Peter's Story

Peter, Jinja, Uganda

Told by Felix Holman, Former Overseas Programmes Manager, Street Child Africa

Let me tell you about Peter. He is 16 years old and lives alone in a shack in Uganda. He has been a double orphan since the age of 13. He works as a charcoal carrier on the lake shore in order to survive. One bag of charcoal weighs approximately 12 kg and has to be carried roughly 500 metres, struggling through deep shingle, negotiating the hazards and bustle of the lake shores, to reach the warehouses above the port. For each bag carried, Peter gets paid 1,000 Ugandan shillings - just 30 pence. It is unbearably hard physical labour for a young boy, still grieving for his parents, completely alone in the world.

Through remarkable tenacity Peter pays his own school fees and rent, and even scrounges scraps for two small pigs he keeps. He is a determined young man who makes difficult choices. He chooses to do a backbreaking job in order to survive. He chooses to pay his fees and go to school because he hopes that education will lead him out of poverty. He chooses to survive.

Felix Holman met Peter during a trip to Uganda. He had severely injured a muscle in his back through carrying too heavy a load. He could hardly breathe from the pain. Unable to work, he now faces the prospect of not being able to pay the rent for his tiny shack and being evicted. School fees will not be possible. He will become a full time street child.

Suddenly, at the turn of one small event, Peter has no choices. No money means no home or school, no food or water and in the end, no option for survival. We should be under no illusions; street children who find themselves with no options can and do die. Funeral costs are a common place request when our partners apply for grants.