the streets of Kampala, Uganda’s capital city, she was so hungry that she and her son were reduced to eating worms.

Widowed in her mid-50s when her husband died from a sudden illness and cast out of their house by their landlord after she struggled to pay the rent, she had been left alone with her severely disabled son to care for and nowhere to live.

In a country where disability can too often be viewed by friends and family as a sign of bad luck, and worse as bad luck that can be catching, no one would take them in.

This left her – until she and her son were taken in by the Ugandan charity Street Resource – with nowhere to sleep at night other than on a stone floor amid the skeletal remains of an abandoned building in one of the most rundown districts of the city.

“Life was so bad,” she recalls, as she sat in the sun-lit day area of the housing shelter provided by Street Resource. “I would go through other people’s garbage to find something to eat – a rotten banana or a rotten mango. We had to eat food infested with worms. It would make us sick.

Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation Show all 18 1 /18 Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-1.JPG Charles Marekera, 16, lived with his mother and father in ‘Villa’ in DRC. The Marekera family were forced to leave because their son was persecuted for being an albino. His father, was repeatedly beaten after refusing to sell Charles to witchdoctors, who believe teeth, fingers and eyes brought good luck to those who bought their body parts. The transition for Charles arriving in Uganda from DRC has left him with large gaps in his education. Leaving as a senior in secondary school, he now finds himself back in primary school. The sixteen-year-old faces a similar stigma as an albino in Uganda. His long walks to school are interrupted by strangers attempting to lure him away to profit from the sale of his body parts. Charles explained: “I will never feel safe, however my safety now is less important to me than getting an education. I am determined to get my diploma and have a job where I can help protect the rights of other albino’s.” Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-2.JPG Justine Ainembabazi, 12, born in Western Uganda, has attended Bisozi Primary School, Kamwenge District, Western Uganda for three years. Her parents are peasant farmers, growing maze and bananas. To fund school fees her father sells a bean crop at the market. Uganda abolished all school fees at primary level in 1997 to increase access to basic education, however increasing enrolment from 2.5 million learners in 1996 to 8.3 million in 2015 created enormous financial pressures. An ‘informal’ school fee system is now one of Uganda’s greatest barriers to achieving Universal Primary Education. Typically fees at P1 level are UGX 35,000 per term (£7.50) going up in P6 to 50,000 per term (£10.75). Many parents earn less than £0.75 per day and cannot afford to send their children to school each term. Justine dreams of becoming a doctor and being able to help people, especially her relatives if they get sick. She said: “With hard work and educational support, she will get there”. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-3.jpg Niyosenga Annilah ,12, arrived from Kiyiri, DRC, in 2016. Her mother was killed in the fierce fighting which swept through towns and villages. She made the journey with her father and grandmother to the relative safe haven of Uganda to join the 1,205,913 refugees. Children representing some 62% (UN Refugee Agency UNHCR February 2019). The twelve-year-old remained out of education in DRC until the age of 9 as the long walk to school was too dangerous with roads closed by police or rebel militia. To help pay for Niyosenga’s school fees her father grows maze and her grandmother, 72, weaves baskets. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-4.JPG A young boy peers into a lesson at Bisozi Primary School. Many ‘early learners’ follow their elder siblings to school and play in the grounds until the end of the day, as working parents cannot afford child care as access to early years education is not free. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-5.JPG Sylvia Owemana, 13, originates from Chibawaw village in DRC. She arrived in Western Uganda with her parents and grandmother two years ago, displaced by the ongoing civil war. She saw many relatives murdered in their village. The journey to safety took one month, where they begged for food and lifts along the route. One month after their arrival, Sylvia’s mother, father and siblings returned to DRC, she remained with her grandmother, Yosephina, 81. They live in a small dark mud lined hut, no larger than two metres square. Life on their own is extremely hard: “We have a poor house and life is poor, it is very difficult”. She says Sylvia dreams of becoming a Police woman: “She respects the woman in the police and she says it will allow her to protect people from bad things.” The only way she believes she can achieve her dreams is to remain in education full time. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-6.JPG Yosephina is, despite her elderly years, forced to work on nearby plantations to provide for them both, including Sylvia’s education. If there is no work they do not eat. She explained that they only have one meal per day and each week there are at least two days where they do not eat at all. Syvia’s fees are the equivalent of £7.50 per term. Yosephina wants to ensure her granddaughter has the best chances possible to fulfil her dreams, “I really don’t mind if Sylvia never helps me in my old age, I just want her to be happy and to succeed in school and be able to support and sustain herself when she leaves education”. