An eye opening conversation with Moses- Director and founder of Special Children Special People, a Ugandan based children facility that gives a home to children suffering from various forms of disabilities. Moses shared how they strive to make their institution to feel like home and family for everyone.

SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN ARE SPECIAL PEOPLE IN OUR SOCIETY.

A special needs person requires a unique technique in learning and education. The technique needs to accommodate and create ways for a special needs person to further their own capacity to learn and develop. Special needs Special people is a facility in Uganda that was established to address essential needs for special children. Moses is the director of Special needs Special people. We had a chance to listen to his inspiring story on the reason why he started the orphanage for special kids

Question- Tell us about how your journey started, what motivated you to do what you do?

Answer – Special Children Special People started in 1994. My brother is epileptic. His condition was considered a family curse. No one wanted to associate with us in our village. My parents said it was witchcraft. I loved my brother very much. I could see how this issue affected him emotionally and psychologically. By then I was a student in a college. I spent much time researching my brother’s condition. Finally, I got to understand epileptic together with other related conditions. That is how I started helping other special needs people. Every special need child in my village was referred as “Moses child”

Question – Briefly, tell us where do you get these children from?

Answer – Currently, I have 27 children in my facility. Around 70% – 80% of these children their background is unknown. Most of them are abandoned in the street. They get rescued by police and get referred to our facility. It’s unfortunate that most of them do not talk. It makes it hard to do a family tracing. A small number of kids who are brought by their parents who cannot afford to provide special care for them. Most of these parents are unemployed and thus it is hard to provide simple basic needs.

Question – How do you reach out to other kids and families in the communities?

Answer – We have an outreach program that we gave it a name GOAL. Meaning Give Out And Love. We do fundraising for our outreach programs. This helps us to pull different resources together. We share our love with other children and families in different parts of Uganda. We provide school items, welfare and economic empowerment tools.

Question – Tell us about activities in the orphanages that bring fun, warmth and love to these children?

Answer – We value and enjoy life and thus organize birthday parties for our kids, staff, and close friends. These help to make these kids feel loved and valued. Another activity is the exchange day. Exchange day is one of the most important celebrations we have at SCSP. This is a day when we come together with our partners and have fun activities where our children get the chance to socialize with other children from nearby schools and other institutions. Games such as bottle filling, suck racing, painting, football and dancing among others form up the bigger part of the day. This is very important as our children maximize such occasions to showcase their talents. We also have morning devotions where we play Christian music and pray together. This strengthens our spiritual lives and our relationship with God.

Question – Talk to us about the most challenging issue that you face

Answer – Sickness is one of the most difficult issues that we tackle in SCSP. Most of the children are on life medication and the consumption of medicine is really high. These children have specific prescribed medicines for their various conditions, which they depend on all the time, however, they also develop complications out of taking the medicines. We are then forced to take them to hospital to get treated. Medical expenses are very high in our facility. It’s challenging sometimes because they have to get medical attention right away.

You can reach out and learn more about SCSP through the contacts below.

Special Children Special People Uganda

Director Moses Walusimbi

TEL: +256 77492 8075 Email: [email protected] or mwalusimbi@specialchildrenugan