Robert is a father to two of our sponsored children. He is an active member of Katanga Community and served on the previous Local Council as the officer in charge of hygiene. He also represents the parents in all Hope for Life (HFL) staff meetings. We caught up with him and asked him what motivates him to keep being the loving father he is to his children.

1. How long have you lived in Katanga slum?
I have lived in Katanga for 21 years. I could say I have lived my whole life here because I found a wife in this place and all our 5 children have been produced here.

2. How did you come to start staying in Katanga?
I came to Katanga to find a life better than what I had back in my father’s home in Fort Portal district. After my mother left our father, my father got another wife who made life unpleasant. So I sold my goat and chicken and managed to raise enough money to bring me to Kampala and off I went.

When I got to Kampala, the friends I found brought me to Katanga and I haven’t left this place since then.

3. When did come to know about Hope for Life?
My children—Sandra and John—were among the first to be registered with HFL back then when HFL did not even have an office building. My children were among the pioneers of the catch-up class program and HFL has supported their education to date.

4. How has HFL supported your children’s education?
HFL has provided and continues to provide school fees for two of my children—Sandra (primary six) and John (primary one).

5. What is your occupation?
I have contacts of people who ask me to buy for them things here in Kampala and then send them over to them on a bus. And I am usually paid by commission depending on how much the total purchase amount was.

6. Where do you derive the strength to keep taking care of your children?
There are many challenges but what keeps me going is I do not want them to go through what I went through when our mother left us. I want my children to grow up with both their parents because that is the only way they can became the productive people I want them to become.

7. And what do you want your children to become in future?
I just want them to be productive people. I cannot wish anything specific for them because I may have my own wishes but God has the final say on the future of their lives.

I don’t want my children to suffer like I did