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-7.JPG Furaha Nshekanabo, 6, attends Buremba Primary School. She is a member of the Batwa ‘Pygmy’ tribe, forced out of their native home in the Bwindi Forest to make way for a national park protected as a UNESCO world heritage site. She lives in Kitahurira Settlement Camp, about 2.5 kilometres from her school and to walk takes 3 hours. The construction of schools and training of teachers in remote areas of challenging geography ensures those hardest to reach have a right to education. Building Tomorrow Uganda through Partnership with Education Above All foundation has enrolled 53,373 out of school (OOSC) children back into quality primary education in Uganda. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-8.JPG Ikiriza Misach, 5, lives in a small house with his nine brothers and sisters. His parents struggle to afford the school tuition fees for all the children. Meaning he has to fund his own by working weekends carrying plastic cans of water from the lake for households in the neighbourhood. He dreams of one day becoming a doctor so that he can help his father who suffers with ill health. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-9.JPG Mucunguzi Owen, 16, has been enrolled in Buremba Primary school since 2007 and is one of eight siblings. Now in older years at school, he must pay more money. His parents are peasant farmers and work the land digging and picking tea, this means they must work most days to be able to keep up the payments. Buremba School is one of 60 new schools constructed under the Building Tomorrow and Educate A Child programme in Uganda. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-10.JPG Shanitah Kyarikunda, 9, was forced to drop out from school this term after her father died and her mother abandoned her and remarried into a different district. She wants to return to school desperately. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-11.JPG Paddy Dowling Abigulu Akansasira, 4, was spotted in the camp carrying a small digging pick with a shortened handle that enables him to join relatives in the fields to learning from a young age. He was also part of the Batwa Pygmy’s were forced off Bwindi Forest. Abigulu could start school but his grandmother who cares for him is unsure she will be able to afford the ‘informal fees’. She picks 20kgs of tea per day and his paid 100 shillings per kilo, equivalent to £0.43 per day. Private tea growers in Uganda employ children of primary school ages to work the fields to picking tea that have dropped out of school. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-12.JPG Alonah Kyatuheire, 5, lives in Kitahurira Settlement Camp. Her parents are farmers, but they do not cultivate or own their own land. Like many Batwa in the area who are landless due to their eviction from the Bwindi Forest, they lend themselves out as farm hands to make ends meet. They live about 2 kilometres from their Building Tomorrow school and alongside her two sisters, they walk together with the larger group of 23 who set off from the camp around 7am each day, only arriving at their destination at around 10. All the children walk barefoot to and from school and are routinely about 2 hours late for school each day. They would leave earlier if they thought it would be safe, however travelling in the dark prevents this. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-13.JPG An ‘informal’ school fee system has now become one of Uganda’s greatest barrier to achieving Universal Primary Education. This typically includes; uniforms, pens, exercise books and school meals. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-14.JPG Kikoko Geofrey, 80, is a Batwa tribe elder. He explained how the Ugandan government declaring the ‘Bwindi Forest’ a National Park in 1992 affected his life. Over a thousand years of history and culture, the last genuine hunter gatherers, forcibly evicted, reduced to tourist entertainment at 70USD per person. Goverment forest guards were employed to forcibly remove and evict the Batwa from the land they had occupied for centuries. When they were moved to the outer perimeters of the Bwindi, they realised they had no access to the fruits of the forest and were yet to be taught the skills to cultivate the land. Many Batwa starved, became ill and died. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-15.JPG Rutaro Denis, 15, was enrolled at Buremba Primary School but dropped out aged 14, unable to complete as his family could no longer afford the fees. Now, he picks tea leaves and explains how much he used to enjoy school. However, for him, the three hour walk each way was exhausting. Rutaro understands well that he will face a life of hardship, he admitted that “Going to school is easier than picking tea”. Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-16.JPG After the rain, a student stands in a puddle of water at Buremba Primary School. Paddy Dowling Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-17.JPG Batwa students from Buremba Primary School heading home to their settlement, almost three hours away. Paddy Dowling Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC Uganda’s hardest mile: Racing to rescue an endangered generation PD-UGANDA-18.jpg Holding prayers, Reverend Tiyeitu Amos of Buremba Church Of Uganda, chairman of the foundation body (construction committee) of Building Tomorrow Buremba Primary School. His church donated the land such that the school could be built. Building Tomorrow Uganda through Partnership with EAA has enrolled 53,373 out of school (OOSC) children back into quality primary education. They have achieved this through constructing 60 new primary schools by 2019 and boost enrolment at 450 existing schools, placing ‘fellows’ (university graduates) into the community as role models to encourage school enrolment into the primary level. Paddy Dowling Paddy Dowling/EAA/EAC

