David, 16 years-old is brown stout and muscular teen from railway quarters, Walukuba-Masese division, in Jinja town, Eastern Uganda. He is raised by a single mom along with his two siblings after their father deserted their home.

His mom all along struggled to sustain the family single-handedly by doing several odd jobs including working in people’s gardens, serving at restaurants and doing chores in other people’s homes.  “Despite all this hustle”, David says, “mom could not raise enough to support us in school as well as cater for our family needs. Since I was the eldest, I dropped out of school in Primary Two.”

Just like many other children, the circumstances at home pushed David to the streets since he was neither attending school nor enjoying the home environment.

In February 2014, while CRO Jinja social workers were conducting a survey, one of the children they encountered was David. He was invited to the center and accepted to be enrolled for rehabilitation.

David narrates, “there was no need of being at home since I no longer went to school, father had left us and at times we had nothing to eat. I was not enjoying my childhood because life was hard.”

David is a reserved but friendly, very observant and careful young boy. With his newly friends especially CRO social workers, he consistently attended the rehabilitation program.

Usually at CRO centers, children attend rehabilitation class for at least one year in which they are taught writing, arithmetic, science, social studies and recreation activities. Through this program, David learnt how to take care of his brothers and he is talented doing break- dance just like MJ.

Unfortunately, the project support ended in 2014 and like many others, David missed on the opportunity to re-join formal school. Despite the disappointment, David did not lose hope. He continued attending the rehabilitation classes optimistic that another opportunity will come up.

In August 2015, another opening came up when two Swedish volunteers picked interest in supporting some of the children under rehabilitation. Though David’s hopes were high, he still missed out on this opportunity, once again. He was irritated but didn’t give up since he benefited from other activities funded by these volunteers such as games, food and clothing, Christmas party and the like.

It was in 2016 when David’s hopes came to reality as he was enrolled back in school in primary Three at Police Barracks P/S. Because David’s performance in school was outstanding, his rehab teacher at CRO advised to switch him to a better school.

At his new school, David’s performance surprised many as he was among the first ten best performers in primary four. Because of his smartness, David was among the best performing pupils at CRO in 2017/2018 and was rewarded with gifts during the parents meeting at the end of every year. He also acquired a sponsorship and was enrolled at yet another school in boarding section.

Despite the new competitive environment and experience in a top performing boarding school doubled with his troubled background, David was determined to excel. He continued performing well and was among the best three pupils in Primary Six.

In 2020 he was in Primary Seven ready to sit for his Primary Leaving Examinations. Unfortunately, a global pandemic broke up and with a lockdown in place, all learning institutions were closed. This was another hurdle.

However, in mid-July,2020, a lock-down was partially lifted and the candidates resumed studies until 31^st March,2021 when they finally sat for their Final Examinations.

This was surely a sigh of relief after such a cramped journey. Nonetheless, David ‘s endurance paid off in mid-July,2021 at release of the performance results. He had obtained a super First Grade with Six (6) aggregates i.e. English -2, mathematics-1, Science-1 and social studies-2.

For CRO Jinja community and the entire organization, this is great news to us knowing the kind of conditions our child/ beneficiary went through. We thanked GOD for the good performance.

Such successes are a driving force to achieving our goal and contribution towards transforming the lives of children-connected to the streets. We are a charity and it is only with your support that we are able to help children like David.

If you would like to sponsor a child at CRO, please check out our education program and you can obtain a child sponsorship guide.

Bravo to all our partners, staff and well-wishers.