Yunusu’s shoes

Meet Yunusu, who has lived with the effects of Polio since the age of 5. Now his future is bright, with the opportunity to use new skills to run his own business and train others.

Yunusu is 32 years old and lives in Nsenge, a village near Jinja.  He is a lovely, cheerful and dignified young man, with an uplifting smile.  He lives in very humble circumstances with his wider family. At about the age of five Yunusu collapsed, suffering from polio.  From that point he completely lost the use of his legs. He needs bespoke built-up shoes and metal callipers. This is particularly challenging in the rough terrain of village life.

Several years ago, as part of UgandAid’s work in Nsenge, we built a new home for Yunusu and his family.  A couple of years later we brought a wheelchair from the UK for him to use. A team member noticed the poor state of Yunusu’s shoes and asked whether we could pay for replacement shoes for him.  This was agreed, and arrangements made to accompany him to Katalemwa in Kampala, where this type of bespoke shoe is made.

When Yunusu went in his eyes lit up as he saw the shoes being made. He explained that he’d always wanted to learn this skill, and had already been learning shoe repair skills at home.  To cut a long story short Yunusu was enrolled at Katalemwa for a twelve-month residential training course in January 2017.

We approached Nile Vocational Institute about building a workshop on their campus, on the perimeter of the site, which gives an interface with the road. NVI shared with us that they had been considering adding shoe repair courses to their portfolio! In February 2019, the workshop was ready and the team painted it inside and out, equipped it with work bench, sewing machine, tools and materials. It was officially opened 24th February with Yunusu’s very frail parents in attendance.

Yunus reports that he is getting plenty of business and is working six days a week. He is now able to support his parents financially form his income .

Isaac’s Story

Over the past 20 years Ugandaid has sponsored nearly 1000 young people through vocational training. All the young people have been vulnerable, but in February 2020 a 14 year old boy called Isaac arrived at Nile Vocational Institute (NVI) to study plumbing. His vulnerability was on a totally different level.

An epileptic, Isaac had been abandoned not long after birth by his mother. His father took him to live with his aunt.

Around the age of ten during an epileptic fit Isaac fell into a cooking pot resulting in severe burns to his face and upper body. There was little in the way of medical treatment and Isaac stayed at home. His father left the home as he couldn’t cope with Isaac’s injuries.

Thankfully, staff at the Jinja Hospice heard about Isaac and he was put into their care. They arranged various surgeries to help him deal with his injuries, and he continued being looked after by his aunt and extended family.

During one of our trips to Uganda, a team member, a Matron of a hospice in Devon made contact with Jinja Hospice. Ugandaid and Nile Vocational Institute were part of their conversations. Shortly afterwards the Jinja Hospice recommended Isaac for a place at NVI.

Geoff & Julie met Isaac during the first few days of 2020 team visit. They both immediately felt that they should sponsor Isaac. He was studying plumbing although his first choice was motor vehicle mechanics. Sadly, because of his epilepsy he wasn’t able to do that.

Not long after the visit, COVID hit Uganda and all educational facilities including NVI had to close and the students were sent home. Thankfully Isaac was able to start his course again in February 2021.

As there were no team visits to Uganda in 2021 and 2022 we didn’t see Isaac again until February 2023, although Geoff and Julie were able to contact Isaac’s family via WhatsApp. During the 2023 visits Geoff & Julie had many opportunities to meet Isaac over the four weeks they were in Uganda. They left to go home leaving a young man who had blossomed during his time at NVI. He was popular, had lots of friends, played football and had joined a dancing group. Although he couldn’t complete all aspects of his course due to his epilepsy, Isaac was a good student. His tutor liked him and asked him to help some of the younger students, which he did.

 Geoff & Julie knew that when they when they went home they might not see him again as he would be finishing his course at the end of 2023. They realised that his disability would hold him back from getting work. This became a reality, with people in his community refusing to work with him because of his looks.

During the trip Geoff had sown a seed with some of the staff at NVI about the possibility of Isaac staying on at NVI to do some maintenance work around the campus. Little was heard over the rest of year apart from hearing that it had been had agreed that this could happen. They obviously didn’t want to push this too much so resigned themselves to the fact that it probably would not happen.

However on 13th June, Julie received a message to say that Isaac was expected to report to NVI that day as per their plan of him staying at NVI as a volunteer! Isaac will be doing maintenance around the site, which is wonderful. We are all are beyond delighted that this has happened. It might not be all plain sailing but we hope and pray that Isaac is once again accepted into the NVI community as the lovely young man that he is, and that his self esteem grows as he takes another step into his future.

 An example of Ugandaid‘s purpose of “Enabling vulnerable young people to achieve their full potential”, in action.