Day 3 of the distribution took us to the region of Wakiso, where I spoke with one of the teachers about sleep in children at his school. The teacher described the children at this school as “extra poor”. He told me that he often does home visits and that most children had no mattress for sleeping, but if they did, it was often for 3 or more kids. Children often improvised for bedding, for example using clothing as covers. He also told me that the mattresses from SCAW would be “exceedingly helpful for people”. When the teacher heard that the Ladies of the Inner Wheel of Kampala were coming with SCAW to distribute bedkits, he told his students the good news. He asked them how many had ever had a new blanket or sheet for their bed? None of them ever had. He told me that the mattress and bedding would “transform their sleep”.
Later that day, we had the opportunity to visit the home of a single mother living in an 8x8 single-room house with her 6 children (two of whom were new-born twins).
Nalongo (meaning ‘the mother of twins’ in Lugandan) showed me the house, explaining that she slept on the old small couch, and all of the children slept together on a mat on the floor. Nolongo’s oldest child had received a bedkit that day, and I could see firsthand how the mattress and bedding would indeed be transformative for the entire family.
Team Uganda
Inner Wheel of Kampala 🇺🇬 and SCAW 🇨🇦