“We would beg but no one would give so we would have to search for food. Often the only water to drink was stagnant. Life was so terrible I do not know how we survived.”

If you have nothing, life in Uganda can be as tough as life can be. The country has a population of just over 44.5 million – with about 8 million people living in poverty. The average income is just £50 a month.

Nalongo Nabumadi, 68, with her son Mbale at the Street Resource centre one Jinja (Oliver Poole)

Almost 60 per cent of the Ugandan population is under the age of 18, which makes children and youth particularly vulnerable to homelessness. As a result, it is estimated there are as many 15,000 homeless children in Kampala alone.

What is notable is how, when faced with such problems, it is often Ugandans themselves rather than just international NGOs which are stepping forward to help those facing the worst instances of homelessness in the country.

Which is what brought Street Resource to The Independent’s attention. Seeing the scale of deprivation in the country, and knowing that international charitable efforts were not enough alone to improve the situation, we wanted to see how local organisations – many coming from the activity of local churches – were seeking to help those most in need.

Street Resource is an example of an increasingly common story. It was founded in 2017 by a woman, Merry Ntungyire, shocked by how the most vulnerable of her countrymen and women were being abandoned, often in hospitals after they suffered a serious injury or mental health crisis, by their families as they did not have the financial resources to support them.

“I had to do something,” the 40-year says, of how she therefore founded Street Resource two years ago. “I was volunteering at Mulago Hospital and realised what was happening. There were people who had no one to support them in hospital, where people need their families to help wash and feed them, or give them somewhere to live once they recovered. That is why I started Street Resource.”

Using her own savings and recruiting many of her staff from her faith network, she rented a former old people’s home in Jinja, the famous old colonial city built at the source of the River Nile. It now houses 17 people, none of whom would otherwise have a place left to live.

To Western eyes, the situation at is very basic. The buildings date back to 1980. Each person gets given a small room in which to live but it is limited with a bed, mattress and mosquito net and basic amenities. Security staff ensure the safety of those there but none have medical or professional counselling training.

Street Resource founder Merry Ntungyire [C] with residents of the centre in Jinja (Oliver Poole)

None of this would be the type of location that would grace the cover of a Western NGO’s fundraising leaflet. But, compared to their lives before, there is no denying the reality that such accommodation is unquestionably a huge step up for the residents.

Nalongo, now 68 and still caring for her son Mbale, confirms that. “Here, when my son falls sick, he is taken to hospital and we are fed,” she says. “Now at last we have a bed. We are safe. Before I slept on the floor. Here I have a mattress.”

Ms Ntungyire knows the solutions she offers is not perfect but she is trying, supported by other Ugandans, to do more. Already she also pays for three people to look after those abandoned at a hospital, washing them when they get dirty and giving them emotional support when their illnesses are at their worst.

Next she is trying to raise to raise funds to house and provide employment training to abandoned girls in Kampala for girls are often the most vulnerable, and at risk of sexual exploitation, of all Uganda’s homeless.

“We are trying to do our best,” she says, “and trying to raise more money but it is hard. There are so many people suffering. But we do what we can. It is something at least, and I hope we can soon do more.”

Such is the reality of trying to give care in a country with such huge need. Such is also the reality of how small the steps up can be, and how terrible life at the bottom is for those left there.

In a country like Uganda, the problem of homelessness is one of survival and in Street Resource, there is an organisation driven by the desire to help. Limited it may be but, as Ms Ntungyire says, at least it is doing “something”.

In Uganda, faced with the daily reality of such poverty, it is Ugandans who are finding they have had no choice but to deliver their own solutions, however imperfect, to the problem of the people living on their streets.