Closing Uganda’s Orphanage
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2019
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Uganda is a country that has seen massive growth in the number of ‘orphanages’ providing homes to children, despite the number of orphans there decreasing.
It is believed 80% of children now living in orphanages have at least one living parent. The majority of the hundreds of orphanages operating in Uganda are illegal, unregistered and now are in a fight with the government trying to shut them down.
Dozens on the government's list for closure are funded by overseas charities and church groups, many of which are based in the UK.
With widespread concerns about abuse, trafficking and exploitation of children growing up in orphanages are funders doing enough to make sure their donations aren't doing more harm than good?
Reporter: Anna Cavell Producer: Kate West
(Image: Ugandan children stand on the banks of the Kagera River. Credit: ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's a little bit after 10 on Friday morning and we're following. |
| 0:10.0 | It's a little bit after 10 on Friday morning and we're following the government officer and I think two or three police officers as well on our way to Rock of Joy and they're on their way to close it. |
| 0:21.0 | Not quite sure how this is going to play out because there are |
| 0:23.6 | apparently young children in the building. It's late December and we're |
| 0:27.3 | traveling through Bessaka an area southwest of the Ugandan capital |
| 0:31.1 | Kampala. I'm Anna Kvelll and this is assignment on the world |
| 0:34.8 | service. We're here because we've been told the government's planning to shut down an illegal |
| 0:40.0 | orphanage. It's not clear who runs it and it's called itself various different names |
| 0:44.6 | including Rock of Joy Children's Care and African Children's Education Society. |
| 0:50.1 | The Clouge is part of a broader operation to try to get children out of institutions and into families. |
| 0:56.0 | Apparently the government representative who's a social worker gave the home notice to close but that's been ignored. The deadlines passed and it's still open. |
| 1:05.6 | So we're just driving down a red dirt road on a completely normal looking residential street. You would never imagine there be a baby's home down here. |
| 1:22.0 | We just got directions from a man selling chapaties so hopefully this is going to be the right place clearly the |
| 1:27.0 | Rock of Joy home is known in the neighborhood because that man seemed to be directing the police |
| 1:31.0 | woman to it. Oh, I think we might be here because the police are parking up, so should we get out of the car? |
| 1:37.0 | There's a child peeking out from behind a gate, and he's looking pretty worried, so I think this could well be rock of joy |
| 1:46.9 | Just going to talk to the police see what's happening now. Okay, I think we're here. We're going inside |
| 1:52.1 | Apart from the birds, it's pretty much silent when we arrive. |
| 1:55.0 | Not how I'd imagined an orphanage would sound. |
| 1:58.0 | It's also not how I expected the place to look. |
| 2:01.0 | Pictures we've seen online of a reputable charity with a similar name |
| 2:04.6 | should neat presentable school buildings with brightly colored walls. This is |
... |
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