This six year-old lad – one of our younger pupils – was beaten up for feeding his youngest brother too early… by his alcoholic mother. It turns out this happens almost daily, so our welfare team has organised for him to spend some time staying in our children’s home.
As the firstborn in the family, Otim was regularly left him in charge of his two young siblings while his mother went out to drink. In this particular incident, the younger of the two (just one year old) cried for food and Otim decided to serve food before the set time they always eat (9pm).
With agreement from his mother, young Otim will stay in our boys’ home for three weeks while our team provides them both with counselling and eventual reconciliation. The aim is to help her through her current issues and help prevent further harm to any of her children. She is a single parent; her husband left her because of her drinking habit.
Hopefully this will work out well and the mum will respond positively to our intervention. If not, those kids are in for a miserable time and potential break-up of the family.
