16 March 2011
It’s a sweltering hot Saturday morning at Watoto's Suubi Children’s Village, but that doesn't seem to be the concern of any of the residents in the village. There’s a wave of excitement on the children’s beaming faces as they, together with their mothers go about their morning chores. The anticipation in the air is so evident. It’s Saturday - the day when fresh food is delivered and distributed to the residents of the village. This is the most anticipated day of the week as homes receive fresh foodstuff that include matooke (plantain), pineapples, eggplants, tomatoes, carrots, cabbages and passion fruit among others.
One of Watoto's key goals is to ensure that the children and mothers have a balanced diet.
Food in the villages is distributed on Tuesdays and Saturdays. On Tuesdays, dry food like beans, maize flour, cooking oil and rice among others are carried from the store on to a truck by able-bodied men. Enough food is offloaded to every section of the village. It is then distributed in an orderly fashion to each cluster. A cluster consists of 9 houses; each house with 8 children and a housemother in its residents. On Saturdays, the fresh food arrives.
According to Grace Seninde, the store manager at Suubi, orders are made in bulk by the procurement department at Watoto’s head office in Kampala. Procurement contracts particular suppliers to provide various foodstuff to the village.
On Mondays, a loaf of bread along with two packets of buns is given to each house and on Thursdays, two loaves of bread and two packets of buns are given to every house as a weekend supply. Two litres of milk are distributed daily per house.
Zephran Namuleta, a mother in house 54 at Suubi comments, “We alternate between fresh and dry food during the week. My children love it when I make chapatti” she says. She has learnt how to carefully budget and ration the food, ensuring her family has nutritious and balanced meals on a daily basis.
Watoto has three children’s villages; two in the Kampala area called Bbira and Suubi; and one in Gulu, northern Uganda called Laminadera. There are currently 305 homes in total and it takes almost UGX300,000 (approximately US$137) to feed a home of 8 children and one housemother each week.
In 2011, Watoto intends to take in an additional 418 children, bringing the total number to almost 2,500 by the end of the year. The increased number of children means an increase in the cost to care for the children and mothers at Watoto. Your monthly gift through child sponsorship and other donations ensures that these children and moms grow up strong and healthy. Thank you to all our partners and sponsors for your continued support.
If you have not yet sponsored a child or mom, there’s still opportunity for you to get involved and bring a smile to the faces of these children eagerly waiting to join Watoto. Go to our sponsorship page for more information.
